The ROC will be held next Wednesday November 4th in Beijing.

Here is a list of the confirmed drivers that are competing.

I think Michael Schumacher will finish on top this year. What's your guess?


# Michael Schumacher
# Jenson Button
# Sebastian Vettel
# Mikko Hirvonen
# Mick Doohan
# Tom Kristensen
# Andy Priaulx
# Mattias Ekstrom
# Yvan Muller
# David Coulthard
# Ginielde Villiers
# Tanner Foust
# Travis Pastrana
# Jamie Whincup
# Emanuele Pirro
# Clivio Piccione
# Marcus Gronholm
# Guerlain Chicherit

No Loeb?

Yes I agree with you. It would of been great to see him there.

Ekstrom normally does very well, as does Vettel and Coulthard put on a star turn last year.

However, based on the organisers selling-out and moving it to China - where will be almost nobody in the stadium, hardly anyone watching on TV because it'll be on at a peculiar time and in the middle of the week - I won't be paying any attention this year.

It's ever-such a shame they had to move it, but people should really have got off their arses, paid the £30 for a ticket and helped keep it here.

Clivio Piccione???

This is supposed to be the Race of Champions

You've got to have at least won a series or some blue riband races. Sure he's from Monaco but they've got Pirro running for them because he's lived there so long so why not choose someone who's actually a champion in a race car like Rosberg.

I'm going to support Pastrana because he's a pure adrenaline junkie. It'll probably go to Ekstrom, Vettel or Schumi

No Loeb? No Hamilton? what's going on?

Thanks for the list of drivers. Loeb and Hamilton would have been fantastic but still a good line-up.

What time does it all begin? (In China)

Apart from Vettel, the lineup looks like ROC 2000 instead of ROC 2009

Beijing is at the time zone GMT +8:00, so the races should be around late morning time for Europeans

No Milka Duno?
Rubbish..
Jp

Coulthard to crash

Tanner Foust and Travis Pastrana? What about Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, maybe Jeff Gordon? Wonder if T-Stew would do it. Heck if they'll let Foust do it might as well give Danica a burl.

Pretty much my thoughts so far.. no Loeb, no Jimmie Johnson, no Montoya, no Hamilton, Raikkonen, Massa.. Hirvonen is here though, together with Priaulx. Nice to see that Jamie Whincup is here, so will Craig Lowndes participate next year?

The race seems to be coming extremely early, and that's not helping. Doohan and Kristensen, that's cool though.

To sum up: Schumacher will probably bail out at the last minute (neck problems), whilst Loeb will receive his visa too late, together with a superlicence too late also.

At the risk of making the event too F1 centric, I wish Alonso was competing.

Maybe they should give Rossi a call too?

I doubt he would come: he will be racing in Valencia the following weekend.

BTW the ROC will be held from a Monday to a Wednesday if I'm not mistaken.

Wouldnt be surprised if Button spulls out now hes WDC

Kinda ironic they've gone to Beijing this year, which is much colder than the UK which is currently basking in mild, balmy weather.

To be fair, it's felt as if there was next to nobody at Wembley in the past two years. the seas of empty seats made for quite a subdued atmosphere and the cold really didn't help. I agree that china is totally the wrong place to be but despite the convenience and as much as it pains me to say it. London didn't work either.

I agree with you on the timings though

Ekstrom or Hirvonen.

NASCAR are racing on the 1st and 8th so no way you could make the flight from Talladega-China-Texas in time to do all 3 events. Pastrana has been quite good at ROC and it's his kind of oddball event not sure he has the attention span to do full circuit racing!

I guess Loeb just needs a break from winning everything. If he is, he'll find GP2 testing to be worthwhile.

Let's be honest; the guy we REALLY want to see is the goofy Italian who wins everything in MotoGP.

Hamilton wanted to do last year (and the previous year) but McLaren wouldn't let him. We had to sit through this cop-out of a Mercedes demonstration where he drove an SLR around the oval track, with his family waving to everyone. You could tell by the atmosphere in the place that people weren't impressed - not at Lewis I might add - if he's going to be allowed to come to the venue, he should be allowed to race!

I can't understand why Alonso doesn't do it anymore, after all he helped Spain win the Nations Cup in 2001! While I was checking my facts on that one I got very confused to see that in 92 it was won by Flavio Alonso - I know Flav and Fernando were close, but I didn't realise they were that close!

I thought about going, but its over 2 days and my missus wont put up with that. Now I cant get make fake Breitling Windrider, Starliner watch, all blinged up for £150.

Remember when Heikki beat Schuie and went mad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9DHCEISlWg...feature=related

Given Alonso's relationships with his teamates and interteam conflict, maybe he can't be asked for doing it for fun without having to risk losing to fellow racers. 2001 was the beginning of his career, nothing to lose then.. He needs to be sure he'll look good, a great driver, but I think he lacks confidence in certain cars and situations from time to time, and doens't want to upset himself. He still cares about his reputation, 2 titles, and hasn't won in a few years, and the Hamilton 2007 saga didn't work out for him.


I would of liked to have seen Mika Hakkinen, he would of been cool, especially with Schumi driving.

Go Team Australia! Doohan and Whincup might be a bit disadvantaged considering it's more conducive to rally than huge touring cars or two-wheels, but I'm hoping they do us proud!

It'll be interesting to see how the other combos go too, some interesting pairs there - Finland vs Germany will be a good battle, and Foust/Pastrana should be entertaining to watch too.

Pity it's on at fricken 1pm on a Tuesday/Wednesday here in Deutschland. Stupid outsourcing to China.

I really don't like the schedule of this year's event... I loved watching RoC sitting at home a in a weekend evening, great entertainment - and now, it's in the middle of the week when I'm busy with work and university, and given the time difference I guess many Europeans can't watch it live.
OK, they took the event away from Wembley and gave it to China, more money, yeah. But at least they could have found a day on a WEEKEND...

no rossi, no loeb!???

The MotoGP season hasn't finished yet , but Rossi hasn't been there for the last few years anyway.
I wonder why Loeb doesn't take part though, he's a regular competitor and he's always been a favourite, so not like he should be afraid of losing!

Yep, I was in Paris for that - bloomin' freezing it was too!

Heikki beating Schuie in 2007

We were out of seats and cheering the place down when Heikki took Schuie

A great display of close driving as well

That was the first time I'd seen Heiki race, I thought he was going to be the next big thing... how times change.

Me, too. He was amazing.

Here is a link that displays all the times etc. for the event.

http://www.raceofchampions.com/en/tickets/programme

well he is quick, nothing has changed about that certainly.

Wembley was too big I was there and liked it, but not going to China for sure

One imagines that Loeb may have felt he need a rest after Rally GB and his grand prix debut on consecutive weekends.

Will it be on Eurosport?

Once they announced the new date, they instantly removed the possibly of anyone from Nascar going over there...

god tanner foust is such a homo. Jamie Whincup will get spanked.

ahaha, Schumacher always seems to lose it at the ROC and then just whips out the "I need to see my wheels in order to be effective Q_Q" excuse... kinda disappointing.

I think I read somewhere that Colin Edwards was going to participate? For the Nations cup?

Race of Nations - Tuesday 12.00
Race of Champions - Wednesday 12.00

Finland has a great lineup there Go Mikko! Go Marcus!!!!

While he never won the individaul race, he was not exactly disappointing either. For disappointing at RoC see other F1 drivers like Button....

Does anyone know if it's being shown on the telly?

It was on Sky Sports in the UK a few years ago, but I'm not sure who's got it this year or who's been showing it in the last few years. I guess Sky Sports but I'll check.

EDIT: It's on British Eurosport

Thanks, didn't realize the date change.

Cheers mate

LIVE on British Eurosport, Tuesday 3rd November, 12pm - 3pm, Nations Cup
LIVE on British Eurosport, Wednesday 4th November, 12pm - 3pm, Champion of Champions

Snowing apparently

Cool. I'm off sick so I can watch it. I love ROC.

Currently following Dave's WRC presenter Neil Cole on the wonder that is Twitter. There is a point to this, he's just tweeted the following:



Going well so far.