The 2024 running motorsports thread

I will say that in F1, to McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, et al the constructor's championship is far more important than the driver's championship. I find that funny as someone who grew up steeped in "win on Sunday, sell on Monday." It's not like I'm going to run down to my local dealership and buy a McLaren or Ferrari. It's also funny because pretty much any race fan can tell you about Schumacher and Hamilton's wins and championships, but you have to be deep in the rabbit hole to be knowledgeable about constructor's titles.

 

If I ever actually get to go to an F1 race in Europe - which is super unlikely - I’d like to go to Spa. It seems like the last best closest thing left to an old school historic track.

 

To speak to some of the discussion on F1, when the racing is crap, either in the short term and the long term, I like to think of it as an engineering exhibition, because even the Alpine is a miracle of ingenuity.

Spa is weird, but yeah, probably as exciting as they come. Silverstone is really hard to top.

I kind of have beef with all the other European circuits: Barcelona and the Hungaroring are frequently boring, Monza is kind of like an F1 plate race with a bunch of flat-out, I've never liked Austria for similar reasons (too simple). Imola is too tight and Zandvoort has too many Verstappen stans.

 

I miss Hockenheim.

 

Everyone misses Hockenheim, particularly the old one. What they did to the place was an abomination but the last race there (2019?) was one of the best Grands Prix of the last 10 years. I think everyone would take it back in a minute (or even the consolation prize of the Nurburgring, but the Germans aren't stupid enough to pay F1 for the privilege. In the same vein, it's kind of shocking that F1 still can't find a decent venue in France proper. Magny-Cours sucked, Paul Ricard sucked and all those blue and red lines (which were abrasive areas in lieu of gravel) combined with the course's 167 alternate configurations made the thing look like a damned MarioKart track.

 

Saw "Grand Prix" the other night again on cable. Enjoyed the footage of the machines going around the Monza banking.

 

Spa would be my first choice in a runaway as far as permanent circuits are concerned.

Followed by Monza, maybe the Red Bull Ring, perhaps Zandvoort, Silverstone and maybe Imola.

Never cared for Barcelona, the Hungaroring (unless it rains), the various French tracks, or the modern Nurburgring course.

Old school Hockenheim was bad ass, but probably not great from a spectator point of view when they blasted into the forest. I’m not sure if they let fans hang out in the forest or not.

 

Other than the disgruntled Mercedes employee who ran on the track back in the 90s, I don't think they did.

 

Forgot all about that.

Wasn't during a race, but reminds me of the dude who got his pick-up truck on the IMS oval in the early 90s, which if you knew the facility, actually wouldn't be that hard if you were really committed to doing it, especially before the road course was added.

He drove around for a few laps at a pretty high speed (for a pick-up truck). Never understood this, but a track foreman parked a mini-van on the start-finish line to try to stop him. What the pick-up driver did instead was a "Vanishing Point"-style suicide as he hit the van at full speed.

Why not just let the asshole run himself out of gas? The worst thing that could have happened is that he offed himself in the same way by hitting a wall.

 

I've done laps in my personal truck at Bristol. I didn't get too far up the banking, and I doubt I probably went too fast... probably slower than I was on the highway getting to the track.

 

I got to drive Turns 1 and 2 at Talladega in the rental after one race because the infield tunnel was jammed and security was sending us out the superstretch gate on the track apron. Of course, that meant time for some experimentation!

Even at 50 mph, you can't get enough tire grip to combat gravity. A normal passenger car tends to want to slide back down to the apron, which will get your attention real quick. And if you look out the front and right side of the car in the corner, you can't see anything but a wall of asphalt.

My father said the GM test track banking in Michigan was set so you could take your hands off the steering wheel at 90 mph, which engineers did to unsuspecting guests back in the day. I'm guessing you'd need at least 100 at 'Dega, but ain't no way I was going to test that theory in the dark with half of the Alabama State Patrol within five miles of the place.

And don't forget the still-employed racing writer who allegedly stole an Indy 500 pace car while sh_tfaced drunk.

 

That's why I didn't get too high up the banking at BMS. I figured high banking, gravity, and a Ford Ranger weren't a good combination. I don't know how many laps I did, Half dozen probably. Even if I had got caught, anyone doing the catching would have just told me to stop. I wasn't doing anything goofy, just riding around, and they knew me at the time. Besides, I was told to drive into the infield. No one specified how direct of a route I was to take.