2006. A year of racing coming to a close!

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Unfortunately, although we may not like to accept it, many series are now approaching their climax. Two series that I'm concentrating on now are the V8's which given the scoring format, is gaurenteed to be close and also the British Superbikes which are just full board excitement and looks set to have a very close 3 way battle for the championship to continue going into the penultimate meeting in a fortnight.

Then of course there's GP2, the series which has been catapulted to the forefront of the racing world thanks to some of the best racing seen this century. Without a shadow of a doubt, it has been providing the masses with the kind of nail biting, dramatic racing that has been sadly lacking from F1 since the 90s! It's set up for a very tense last round at Monza which see's Nelson Piquet Jr. trying to reel in the dominant Lewis Hamilton who's currently a mere 10 points a head.

While the ChampCar season is decided, it has recently been providing it's dedicated supporters with some fantastic action both on and off the track which has seen it gain much deserved (and needed) widespread coverage. If they play their cards right, The 07 season could see ChampCar win back the media coverage and fans that left for IRL many moons a go.

And how could I forget F1? I think many would agree that it's been an up and down season for the sport which seems to be revolving around the technical side of things as of late. Hungary was a cracker, but that was a once off. If only the teams would focus more on racing rather than technicalitys and the like, then I could see F1 regaining the media exposure it had back in the 90s. Nowadays it struggles to even get a column in the newspapers!

Overall I think 2006 has been a fantastic year for motor racing, maybe not so much for F1, but the smaller series have provided some excellent action and hopefully their graduates can inject much needed spice into F1.

Thankfully, the beautiful sport that is motor racing won't be fully leaving our screens with the A1GP series due to grace our screens shortly with delayed coverage on one of the terrestrial channels!

Your opinions/thoughts?

thegoth

I agree with everything you said. Just a comment about A1 GP.

I think that they should have made the cars faster without increasing the cost. I think that they should had adapted the F1 regs of lets say, 1996, and tweaked them a little to reduce cost. By applying modern technology, they could have developed a car that was nearly as fast as F1 cars, but at a fraction of the cost.

I know people will say, there would be no overtaking. Just keep the power to pass button then, and maybe use steal brakes

Jonny Arson

|.Murderer.| wrote:

Then of course there's GP2, the series which has been catapulted to the forefront of the racing world thanks to some of the best racing seen this century. Without a shadow of a doubt, it has been providing the masses with the kind of nail biting, dramatic racing that has been sadly lacking from F1 since the 90s! It's set up for a very tense last round at Monza which see's Nelson Piquet Jr. trying to reel in the dominant Lewis Hamilton who's currently a mere 10 points a head.

I have to agree with you about GP2, IMO it's provided far better racing and action than F1. GP2 has shown that a single specs series provide great racing and brings on talented drivers who in other cases may have been hampered by poor equipment. Hamilton is a superstar in the making, a joy to watch this year and deserves a McLaren drive even though I would like to see him do another season in GP2 to harness his skills further. Hamilton isn't the only one, Piquet another megastar in the making and ther's at least 7/8 drivers who would make great F1 drivers too.

|.Murderer.| wrote:

While the ChampCar season is decided, it has recently been providing it's dedicated supporters with some fantastic action both on and off the track which has seen it gain much deserved (and needed) widespread coverage. If they play their cards right, The 07 season could see ChampCar win back the media coverage and fans that left for IRL many moons a go.

I think it has been a very bad year for both ChampCar and IRL. We all know there HAS to be a merger but we're still waiting, the teams want it, the sponsors want it and most importantly the fans want it but the only people in the owrld who are not willing to make it happen are Kalkhoven and George the only men who can make it happen.... just do it!

With regards to actual on track racing IRL has still caught more of my interest, this years amazing Indy 500 the highlight and this Sunday's finale should be a cracker! However I think over the short term ChampCar looks the stronger. Next season there's a new spec Panoz DP01 chassis (which looks great!) and already there's new teams coming on board for 2007 so this season 17 car field will hopefully be a thing of the past. I believe this new spec chassis will enhance racing like GP2 and hopefully bring on more talent (Graham Rahal will be a megastar) My main gripe is that ChampCar has abandoned ovals, diversity made that series and it's quite ironic that IRL if anything is the most diverse series now.

Of other racing series, BTCC has being again ridiculous raw and entertaining and MotoGP has been unpredictable and exciting too. 2006 = good year outside F1!