37 replies to this topic

[Flash]

I came accross with this website. I've never heard about that event before.

"2002 World Champions from WRC, CART, Formula 3000 , World Superbikes, European Touring Cars, 250cc Moto GP, 125cc Moto-X, World Enduro & Speedway GP on show
Nine countries enter World Cup of motorsport: France, USA, UK, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Brazil and Italy".

"The annual event attracts the best of the best from the world of motorsport and this year's teams are no exception. Amongst the cast are a plethora of recently crowned champions, including this year's supremo from World Rally (Marcus Gronholm - Fin), CART (Cristiano da Matta - Br), World Superbikes (Colin Edwards - USA), Formula 3000 (Sebastien Bourdais - Fr), 250cc World Motorcycles (Marco Melandri - It), European Touring Cars (Fabrizio Giovanardi - It), World Enduro (Kari Tiainen - Fin), 125cc Moto-X (Mickael Maschio - Fr) and Speedway GP (Tony Rickardsson - Swe)."

Can someone tell me more about it, is it televised?

[Flying Panda]

hmm,
I know of IROC, which is the Aerican 'International Race Of Champions', where top drivers from NASCAR, CART, NASCAR, NHRA, NASCAR, IRL, NASCAR and NASCAR all the the same spec Corvette and got for a race on an Oval, but this sounds vastly different to that.

[TankSlapper]

I heard about this a while back. It basically takes 3 drivers from one country to make up a team. Each is technically from a different discipline: motorcycles, road racing and rally/off-road.

Some of the noteworthy participants this year: Cristiano Da Matta, Kenny Brack, Nick Heidfeld, Jeff Gordon, Colin Edwards, Antonio Pizzonia, Fernando Alonso, Marcus Gronholm.............

All events utilize a rally car of some type on a combination of asphalt and off-road surfaces.

This is where Valentino Rossi got to try rallying and was actually pretty fast.

According to the TV schedule is should be on ESPN and Fox SportsWorld in the US. I'll have to wait for Motorsports Mundial on SPEED instead...

[mattybinyon]

It's pretty cool, I saw it on speed channel last year on a motorsports mundial episode (I think).

The format is head to head racing in a couple of different car types (Rallycross, Dirt Buggy).
They have two lanes that are divided on a combined dirt/asphalt course that is mostly dirt.
I think they got to run on both lanes and winners are determined by aggregate time.

Obviously it favors the rally drivers and the guys who run Baja/Paris-Dakar events. Even though the US guys are currently NASCAR drivers, Robby and Jeff Gordon (not related) have dirt experience. Jeff ran on dirt in midgets and Robby actually came up as an offroad truck racer before making the switch to CART, then IRL, back to CART, then NASCAR.

[lulup]

From http://www.worldsupe...ory.asp?ID=3915

Quote

World Champions from various motorsport disciplines will put on a show as nine countries enter the World Cup of motorsport, the 2002 Michelin Race of Champions Nations Cup title.

Spain, Finland and Team USA were the first to declare their ambitions to win this year's Michelin Race of Champions Nations Cup title, when they announced their three-pronged (circuit racer, rally/off-road driver, bike racer) attacks a month ago. Now the organizers have received star-studded team line-ups from nine nations, with the UK, France, Germany, Italy and first-timers, Brazil and Sweden joining the fray.

The annual event attracts the best of the best from the world of motorsport and this years teams are no exception. Amongst the cast are a plethora of recently crowned champions, including this years supremo from World Rally (Marcus Gronholm, Finland), CART (Cristiano da Matta, Brazil), World Superbikes (Colin Edwards, USA), Formula 3000 (Sebastien Bourdais, France), 250cc World Motorcycles (Marco Melandri, Italy), European Touring Cars (Fabrizio Giovanardi, Italy), World Enduro (Kari Tiainen, Finland), 125cc Moto-X (Mickael Maschio, France) and Speedway GP (Tony Rickardsson, Sweden).

Supporting this cast will be stars from Formula One (Fernando Alonso, Spain) and Nick Heidfeld, Germany), CART (Dario Franchitti, UK and Kenny Brack, Sweden), Moto GP (Carlos Checa, Spain and Alex Barros, Brazil) and NASCAR (four-time Winston Cup Champion Jeff Gordon and this year's rookie sensation, Jimmie Johnson - both USA).

2002 World Superbike Champion, Colin Edwards, who has replaced X-Games hero, Travis Pastrana, in the USA line-up, commented on the assembled talent.

"There's nothing else like this in world motorsport. So many guys from so many sports, racing head-to-head in some awesome rally machinery. Personally, I can't wait."

The Nations Cup has quickly established itself as the highlight of the Michelin Race of Champions weekend (November 29 - December 1), offering a unique opportunity for the stars of world motorsport both to compete as a team, rather than individuals, and to defend their nation's honor.

Throughout the Michelin Race of Champions weekend, races are contested by two drivers, in identical cars, racing side-by-side around the figure of eight parallel-tracked Circuito Ciudad Deportiva Islas Canarias rally circuit. The Nations Cup sees each participating countries enter teams of three drivers, comprising one bike rider, one rally or off-road racing star and one circuit racer.

The 2002 Race of Champions will be the 15th running of the event, supported every year by Michelin. For the first eleven years it was a rally-only event, designed to pitch past and present World Rally Champions head-to-head in winner-takes-all gladiatorial style. Since the introduction of the Nations Cup in 1999, the annual end-of-season spectacle has opened its doors to every world motorsport discipline. Since then, the event's popularity and its world-wide TV audience have seen meteoric growth.

Spain will be looking to defend the Nations Cup title it won for the first time in front of an enthusiastic home crowd last year, and previous winners, France (2000) and Finland (1999) will be doing everything in their power to stop them.

The Nations Cup will be contested by a group phase, followed by semi-finals and a final. The nine countries will be divided into two groups, each country competing against all others in its group; rally driver against rally driver, racer against racer and biker against biker.

2002 Michelin Race of Champions Nations Cup Teams:

USA: Colin Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson

UK: James Haydon, Dario Franchitti, Robbie Head

France: Mickael Maschio, Sebastien Bourdais, Sebastien Loeb

Spain: Carlos Checa, Fernando Alonso, Jesus Puras

Finland: Kari Tiainen, JJ Lehto, Marcus Gronholm

Germany: Pit Beirer, Nick Heidfeld, Walter Rohrl

Brazil: Alex Barros, Helio Castroneves, Cristiano da Matta

Italy: Marco Melandri, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Renato Travaglia

Sweden: Tony Rickardsson, Kenny Brack, Thomas Radstrom

[AndreasNystrom]

Its "Michelin ROC" or "Rally Masters"

Each country fights against eachother. They usually pick a Rallydriver / GT or F1 driver / MC rider in each team.

They usually broadcast it on Eurosport. I saw it last year, and Valentino Rossi was the fastest of the non-rally drivers
Bayliss didnt have a chance ;) anyway. They compete in various sorts of cars, from rwd-buggys to kickass Rallycars. Very fun to see.

btw, there is also a game, called "Rallymasters" from "Dice" that is based on this. So if you got the game, you know what its about

[BRG]

The NAtions Cup is just a sideshow really - it only started in 2000, IIRC. The main event (the Race of Champions) is a sort of end of season run-off between the top rally drivers. It has also a Legends section and a Junior section as well as the Nations Cup, and the winners of each category go into the main ROC. Expect Marcus Gronholm to be in the final, although surprise winners are not unusual, since the drivers are often competing in cars that they are not familiar with.

[Flash]

Thanks for the info guys, it sounds like fun!

[Cojayar]

There is a nice web page (some kind of official one) but ...
is in Spanish.

Nevertheless for those of you who don't know Spanish it's even worth visiting.
Carrera de campeones

The Michelin Race of Champions is based on the Canary Islands since 1992. Previously there were four editions (Monthlery, Nurburgring, Barcelona and Madrid). This year will be held on the Gran Canaria island and the TV feeds will be provided by Television Española (TVE). The timetable has not yet been confirmed. I think that Eurosport, among others, will show the event.


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[Locai]

Quote

Originally posted by Flying Panda
hmm,
I know of IROC, which is the Aerican 'International Race Of Champions', where top drivers from NASCAR, CART, NASCAR, NHRA, NASCAR, IRL, NASCAR and NASCAR all the the same spec Corvette and got for a race on an Oval, but this sounds vastly different to that.

They use Firebirds, not Corvettes.

There haven't been any NHRA guys in IROC for awhile. I'm not sure if there ever has been.

I'm not even sure if any CART guys are in it anymore.

It's basically become NASCAR vs. IRL. The series (in my opinion) has lost much of it's luster in recent years.

[Pioneer]

Jimmie Johnson's background is Baja truck racing so he and Jeff Gordon should make a good team.

Looks to be interesting anyway.

[Flash]

Quote

By: RACER staff

Grand Canaria, Canary Islands, November 29

World Rally Champion Marcus Gronholm was left red-faced after rolling his Peugeot 206 WRC on a demo run for this weekend's Gran Canaria Race of Champions—and NASCAR Winston Cup star Jeff Gordon was given the perfect view of the quadruple flip!

The four-time NASCAR champ was sitting in the co-driver's place when Gronholm lost control during the run—which was being filmed for TV.

The Finn got as far as the second corner, a right-left kink, when he rolled on to a bank. The Peugeot then somersaulted three more times before coming to a rest.

Both Gronholm and Gordon emerged unscathed, to huge cheers from the crowd. Gordon took it in good stead, grinning as he walked back to the paddock, where he proceeded to retell his story to fellow NASCAR ace Jimmie Johnson, anothr member of the U.S. Race of Champions team. Meanwhile, Gronholm just looked embarrassed....

The car was badly damaged in the shunt, leaving the Peugeot mechanics with plenty of work to repair it for the weekend. It is one of only three 206s brought over for the popular end-of-season event.

Picture.

[random]

USA Wins!

"The United States team of Jeff Gordon, Colin Edwards and Jimmie Johnson scored an unexpected but richly deserved win in the Race of Champions Nations Cup, defeating Italy in the final."

http://www.autosport...sp?id=21369&s=8

Wow, I thought for sure the Fins would beat the lot of them.

[KenC]

My recollection is that last year, the sensation/surprise of the race was Robby Gordon (no relation to Jeff), who came from Off-road Trophy Trucks thru CART(two wins with Walker) to NASCAR(one win). I believe he set the track record in the prelims, only to roll it in the elimination rounds. Of course, his Off-road trophy truck background racing thru Baja helped immensely.

[Cojayar]

Quote

Originally posted by random
Wow, I thought for sure the Fins would beat the lot of them.

Well, Finland has won only once (as well as France and Spain). The big difference is how good are the track drivers and moto riders in rally type surface. This year the impresive times of Collin Edwards (4 wins and 0 defeats) with a time almost 2 secons better than C. Da Matta has been the winning point.

BTW, Pizzonia (as Rally driver for Brasil ) and Da Matta were the worse in their categories. Jungle Boy was probably afraid to destroy another car ).

Complete time and results here

[Flash]

As expected:

Marcus Gronholm crowned Champion of Champions
"World Rally Champion, Marcus Gronholm was duly crowned 2002 Champion of Champions after defeating France's Sebastien Loeb in a dramatic Final of the prestigious Michelin Race Of Champions at the Circuito Ciudad Deportiva Islas Canarias today.

The best of three Final went right to the wire where the Finn claimed the winner's laurels with a margin of just nine tenths of a second.

Side by side action throughout meant the double World Champion had to dig deep. In the opening round, he triumphed in the Seat Cordoba WRC by eight hundredths of a second. Loeb then sensationally squared the contest by winning the next heat in the car that has carried Gronholm to two World Championships - the Peugeot 206 WRC.

"It was a really hard battle, but very rewarding. Loeb did incredibly well, he adapted himself to the 206 amazingly fast," expressed a clearly delighted Gronholm afterwards. "My car felt really great. I only made one mistake in the Final, running wide into the final corner of heat two which Loeb won."

Defeated finalist, Loeb, commented: "I am ecstatic that I could get so close and push the World Champion so far. I honestly didn't think I would make it to the Final, so I am very happy to just be here. I felt really confident on the track, and maybe with a little more time in the 206, I could have pushed Marcus even closer!"

Up until the Final, Gronholm had an unblemished record, beating NASCAR ace and 2002 Nations' Cup winner, Jimmie Johnson and 2002 ROC Junior champion, Francois Duval in the Semi´s. Loeb's passage included a two-heat victory over 2001 Champion of Champions and fellow World Rally driver, Harri Rovanpera.

Earlier, 2002 ROC America winner, Kenny Brack had put in a series of stunning performances to dominate the Group B qualification round with victories over the Italian triumvirate of 2002 European Rally Champion, Renato Travaglia, 2002 European Touring Car Champion, Fabrizio Giovanardi and 2002 250cc MotoGP World Champion, Marco Melandri.

The Swedish CART star then pushed Rovanpera all the way in the Quarter Final only to lose the third and decisive heat after stalling the Seat Cordoba WRC car on the line.

As a result of this victory, Marcus Gronholm joins an illustrious rallying roll call, which includes such luminaries as Carlos Sainz, Tommi Makinen, Colin McRae, Didier Auriol, Stig Blomqvist and Juha Kankkunen, all of whom have claimed the prestigious title of Michelin Champion of Champions".

Results.

[Fastcar]

http://www.carrerade...opanaciones.htm

Have a look at all the drivers who 'Muled' Cristiano da Matta

[Ghostrider]

Very strong by Kenny Brack to beat Rovanperä with a Rally car on gravel in one of the heats.

Too bad the engine stalled for Kenny in the decider between them. Guess Harry R. was happy though.

GO KENNY!!!

[jimmy mike]

Geez, Gronholm just keeps winning these races. I bet he has used all his luck this year and next one will be shitty one for him. I'm not hoping so, but he has had way too much success this year, things just can't continue being like that.

[Sir Frank]

But Loeb beating Grönholm in one of the heats when both driving the 206

That was more important than overall victory. If anything that was the biggest slap in the face possible.

[FredrikB]

Guess the people of Glava, Värmland knows where Kenny learned to drive a car...
They have no racetrack there you know, but plenty of all other kinds of roads....

F.

[silver]

Those cars which are used in ROC are probably not the latest spec since I find it very hard to believe that Peugeot would let other team's drivers to try out their latest gadgets.
And those cars are not tailored to the drivers like their own cars.

[BRG]

Quote

Originally posted by silver
Those cars which are used in ROC are probably not the latest spec

These were Grifone cars (it was on the front grille) - they are Peugeot's main customer team, so these cars were probably to 2001 or early 2002 spec., but maybe running with conservative engine mapping.

Great effort by Loeb though, to beat Gronholm in a 206 on the second run, and on a largely gravel surface. In fact, he gave the 2002 WRC an extremely close contest. And, like others, I was most impressed by Brack's performance as well.

[TheSaltire]

I caught an interesting article about this past weekend's The Michelin Race of Champions where drivers from F1, CART, WRC, NASCAR, etc take each other on. Here's the list of drivers:

World Rally (Marcus Gronholm - Fin), CART (Cristiano da Matta - Br), World Superbikes (Colin Edwards - USA), Formula 3000 (Sebastien Bourdais - Fr), 250cc World Motorcycles (Marco Melandri - It), European Touring Cars (Fabrizio Giovanardi - It), World Enduro (Kari Tiainen - Fin), 125cc Moto-X (Mickael Maschio - Fr) and Speedway GP (Tony Rickardsson - Swe).

Supporting this cast will be stars from Formula One (Fernando Alonso - Sp and Nick Heidfeld - Ger), CART (Dario Franchitti - UK and Kenny Brack - Swe), Moto GP (Carlos Checa - Sp and Alex Barros - Br) and NASCAR (4-time Winston Cup Champion, Jeff Gordon, and this year's rookie sensation, Jimmie Johnson - both USA).


Here are the teams for the Nations' Cup:

2002 Michelin Race of Champions - Nations Cup Teams

USA: Colin Edwards - Jeff Gordon - Jimmie Johnson

UK: James Haydon - Dario Franchitti - Robbie Head

France: Mickael Maschio - Sebastien Bourdais - Sebastien Loeb

Spain: Carlos Checa - Fernando Alonso - Jesus Puras

Finland: Kari Tiainen - JJ Lehto - Marcus Gronholm

Germany: Pit Beirer - Nick Heidfeld - Walter Rohrl

Brazil: Alex Barros - Helio Castroneves - Cristiano da Matta

Italy: Marco Melandri - Fabrizio Giovanardi - Renato Travaglia

Sweden: Tony Rickardsson - Kenny Brack - Thomas Radstrom


Here are the results:

In the opening round of competition, the USA went head-to-head with Brazil. Colin Edwards (1:56.97 sec) topped Alex Barros on the moto while Jimmie Johnson (2:02.44) topped rally driver Antonio Pizzonia. However, the U.S. team failed to sweep the Brazilians as Cristiano da Matta (2:03.48) defeated Jeff Gordon (2:07.03) on the circuit. In the second round of Group B, the American team went head-to-head with Spain. Jeff Gordon (1:53.47) defeated Fernando Alonso, and Colin Edwards (1:56.43) defeated Carlos Checa, however once again the U.S. team failed to sweep as Jesus Puras (1:57.60) defeated Jimmie Johnson. In the semi-finals, the U.S. team went head-to-head with France. Jeff Gordon (1:53.20) defeated Sebastien Bourdais on the cirucit, Colin Edwards (1:56.25) defeated Mickael Maschio, but the Americans were denied a sweep as Sebastien Loeb (1:58.02) defeated Jimmie Johnson by nine-hundredths of a second. The U.S. team advanced to the Finals where Gordon (1:53.87) defeated Febrizio Giovanardi by fifteen-hundredths of a second over the two lap sprint, and Edwards (1:56.16) defeated Marco Melandri. Though Johnson was defeated by Renato Travaglia, the U.S. captured the Nations Cup.

[Joe Fan]

You mean a couple of NASCAR guys showed all those Europeans how to turn right.

[vapaokie]

Ha Ha Ha

Good one, Joe!

[maclaren]

USA and Brazil cheated, oval racer is not a rally driver

[Berner]

Hey, we need a Canadian team.... JV, Tracy and Frank Spongl (multi-N.American rally winner with Audi). We'd show 'em. Cover the circuit in poutine the night before... add some sirop d'erable and presto! Blame it on Canada. Go Team Beavers!

[Dudley]

Joe - We all know Gordan is good.

Johnson appears to be 1 for 4, hardly impressive.

[vapaokie]

Quote

Originally posted by maclaren
USA and Brazil cheated, oval racer is not a rally driver

I believe that Johnson has off road racing experience.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Arguably the greatest American talent of this generation, and a multiple off road champion, won an off road race. Im not surprised. Nor was I surprised when Robby Gordon kicked everyone's ass last year.

Id like to see Kurt Busch or Matt Kenseth do that

[Zakspeed85]

Quote

Hey, we need a Canadian team.... JV, Tracy and Frank Spongl (multi-N.American rally winner with Audi). We'd show 'em. Cover the circuit in poutine the night before... add some sirop d'erable and presto! Blame it on Canada. Go Team Beavers!

Yes!!.. but i would throw in Patrick Carpentier over Tracy.. if we are talking about CART. We could also use Jacques Villeneuve SR.. being Canadians you gotta throw a snowmobiler in there somewhere to complete the picture.

Team Beavers all the way!

[ehagar]

Quote

Originally posted by Dudley
Joe - We all know Gordan is good.

Johnson appears to be 1 for 4, hardly impressive.

Then again, look who he lost against. Real rally drivers.

[Berner]

Errr, my apologies to Frank Sprongl for the typo. And yes, having Oncle JV is a better idea as he can slide in any type of dirt. Why not just make it Team Villeneuve, with JV, Oncle JV and JV Soeur to sing the national anthem? Allons-y Equipe Castors! Pousse!

[da Silva]

Impressive driving by Kenny Brack!!

Shame there ain´t an F1 team:( Would love to see for example Montoya, Villeneuve or even one of the Schumacher brothers hit that track. Even an driver such as Sato would be entertaining to watch I think.

[Nasty McBastard]

robbie gordon kicked everyones arse, when he wasny laying upside down in a ditch on the side of the road.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Well didnt that happen after he set the fastest lap or whatever

[TAB666]

I just saw the replay of the ROC on Eurosport and i have to say it was bad that they used the 206 for 2 of the 3 races in the final. Loeb got a big disadvantage. Why didnt they use the buggy car for the last race ?