SRX Superstars Racing Experience (IROC Type Reboot) for 2021

To be called SRX (Superstar Racing Experience).  Sounds encouraging.  According to Evernham guys like JPM, Tracy, Johnson, Gordon, Dixon and Kannan would be the sort they were looking to invite.  Primarily oval, spec cars assigned from pulling a number out of a hat, twelve cars per race.  Six races next summer TV deal with CBS and backing confirmed.  Mostly short track, maybe some dirt.  The cars will be built, maintained and run out of Evernham’s shop.  You’ll draw for your crew chief every race too, no pit stops but a halftime for adjustments (and prolly cause old guys need to rest after 45 mins or so).  I wonder if they’ll get Mrs Evernham (Erin Crocker) back behind the wheel.  She was pretty fast in a sprint car.  

The old IROC was pretty good.

https://motorsports....ing-experience/

I love this idea. Please don't call it a "racing experience" though!

Sounds a bit like Grand Prix Masters, which was also entertaining but died very quickly.

I just saw the first heat, and so far the racing is terrible.  I think there was a single pass.

Edited by red stick, 13 June 2021 - 10:23.

Edited by paulb, 13 June 2021 - 22:25.

Meh.

Whatever else it is, it is certainly not IROC. May watch the dirt race to see how that goes, but can't see making this a Saturday night staple. YMMV.

For most of its tenure, IROC wasn't even IROC. Although, I really enjoyed Seb Bourdais winning at Texas.

Up front they call it entertainment (still boo on random yellows to bunch up the field). It was ok. Of course my stupid cable provider Spectrum once again was wildly off on the timeframe so that I missed the last 29 laps. Good to see local guy do well. Other guys are way out of their depth.
Way thumbs up on the pace car!
And Danica and Bestwick are just the right team in the booth.

Edited by red stick, 14 June 2021 - 11:45.

I watched highlights out of interest and sort of followed what was going on in the build up. You can quote me on this in ten years time when it's the biggest motorsport event on the planet if you like - but I don't think it'll catch on. It was a bit crap. 

OMG I just realised that I saw a clip of this on YT but it looked so unreal that I assume it was some sort of e-sports thing.  Who are Coby and Biffle?  I just thought they were made up names......

Greg Biffle was a NASCAR star and raced for a number of years with Roush.  Coby is a six-time champ in some category of Modifieds, a discipline I don't follow.

For us English provincials there is some Uncanny Valley going on when you find American surnames that were Anglicized from some other European language. Assume Biffle is one of those (it sounds German!)

FWIW.  Sad to see Danica-bashing still in vogue--I think criticizing her for "lack of energy" is bizarre.  Interesting to see Hinch will be doing some color commentary. 

https://www.autoweek...eriences-debut/

Edited by red stick, 14 June 2021 - 20:19.

I watched a few minutes and found her commentary flat and shallow. I don't think she's a natural commentator, even in the ex-driver role. Indy was similar

"Well, fuel is going to be important".

Yes, thank you. As I had just explained to my sofa co-pilots.

Another precinct heard from.

https://jalopnik.com...-spo-1847088140

The first race meet you can watch on youtube: 

Apparently it got at least a million viewers

Including one who thought it was CGI.........

Edited by BRG, 15 June 2021 - 10:27.

As a romantic who also has minimal knowledge of or investment in US racing, I figure it's good to see short track racing getting some love, even if it comes in a non-traditional form. And dirt is of course the links golf of racing surfaces.

Or am I being naive?

Edited by red stick, 15 June 2021 - 14:34.

It was alright but I think to get beyond novelty they need wilder cars. It's not 'serious racing' so give them a really terrible bias ply tire or something? Let em hoon. 

As a romantic who also has minimal knowledge of or investment in US racing, I figure it's good to see short track racing getting some love, even if it comes in a non-traditional form. And dirt is of course the links golf of racing surfaces.

 

Or am I being naive?

Nope.  Not naive.  Your knowledge of US racing is not minimal.  You get it.  The future of SRX won’t be the ability to fund it.  It’s relatively cheap.  It's going to be if they can keep it on network or at least on basic cable.

The entire series must cost about what one Indycar does, and they're getting similar ratings so...

For us English provincials there is some Uncanny Valley going on when you find American surnames that were Anglicized from some other European language. Assume Biffle is one of those (it sounds German!)

From back in the day when hordes of immigrants were coming in to Ellis Island it was often the immigration process that shortened or Americanised the names.  Others chose once they were here either to assimilate or avoid racial and cultural prejudice.  I haven’t realized that sort of name changing anywhere else in the world.  If some other countries or cultures do I haven’t seen it.

 If some other countries or cultures do I haven’t seen it.

I think it has happened in a few other places, but never on the institutionalised scale of the Ellis Island migrants.  Certainly Eastern European Jewish refugees arriving in the UK in the 19th century sometimes Anglicised their names.  And those with German names did likewise more recently, like the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and the Battenberg families.

Edited by BRG, 15 June 2021 - 18:04.

The part of my own name that I have in my username is anglicised with a "y". In neighbouring Spain it was Hispanicised (is that the word?) with a "ll". In its original Portuguese it has a "lh".

I've seen immigration papers that originally had us as "Tumfold" and then something that sounded like "Stumfold" so with Eastern European accent I could kinda see where we ended up with the 2021 version. But in between there was a dalliance with 'Stensko' and I just...did someone have a speech impediment? 

I'm kind of amused at the reactions as the SRX race was very typical for pavement short track racing. At least since the 1980s. It can often be processional, particularly without a partial invert. It's nice the SRX series is inverting for the second race, but I expect "sandbagging" to occur.

Greg Biffle was a NASCAR star and raced for a number of years with Roush.  Coby is a six-time champ in some category of Modifieds, a discipline I don't follow.

The top category of modifieds, the NASCAR touring series (I won't use the sponsor's name unless they pay me ). I follow them, best I can, considering Iowa is the furthest West they've attempted. FansChoice and NBCSN have the tour races. It's great racing, for pavement. And Coby is very, very impressive in it. He's a lot like Jimmie Johnson in approach and technique.

Greg Biffle is NASCAR’s answer to Gerhard Berger, don’t you know! I’d never heard of the other guy. Big time dirt track winner, I guess, but given that people seem to rack up 100 career wins in about six weeks I’m never sure who the big players in dirt track racing are at any one time.

Not dirt track. Coby is a pavement specialist, the series he's won six championships in only runs on pavement. There are dirt modifieds, but those are an entirely different kettle of fish altogether.

Also, the timeline for your numbers for dirt track victories, is a touch off 

Edited by Jim Thurman, 15 June 2021 - 22:34.

These cars look like a NASCAR and a Ferrari F40 shared a drunken night together...although I have to say, I (sorta) like it. 

Looks like a cool series, and it'll be interesting to see how it develops. Also, wasn't Mark Webber originally slated to race in this? What happened to that?

Edited by JHSingo, 16 June 2021 - 12:14.

Oh, the cars.

The concept.

The reality, proving, as ever, that the devil's in the details.

I like the real one. It works for what it is. It's simple, it's good for sponsor logos and etc, it's not 'fiddly'. etc. It's like something kids would draw. The other one looks like an aftermarket Camaro or something.

All hail the Craigslist F40

Edited by red stick, 16 June 2021 - 13:25.

Looks like a Late Model to me.

As for short track racing, from the stuff I've watched IMHO it only gets reliably interesting from a spectator's perspective when there's a decent stretch of green running and the leaders have to race through lapped traffic. I guess with 12 identical cars and competition cautions that's not going to be too likely, even considering the differences in experience and suitability among the drivers.

If Pirelli has another F1 problem they should be forced to supply SRX tires as pennance. 

All hail the Craigslist F40

Looks like a Late Model to me.

It reminds me of the sort of generic kit-car designs of the 1960s which tried to look like a real car but came out looking like....that.

Atlas Intimidator SRX

Full kit £424.19.6d (no purchase tax payable)

Rolling chassis £745.19.6d 

On the road car, complete with 1098cc BMC 'A' Series engine and gearbox  £999.19.11d (incl tax)

Contact Backstreet Bernie Ecclestone, The Lock-Ups, Mosley Street, Lowestoft, Suffolk.

I mean, objectively the reality is pretty close to the concept actually, it’s just the 1% of things that are slightly different turn it from looking really cool to something you’d expect see sticking out of a skip. Maybe that’s a big harsh, isn’t it. Travelling down the A19 on a trailer pulled by a camper van, then, maybe. Or like something a toddler would push around in a sand-pit.
But….I quite like it. It’s unpretentious and purposeful.

Constructive criticism heeded.

They are never going to get anywhere taking that approach!

That was fun.