Grand Prix Masters

Darwin

Just a heads up for the inaugural Grand Prix Masters series from Kyalami in South Africa to be televised today at 4pm on BBC2. I think its something like the A1 series - identical cars, no electronic driver aids - but features big names like Mansell, Prost, Emerson, Patrese. Should be interesting!

aidan_dunne

Watched it. Thought it was pretty rubbish, to be honest. Pretty much just a complete procession. I know these lads are getting on a fair bit at this stage and probably didn't want to take any risks but, Christ, you'd think they would have at least tried to have a go and put on a bit of a show rather than just play "follow my leader". And as for Fittipaldi closing up on Mansell on the last lap and making it look as if he was going to have a go, sorry, that was clearly bullshít! It was pretty obvious Mansell backed off a bit to let Emerson get close enough to try and make it look a little bit more exciting at the finish but you could see through it. Hans Stuck, Christian Danner and Derek Warwick were probably the only drivers who looked liked doing anything even approaching racing at times and, even then, it wasn't much to shout about.

Even though I was a true "Mansell Maniac" growing up, and fondly remember watching many of these drivers racing over the years, I'm afraid it's got to be a big thumbs down from me on this one. It sounded like even poor old Murray (great to hear him commentating again, by the way) and Derek Bell found it difficult to find interesting things to talk about during the commentary, I thought, and seemed to repeat themselves many times because there just wasn't anything happening on track to talk about.

Like I said, it's a thumbs down from me I'm afraid and, judging by today's event, I struggle to see how they'll manage to attract more sponsors and get more money together to try and have the six or seven races next year they are hoping to put on.

Darwin

I must admit I was disappointed too. In fact, I watched the first 20 minutes and then switched off (back to playing GT Legends!) Hopefully, they'll play around with the format before the next race, though its hard to see what they can do to liven things up.

steviec

Was it on Sky Sports too?

I saw an ad a few weeks ago and they have Murray Walker to do commentary, would be nice to hear him again. I don't know if they showed it live or what though, going to Sky's website and googling I could find nothing, but they definitely were advertising it recently.

aidan_dunne

Nah stevie, I think you're confusing it with A1 Grand Prix there. A1 is what's currently being shown on Sky Sports. The Grand Prix Masters race was shown live (I believe) on Motors TV if you happen to have it on your Sky Digital package and a repeat of the race was shown not long afterwards on BBC 2 yesterday afternoon (with Murray's commentary).

De Hipster

Murray's commentary was definitely the most nostalgic & exciting aspect to the whole thing...

AdMMM

Can anyone post up an mp3 of the commentary