42 replies to this topic

[jonpollak]

Hey gang...
As our beloved FINGER closes in on his 2nd World Drivers Championship I offer up my favourite moments from this season's racing so far.
Yeah, the season is not done yet but I felt there was enough racy goodness to warrant getting this party started.


On-Line Media Content of the year.
First and foremost is this podcast, recorded in August, with Murray Walker and the Motorsport Magazine staff..
If you are a real fan this is mandatory listening... (attention span required)

Race Drive of the Year
Jenson's remarkable drive in that amazing Canadian GP
(complete with tacky tv recording and german guy cheering)

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Last Lap Indy 500 drama
(Wife STILL goads me over the spilled beer stain on the carpet)

Dramatic Crash
Allan McNish's heart stopping crash in the opening laps of Le Mans
(Saw it in my local pub.. You could hear a pin drop after it happened)

Do I live on Another Planet?
Kimi racing a KBM Tundra in the NASCAR Truck series
(At the time I thought I had taken to much of my jet-lag medicine but yes ..it DID indeed happen)

Fish Out of Water or what?
The usual Wacky Races that are my precious Nationwide Road Course events.
@ Road America
@ Montreal

and...

COMEDY moment of the year goes to the Break Dancing track marshal in Canada

Ok, enough from me..
YOUR TURN
Jp

[olliek88]

Dramatic Crash.



I laughed like a drain for about an hour after this!

[Seanspeed]

Most Exciting Race

Moto2 @ Aragon -

Thats the full race. More lead changes than you can count. People not watching Moto2 are missing out in a big way.

Edited by Seanspeed, 27 September 2011 - 21:42.

[Snic]

Qualifying lap of the season? (Hamilton at the nring, Im sure Vettel at Suzuka will top it though!

Start of the season (Alonso at Spain, the crowds cheers were epic!

[Seanspeed]

Best Overtaking

Grosjean in the Barcelona GP2 race -

Best Duel

Bianchi vs Vietoris @ Silverstone GP2 race -

Although the Moto2 race I was talking about earlier had some epic action between Iannone and Marquez, too. I'm simply more impressed by two open wheel drivers attacking each other at a place like Silverstone.

Edited by Seanspeed, 27 September 2011 - 21:33.

[HuddersfieldTerrier1986]

Most bizarre retirement of the year

Petrov in Malaysia. Goes flying, and the steering column breaks in his hands -

Craziest start of the year

Le Mans series at Le Castellet -

Bravest move of the year

Webber on Alonso at Spa -

Dramatic Crash
Allan McNish's heart stopping crash in the opening laps of Le Mans
(Saw it in my local pub.. You could hear a pin drop after it happened)

That crash actually ended up on the BBC News at 10pm on the Saturday night, believe it or not.

[LH08WDC]

After watching Canada a few more times, I now understand how good Jenson did (I'm a Lewis fan and was mad). Amazing drive!

[jonpollak]

Thanks Olliver, Seanspeed,Snic and Steevy.
All great additions.
Jp

[pingu666]

first stint at lime rock, lms race chris dyson and lucas luhr? nose to tail through traffic all the time, extremely tense :]

JG and JJ battling for the win at atlanta

hpd getting in with the diesels at sebring and nearly winning

falcon tyres porche winning its class with 12 overtakes in 1 lap at mid ohio, on there lolhax rain tyres

Edited by pingu666, 28 September 2011 - 02:08.

[SonnyViceR]

Best race of the year
Laguna Seca ALMS, for the third year in a row... fantastic, just fantastic to watch, despite the outcomes

Best overtake of the year
Road America ALMS, Wolf Henzler's Falken Porsche passes the BMW and slower TRG spec-porsche on a tight corner by squeezing between them

Stupidest brainfart of the year
Paul Ricard LMS start, what on earth were they thinking...

Weirdest concept of the year
Indycar at Texas, the grid for the second race is decided by almost complete random...?

Incident of the year
I'm actually going to pick Grand-Am for this, during the Road America weekend one of the Camaros run wide and flipped over the fence... landing outside the circuit

The most annoying single moment of the year
Nurburgring 24, only a few hours till the start and they are changing SP9/GT3 BoP again... aaaaaargh

The most disappointing single moment of the year
#4 Corvette crashes with Felbermayr Porsche and retires from Le Mans after massive lead, third year in a row for Gavin... I was so frustrated, even though in the end both PRO and AM classes were won by Corvettes

Disappointment of the year
Aston Martin's AMR-One, what a god damn joke

[Risil]

Biggest Grin
Tom Sykes's first World Superbike win at the Nurburgring. His team drowned out the national anthems with singing and cheering too.

Best imitation of James Bond villain
Casey Stoner confronting Valentino Rossi after the Spanish Grand Prix, and repeatedly clapping him on his injured shoulder while criticising his riding. An exact copy of the scene in The World Is Not Enough, in which Robert Carlyle acts on information given by the false temptress Sophie Marceau to grab 007 by his collarbone, which had been weakened by a pre-season fall from a hot-air balloon.

Most unusual anecdote
John McGuinness detailing the lesser-known perils of the Isle of Man's Mountain circuit.

Sports broadcasting Victoria Cross
Martin Brundle and David Coulthard for managing to talk through two hours of rain delay, having apparently run dry of new information after about ten seconds. Heroic and extremely entertaining for fans of inanity. Did anyone else watch the whole thing, and feel a bit glum when the race restarted?

Also thought I'd mention the tribute given at Donington to British Superstock 600 frontrunner Ben Gautrey, who died at Cadwell Park this August. Before the day's racing began, the fans were invited to stand on the edge of the track and applaud a motorcade of friends, family team members who made their way around the circuit. It was a lovely moment, made even more so by the fact that Donington Park, as a race circuit, appears to have (just) survived.

[jonpollak]

Sonny & Risil .....Great stuff !
Jp

[Bunchies]

falcon tyres porche winning its class with 12 overtakes in 1 lap at mid ohio, on there lolhax rain tyres

That's FALKEN.

[fifi]

Dramatic Crash.



I laughed like a drain for about an hour after this!

heh just knew what that was before clikcing on it

[Amphicar]

first stint at lime rock, lms race chris dyson and lucas luhr? nose to tail through traffic all the time, extremely tense :]
falcon tyres porche winning its class with 12 overtakes in 1 lap at mid ohio, on there lolhax rain tyres

That's Porsche

[Jaybools]

Best Overtake

Mark Webber overtaking Fernando Alonso on the outside of Eau Rouge. I'm sorry but whether you think its stupid or not, this move took the balls the size of melons. I definitely think we've found the reason he's slower than seb this season, lugging those things around
The simple spectacle of it is fantastic. Perhaps not the greatest technically, but still an absolutely fantastic maneuver which was great to watch.



Biggest and Best Grin

DANIEL RICCIARDO.
Look at those chompers!



Worst Crash

Allan McNish at Le Mans, obviously. How half of those cameramen weren't wiped out by flying bits of Audi has me dazzled. To think, if the car had gone an inch higher off the bump at the completion of the sand trap, all of them would've, quite gruesomely, been clotheslined..

[Amphicar]

Reelin' in the Years

Michael Schumacher in the Italian Grand Prix

Fire in the Hole

Nick Heidfeld's Renault in Hungary

Midnight Cruiser

Jenson Button in the Singapore Grand Prix

Pretzel Logic

The F1 Stewards' decisions

The Royal Scam

The BBC and Sky TV

King of the World

Sebastian Vettel

not forgetting:

Rikki Don't Lose That Number

Daniel Ricciardo - the number in question being +44 (0)1908 279700

Edited by Amphicar, 28 September 2011 - 17:04.

[Risil]

Least welcome two words of 2011 (a.k.a. why being a Formula One fan isn't all bad)
Fuel mileage.

Greatest concentration of sporting greatness outside of the Camp Nou on a match day
The Promo Video for the 50th Anniversary of Yamaha in Grand Prix racing

1st Annual "There's no success like failure and failure's no success at all" Award
J.R. Hildebrand, winner of the 2011 Indy 499.5. Obviously.
Second place Johan Zarco: 2nd position in British, Italian, German, Czech, San Marino, Aragon GPs. Assessed a penalty after crossing the line first at Catalan GP, "lost" a dead heat on countback at German GP.

[BullHead]

Hands down F1 race of the year is Canada. The excitement and suspense was amazing, and we didn't finish while 10:30pm! Long evening at the pub that one was....

[Rob]

6.0 for technique...

[Victor_RO]

Everyone remembers McNish's crash, but...

Worst crash we haven't actually seen properly: Mike Rockenfeller's crash later on in the Le Mans race when there wasn't proper camera coverage of the crash site before Indianapolis corner. THIS is all that was left of the car.

[Seanspeed]

Most unusual anecdote
John McGuinness detailing the lesser-known perils of the Isle of Man's Mountain circuit.

Thanks for this. I've now got a bit more ammunition for my next circumcized vs uncircumcized argument.

[jonpollak]

Got another one...

BEST FINISH / TEAR JERKING RESULT
While some of you may know where my loyalty lies in this series ..NO ONE can dispute this wonderful result for SFR.
Jp

[jonpollak]

WORST EVENT
Perhaps this needs not to be said but without doubt the IndyCar "World Championships" race at Lost Vegas was a disaster waiting to happen.
As I discussed with my pal while paying a visit at the LV Strip on the Thursday night before the race.
"There is so much that is not right here...We will all just be waiting."
He was not wrong.

RIP Dan Wheldon

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 09 November 2011 - 09:08.

[Risil]

I was thinking about this thread recently. Guess our memories of 2011 will be a little different now.

WORST EVENT

That's the first time I've seen the green-flag laps of that race... Jesus Christ.

Edited by Risil, 08 November 2011 - 20:18.

[Arska]

F1 race: Hungaroring, plenty of action and drama, probably mostly thanks to the rain.

[falkenauge]

Jenson Button driving to the wrong pit at Malaysia GP. Was so awesome!

Edited by falkenauge, 08 November 2011 - 22:18.

[scheivlak]

Jenson Button driving to the wrong pit at Malaysia GP. Was so awesome!

pssst..... That was China

[wattoroos]

Best finish: Valencia moto gp

[DanardiF1]

Best finish: Valencia moto gp

Errr, did you see Canada!?!

[falkenauge]

pssst..... That was China

Oh, sorry. But it remains funny.

[Rob]

Best finish: Valencia moto gp

Correction : Sachsenring 125cc

We'll probably never again see a dead heat.

[krapmeister]

WORST EVENT
Perhaps this needs not to be said but without doubt the IndyCar "World Championships" race at Lost Vegas was a disaster waiting to happen.
As I discussed with my pal while paying a visit at the LV Strip on the Thursday night before the race.
"There is so much that is not right here...We will all just be waiting."
He was not wrong.

RIP Dan Wheldon

Jp

That's the first time I've seen the green-flag laps of that race... Jesus Christ.

Same here - that was crazy stuff. It really was just a matter of when...

[jonpollak]

BEST FINAL RACE
I know NASCAR is anathema to some of you but this years title deciding race at Homestead was truly amazing.

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 21 December 2011 - 20:15.

[Atreiu]

MotoGP Valencia should be mentioned. Last race of the 800 era, lots of battles, Spies, Dovizioso an Pedrosa fighting for the podium spots, Stoner running away then being caught by Spies and then grabbing the win by the skin of its teeth.

Simoncelli's death goes as a tragic highlight together with Dan Weldon. Both happened within a week and were devastating.

[jonpollak]

Best Awards Speech
Herr Finger showing Jerry Seinfeld like humour from 8:10 in on this Autosport Award for Best Int'l Driver

Jp

Edited by jonpollak, 21 December 2011 - 20:25.

[jonpollak]

Best Glossy Web Review of 2011 F1 Season

Why it's AUTOSPORT of course.
Check it out..
Jp

[nimbus111]

Best overtake of the year
Road America ALMS, Wolf Henzler's Falken Porsche passes the BMW and slower TRG spec-porsche on a tight corner by squeezing between them

yes that was impressive, almost forgot about that one.

Edited by nimbus111, 28 December 2011 - 15:13.

[cheapracer]

I only followed F1 and my highlight is only a general one in that it turned out to be worth watching some races this year - a big step up from preceeding years.

I suck air when stating that because I don't fully agree with DRS but it has made the show a bit better even if it damaged racing from a purist's point of view.

[nimbus111]

Worst Teamwork

ALMS Mid Ohio: Both RLL BMWs take each other out.

[nimbus111]

Dramatic Crash.



I laughed like a drain for about an hour after this!

correction this is the Worst Teamwork

[nimbus111]

Fish Out of Water or what?
The usual Wacky Races that are my precious Nationwide Road Course events.
@ Road America
@ Montreal

i have to say not being a NASCAR fan the Nationwide series has a MUCH better schedule then Sprint.

[jonpollak]

It's over to Risil for the 2012 version.
Jp