www.speedcarseries.com/
They'll race only at Dubai Autodrome, Sentul Track (Jakarta), Sepang Circuit, Bahrain Circuit and Dubai Autodrome again.
At Sepang they have raced on the same weekend as formula one, and they'll do it again at Bahrain.
So it's a asian-middle east series only, hence american sedan car decals, which are quite popular there.
No where near as good as watching the packed Porsche Carrera cup field, but still quite entertaining considering the cars are identical and pretty basic. IMO there is not enough of the speedcars, and the differential between the drivers spreads out the field alot....kinda like F1
LOL, they former F1 drivers were caught off guard by it
Only 4 finishers in the first Dubai race LOL, it was pretty laughable. Not even NASCAR Busch series looked as bad as that. Anyway, I was quite interesting to see Michael Schumacher attending the race. I hope he wasn't too appalled
So Jacques Villeneuve is the first driver to make the NASCAR --> SpeedCar switch. So think there's any chance that more are going to (or even thinking about) switching from NASCAR to SpeedCar and vise versa?
There's also a rumor that SpeedCar will eventually have a race on the Motegi Oval.
Did he choose to switch though or was there just no NASCAR seat available for him? He is probably the least talented world champion of all time and got put in the best car thanks to his father's reputation and couldn't not win the WDC after which he was completely useless and out shone by B grade team mates. From what I understand he hasn't exactly done a Mansell and gone to the States and proved himself. He's not really a great personality either and I'm sure the novelty of having an F1 driver will soon have worn off. NASCAR is a serious championship with a huge fan base, no bodies going to notice let alone care who wins in Speedcar, I can't see any US stock car racer wanting to enter Speedcar.
Very good post and analysis. But there have been a few minor interest from the American side. Such as Mike Bliss and Tony Ave testing and becoming SpeedCar test drivers for the car. But nothing happened more then that.
What about SpeedCar drivers trying to enter NASCAR? Or are the drivers content with their new series for now
(To be honest, NASCAR is getting tired of the huge influx of open wheel drivers (and this includes F1) coming over and taking out half the field.)
I hope he was there in order to decide whether he wants to move into a tintop series in the next couple years. I hope he does, just so he might get an opportunity to test a Nextel Cup car. I found his comments about them a while back quite intriguing and would love to see whether his perception of stock cars on ovals matches up to the reality.
I don't really care for him that much as a personality, but his skills are amazing. I have no doubt that if he gave it his full efforts (which is all he knows how to do, "half-assed" isn't in his vocabulary) he could set competitive lap times.
I be honest, I think Schumacher being there was more of mild curiosity instead of serious analysis. While there probably is a chance that he will maybe compete in the league, I can almost guarantee you that he wont move into NASCAR.
There is a chance he might go racing again in a tin-top, but DTM has a much better chance at receiving him.
Well I know. It just wouldn't make sense for him to. Right now he has everything to lose and nothing to gain. If NASCAR ends up being tougher than he originally thought, he could ruin his reputation as one of the greatest F1 drivers ever.
I just meant that if he does decide to go into a series like DTM, he'll have more time and more opportunities to accept a test in a Nextel Cup car like Montoya a few years ago. Hopefully at an organized NASCAR test so we'd have some laptimes to compare him to.
No actually it wouldn't...anyone who thinks that Schumacher is a lesser driver just because he went to stock car oval racing and didn't do well is an idiot and have no cognitive thinking.
I think ego is more at stake than his reputation. After all, if Scott Speed keeps lapping him in NASCAR that would really upset him
I'm sorry, I dont quite understand you statement here. You want him to go into something like DTM and THEN test at Sprint Cup?
Didn't anyone tell you that ovals are dirt easy to drive? I mean Jacques Villeneuve always qualified high but look what happened to him in the Duels at Daytona. If Schumacher tests a Sprint car and gets a superb lap, it won't matter. Just because you know how to drive an oval (which is dirt easy) doesn't mean you know how to RACE on an oval (which is what makes oval racing difficult).
Oh wow...you drove good at Talladega...big deal....lets see you out draft 42 cars surrounding you all within 3 seconds of you...
More likely that Schumacher goes to MotoGP than ever Nascar. Seriously.
After winning so many F1 championships, I doubt he has much ambition to race in other series succesfully. Maybe something like Le Mans as an adventure but even he did that already in 1991.
Accurate examples but poor examples (sorry). Better examples would be Hideo Fukuyama, Christian Fittipaldi, Jacques Villeneuve, and Patrick Carpentier who got (or are getting) the crap pounded out of them in stock car ovals.
Montoya is not doing too bad, he's quite average compared to others rookies before him like Newman, Busch and Hamlin, but he can keep his ground. Ambrose has it down as well. IMO all he needs right now is just a chance (hopefully he'll do well with the Wood Brothers).
But I agree with deggis. If Schumacher even has some remote interest in competing in another series, it'll definitely be either MotoGP or DTM.
DTM I seriously doubt. When Ralf was rumoured to start in DTM, Michael advised him not to do it, saying: "I believe that Ralf and I are not talented enough to be really fast in a DTM car. (...) You have to work just as hard in DTM as in Formula 1, but you have a car that doesn't progress and that you can't tune to your needs as exact as an F1 car."
To me that sounds as though he's not to keen on DTM.
MotoGP, I'm not so sure, but I doubt he'll really do it.
so i watched a few of the videos on the speedcarseries.com website....
the standard of racing looks kind of bad... half the drivers don't even look like the have control over the cars... then again, its probably the cars that are crap... but who knows...
The race that just happened yesterday... about half the field DNF...
It will be entertaining to watch all the wrecks though... but really, the series is quite the farce.