An air-cooled engine uses air flowing over the engine to keep it from overheating, instead of coolant. Repair work has to account for that cooling system and the engine’s heat-control design.
Porsche “Carrera” is Porsche’s performance line. Here they’re talking about a 1984 Carrera engine being taken apart for repair, and it’s an older air-cooled type of engine.
Topic
N24
“N24” is a nickname for a 24-hour endurance race at the Nürburgring. They’re saying someone really liked the show’s coverage of it.
The Citroën ZX is a compact car that was made for regular everyday driving. It’s not a race-specific model by default. In the podcast, it’s mentioned mainly to clarify that the topic wasn’t about a Citroën ZX being the relevant car.
Car
Citroen C1s
The Citroën C1 is a small, city-focused car. Here it’s mentioned because most of the cars in the race/event were that model.
The Citroën 2CV is an older, simple car that was made for basic transportation. It’s known for its unusual design and long history. The podcast mentions it as a car that was (or might have been) part of the lineup being talked about.
The BMW 1 Series is a compact BMW, smaller than many other BMW models. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because the top finishers were all BMW 116Is. That means this specific compact model did very well in that race.
In racing, cars are split into categories. The “UK pro class” is one of those categories, and “highest finisher” means it did best within that group.
Term
NLS races
“NLS” is a long-distance racing series at the Nürburgring. It’s the kind of racing where drivers can earn experience and work toward bigger endurance races.
“Daytona” is a famous endurance race in the U.S., typically the 24-hour event at Daytona International Speedway. It’s a big deal for sports-car and prototype racing.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car made by Chevrolet. It’s built to be fast and fun to drive, and it has a long history. People mention it in racing and performance discussions because it’s designed for that kind of driving.
F1 is the highest level of open-wheel racing. It’s expensive and takes years to set up, so the hosts are saying a new team couldn’t realistically appear overnight.
BYD is a car company from China. The hosts are talking about whether BYD could enter top racing like Formula 1 and use that to get more attention and credibility in motorsport.
Super license points are points drivers need to earn to be allowed to race in Formula 1. The hosts are referencing whether the driver has enough points to qualify.
A from scratch entry means creating a brand-new team for a racing series rather than buying or partnering with an existing team. In F1 terms, it typically requires years to build the operation, secure staff, and develop a competitive car under FIA rules.
The FIA is the organization that governs many major racing series. The hosts are saying a car maker might join a different FIA world championship first, as a way to get into the sport.
Endurance racing is long-duration racing where the car has to last. Teams plan things like pit stops, driver changes, and how hard to push so the car finishes the whole race.
Formula One is the most famous kind of professional car racing with single-seat race cars. Here, they’re talking about how F1 fans might get interested after watching another big race.
Term
knock-offs
A “knock-off” is a copy of something—usually cheaper and not the real thing. In car racing discussions, it can mean copied parts or designs instead of the genuine article.
Elite Motorsport is the racing team that prepared and supported the car Mackenzie drove. In racing, the team’s work can strongly affect how well the driver does.
Endurance racing is about lasting a long time. Instead of one driver doing everything, teams often swap drivers and stop in the pits to refuel, change tires, and keep the car in top shape.
A pit stop is when the team brings the car into the pit lane during the race. They may refuel and change tires, and how fast and when they do it can strongly affect who’s leading.
Wheel-to-wheel action means cars are racing very closely next to each other. The speaker is saying some racing formats can feel less like that, even if it’s still competitive.
Term
GT open
GT Open is a type of GT racing event with its own rules. Teams enter cars that match those rules so different brands can race together.
The McLaren 720S GT3 is a track-focused racing version of the McLaren 720S. It’s built to GT3 rules, which are designed so different brands can compete fairly in the same racing series.
An endurance race is a long race where the main challenge is lasting the distance. Drivers usually swap during the race, and teams plan things like tire choice and pit stops.
Slicks are race tires made for dry roads. They grip really well when the track is dry, but they don’t work well when it’s wet because they can’t push water out of the way.
“Low grip” means the tires don’t stick to the road as well. When it’s wet, the car can slide more easily, so you have to drive more gently and precisely.
Spa is a well-known race track in Belgium. It’s famous for being tough on drivers, and weather can make it even harder.
Term
TC
TC (traction control) is a driver-assist system that reduces wheel spin by limiting power or adjusting engine/brake intervention when grip is low. In GT racing, TC calibration can differ a lot between classes, which is why the host mentions needing to get used to the GT3’s TC behavior versus the GT4’s simpler setup.
This is a way traction control can be programmed to let the tires slip a little, then help the car regain grip smoothly. It’s more detailed than just turning traction control on or off.
It means the slowest speed you can take a corner without losing control or falling off the ideal racing line. If you go too slow, the car can’t stay planted.
It means you’re driving a track without having studied it first. You don’t know where to brake or how the corners flow, so it’s much harder to drive fast and safely.
Car
GT4
GT4 is a type of race car category. It’s based on cars you could buy, but modified for racing, usually with less extreme performance than the higher GT classes.
Mizano refers to Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy, a track known for being relatively tight and technical. That kind of layout demands precise cornering and consistent braking because there’s less room for mistakes.
A technical circuit is a track where you win by driving well through corners, not just going fast in a straight line. It usually means lots of precision—braking, turning, and keeping the car moving smoothly.
In racing, “cherry picking a few rounds” means selecting only certain events from a larger championship schedule rather than committing to every race. Teams do this to manage budget, logistics, and driver development while still gaining useful race experience.
Motorsport programs often require long lead times because teams must secure entries, sponsorship, and car availability well in advance. Planning for a future season helps ensure the right race opportunities and equipment are lined up when the calendar turns over.
BOP is a racing rule that tries to make different cars perform more similarly. If the rules end up not helping your car that weekend, you may not be able to win even if you’re a strong driver—so you focus on the best finish you can get.
Term
SB10
SB10 is a race class designation used in Nürburgring 24-hour events to group cars with similar performance. Finishing “24th” overall while “winning his class in SB10” means he wasn’t necessarily the fastest across the entire field, but he was the best within that specific category.
“Homologated” means the race organizers have approved the car for that class. “GT4” is a type of race car category that’s based on real production cars, but built for racing.
Qualifying is when drivers set fast times to decide where they start the race. If the weather changes a lot, it can be hard to choose the right tires and settings.
Michelin makes racing tires. Different tires grip and wear differently, so the team may need to adjust the car when switching to a new brand.
Concept
running your own race
“Running your own race” means focusing on your planned pace and strategy rather than getting pulled into other drivers’ mistakes or incidents. In traffic-heavy, multi-class conditions, it’s about staying consistent, managing gaps, and avoiding unnecessary risks.
Concept
officials handled that with a new module in the training
The race organizers added extra training for drivers. It’s meant to teach everyone how to deal with faster and slower cars sharing the track more safely.
When different race classes share the track, faster cars have to pass slower cars while still racing for their own spot. It’s tricky because you can lose time if you pick the wrong moment.
The “front end of the field” just means the cars that are leading the race. They’re often the focus because they’re setting the pace and dealing with traffic.
Concept
quality times
“Quality times” means really competitive lap times. If everyone is close to each other, then even small issues—like a penalty—can change who finishes where.
A 30-second penalty is extra time you have to “pay back” because of a rules mistake. It usually makes you fall behind because you’re effectively slower for a moment during the race.
A pit lane incident means something went wrong in the area where teams service the car. Pit lane speed limits are strict, and breaking them can lead to penalties.
Term
Code 120 double yellows
Double yellow warnings mean the track is dangerous ahead, so you have to slow down. Code 120 is the series’ specific way of telling you exactly how much to slow down.
That alarm is from a sensor that measures how hot the car’s differential is getting. If the reading is wrong or the diff is running too hot, it can cause problems with grip and how the car behaves.
Term
minus 21 degrees C
The speaker is using the sensor’s temperature reading (−21°C) to show the alarm was likely caused by a faulty or misreading sensor rather than a real overheating event. In endurance racing, temperature sensors are used to protect components and to detect abnormal operating conditions early.
The car is telling you that one of its sensors is acting up. It might not mean “something is about to break,” but it can still pull your attention away at the worst times.
A “Code 60” is when the race control tells everyone to slow down because something is happening on the track. Drivers have to drive carefully and can’t push or pass like normal.
“Loss of power” means the car isn’t pulling like it should—acceleration feels weak or inconsistent. In a race, that can be caused by a mechanical or electronic problem that needs fixing.
SP8T is a racing class—basically a category of cars that compete under similar rules. If the class changes, the competition and strategy can change too.
The BMW M4 is BMW’s sporty, track-capable version of the 4-series. Here, they’re talking about racing it and how much preparation time they had before the event.
In some races, different types of cars run at the same time and are scored separately. “Lead car in the class” means you’re the fastest/first among your group of similar cars.
Wets are tires made for rainy weather. Their tread helps push water out of the way so the car can still grip the road instead of skidding on a water film.
“24 Hours” is endurance racing where the same car keeps racing for a full day. Teams have to plan for tires, fuel, and driver changes, so the car needs to stay consistent for hours.
Term
greasy
In track talk, “greasy” describes a surface that has reduced grip but doesn’t behave like fully wet asphalt. It often feels slippery and unpredictable because the tire can’t fully bite, yet there isn’t enough water to create a true wet-race pattern.
“Intermediate” means the track is in-between dry and wet. Racers use special tires for that kind of damp surface so the car can grip without the tires getting overwhelmed by water.
In racing, “tyres” aren’t just generic tires—they’re a key setup variable that changes with weather and track grip. Teams select compounds and tread patterns to match conditions like cold temps, dampness, and how much water is on the surface.
A double stint is when you keep the same tires on for longer than usual. Because the tires get hotter and wear out, you have to drive and manage them more carefully.
Tyre pressure is how much air is inside the tires. Getting it right matters because it changes how the tire grips the track and how quickly it wears out.
A knife-edge balance means the decision is very close and easy to get wrong. Here, it’s about choosing the right tires when the track conditions are right on the border between dry and wet.
The BMW M Coupe (E36) is a sporty two-door BMW from the E36 generation. It’s made by BMW’s performance team (M) to be more exciting to drive than a standard model. People bring it up because it’s a special, less common version.
The Dacia Logan is a practical, lower-cost car made for everyday driving. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because it returned to the event, but with some changes. That’s why it stands out in the discussion.
Concept
pit door
In racing, the pit area has team garages. The “pit door” is the opening into that garage where the team works on the car during the race.
In racing, “risk versus reward” is about deciding how hard to push. You can go faster, but if you push too much you’re more likely to make a mistake—so drivers balance speed against the chance of trouble.
Concept
passed by a world champion F1 driver
This is talking about how much faster and more skilled an F1 champion can be at getting around you. Even if you’re in a different race class, an F1 driver often has an advantage in how they brake, turn, and choose the right moment to pass.
“Mechanical challenges” means the car had problems that affected how well it could run. If the car isn’t behaving perfectly, the driver can’t always do their best laps.
The Nordschleife is part of the Nürburgring that’s famous for being very challenging. It’s long and technical, so drivers have to be careful and consistent.
Concept
Grand Prix track
The Grand Prix track is another layout at the Nürburgring. It’s not the same as the Nordschleife, so the driving experience is different.
Drifting is when the car’s rear wheels lose grip and slide sideways, but the driver keeps steering to control the slide. It usually happens when the track is slippery.
Concept
slippery
When a track is slippery, tires lose grip more easily, so cars rotate and slide with less steering or throttle input. That’s why drivers see more drifting and why setup work focuses on how the car behaves in low-traction corners.
Steering wheel lock is how far you can turn the steering wheel before it stops. Turning it more can help the car point into a corner, but on a slippery track it can also make the car slide.
Oversteer is when the back of the car steps out more than you want. On slippery tracks, it can happen easily, and drivers use steering and throttle to keep it under control.
SP10 is a race category at the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The hosts are saying it’s a tough class, and winning it is a big deal even if you’re not fighting for the overall win.
Sky Sports F1 is a TV channel that covers Formula 1 and other racing content. Here, they’re mentioned because they let the speakers take over their broadcast during the race.
The “front row” is where the best cars start at the very front of the grid. “Locking out the front row” means two cars started side-by-side in the top two spots.
A “jump start” means the driver took off too early, before the race start was officially signaled. Race officials can penalize it because it gives an unfair advantage.
A “stint” is how long a driver stays on the track before changing tires. “Dry weather stints” means those parts of the race happened when the track was dry.
In racing, “risk and reward” means deciding how hard to push. Go too aggressive and you might crash or lose time; drive smarter and you can gain positions.
The BMW M3 Touring is a high-performance BMW wagon. When they mention it in a “24 hours” race, they mean it was entered for a long endurance event where the car has to keep working lap after lap.
AMG is Mercedes-Benz’s performance brand. In this context, it means the more likely racing option would be a Mercedes-AMG-style team/program instead of Ford.
Pikes Peak Hill Climb is a well-known race up a mountain. In this segment, they’re talking about a new sponsor and what that might mean for the cars that participate.
“Non-homologated” means the race series hasn’t officially approved the car’s final spec yet. It’s basically an early version that might change before it’s fully cleared for competition.
The Indy 500 is a famous big race in the U.S. for open-wheel race cars. It’s held at Indianapolis and is one of the biggest events on the racing calendar.
Car
Alexander Rossi
Alexander Rossi is a race driver. The hosts are saying he got hurt in a crash, and that might stop him from racing.
The Perodua Alza is a family-oriented car, usually chosen for its roomy interior. It’s designed to carry people comfortably rather than to be a sports car. In the podcast, it’s mentioned because it’s one of the specific models being talked about.
This is something that helps measure how high the bike is sitting off the ground. If it suddenly appears or changes, it can be a clue that something went wrong and the bike can’t keep running normally.
The gearbox is what changes gears and sends power to the wheels. If it fails, the bike may lose power and stop, or become impossible to keep running at race speed.
The driveline is the set of parts that carries engine power to the wheels. If it fails, the bike can’t push forward properly, so the rider loses power.
LIVE
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Hello everybody.
Just after eight o'clock on a Wednesday evening in the UK, it's midweek motorsport
series 21 episode 19 and before we talk about motorsport, I do want to say that there's
a massive game of football going on tonight.
Well, I mean it's a normal size game of football, but it's really rather quite important.
What I don't understand is why Aston Villa are playing Ashley Freiburg.
I think it's a bit unfortunate that Ashley's having to take on the pride of Birmingham.
We do have a few of our collective members who are interested in that and indeed one
at least who is there.
It's nil nil because it's just kicked off at the moment.
Tim Gray is up in London.
I'm back in the UK after a couple of weeks away on the continent.
Tim, was it as pleasant a day for you in London as it was up here in the South Midlands?
We've got up to 18, 19 degrees today, it's going to be a scorcher over the back holiday
weekend.
I haven't checked the temperature today, but we did have a tiny, tiny amount of rain just
to the point that I went out into the garden and it stopped as soon as I came in.
I, as a Southampton fan, will be keeping my eyes on the football tonight hidden behind
a tree with some binoculars?
Yes, of course.
Very good, you're taking that very well.
Very well, Tim.
We're going to win the appeal.
Really?
If it does rain over the back holiday weekend, first of all, in the UK rain on the back holiday
is not going to.
Well, it appears not, but I'm going to spar, so it looks...
There's definitely rain there and snow.
Well, 40 degrees on Sunday and Monday, so very short.
However, however, I have had the GTS run through, good old Ryan, Ryan at Huntsmith's, has given
it its two-yearly, polished clean-up and it looked lovely today when I dropped it off
for its four-year service, can you believe it, I've had that car four years now.
So if it rains, it's because my car was absolutely stunningly lovely as I drove it down to Porsche
Centre, Wickham.
Let me ask the question you previously asked me on a package show tonight, we've got all
the usual features.
Excellent.
Nick Damon is going to be here and he's going to be talking about Formula One.
We have a big interview.
Oh, they're back this weekend, aren't they?
They are there in Canada.
Oh, Canada, eh?
Oh, Canada.
I don't know the song about that.
We're talking about Formula One.
OK, not happened.
Yeah.
We have a big interview just after nine o'clock.
Yeah, we've got a winner.
We have a smaller interview.
Right.
That's on the stage.
He's talking about a 24-hour race that happened at the weekend and we have another round of
Pointless.
Oh, do we?
Hmm.
OK.
Seems reasonable.
Shall I do a few parish notices, as we didn't have time last week, as I was in the Putt
Linn and didn't have...
Didn't have the computer in front of you.
Well, indeed.
And as we were using the phone to connect, I thought it was probably a good idea not
to overload it.
But hello to Edwardian Creations, AFA on the podcast.
Tonight's dinner was a lovely wine steak from the quarter beef I bought for a mate at Grozzi's
own beef.
Hmm.
Fine.
I am envious already.
We had haddock tonight.
Very nice.
And homemade mushy peas, to which, for my portion, I always had a bit of Eve's homemade
tartar sauce into the mushy peas.
She just has the mushy peas, but I have it with the tartar sauce mixed in.
Hello to Jerry Six, who's listening in tonight.
Kevin Payne is in Istanbul, not constantly normal.
He's one of the Villa fans, so he'll be listening on the flight home tomorrow.
Kevin.
Kevin, I hope you've got such a bad headache from celebrating tonight that you can't listen
to us on the flight home tomorrow.
And it takes you till Friday or Saturday to catch up.
I really want Villa to win tonight, all the English clubs in Europe.
Congratulations to Arsenal as well.
I've got to say that for Eve.
She still couldn't believe it last night.
She kept saying, have we really won?
Nobody can take it from us now, you are the league champions.
It's great when you do it by not even playing.
Which is excellent, yes.
Apparently, and I do like this as well.
Apparently, all of the Arsenal squad went to the Emirates and watched the game together.
Oh yes, I've seen the footage of that.
Yeah, and there is footage of them as well as a team staggering out into various Ubers
and taxis at 5am in the morning.
I think that's outstanding.
As opposed to which club was 5am, John?
Oh yes indeed.
5am this morning is what I should have said.
Hello to Simcast podcast.
Is it Simcast this week, Tim?
No, they did it last week.
Oh, last week, of course they did.
Hello to Jim.
It's a quiet week this week.
No HRN either.
No.
Hello to Johannes.
Thank you very much Johannes for all your input over the weekend.
He said something that only dawned on me after the end of this year's 24 winward racing
is the first American team to win it
and the first non-German team since WRT in 2015.
Jim Mooney is EFAA tonight,
facing a long drive to the west coast of the weekend.
Ideal to catch up on the podcast.
Already listening back through the N24 replay pod.
What an unbelievable event.
Thank you for what you said about the team.
The team did sterling work at the weekend.
Dave Alcott listening in tonight
and says,
thank you to the organisers and to RSL Studio
for giving fans a four-day automotive party
from the Nürburgring.
Your interaction with us sets the standard.
Your insight knowledge banter in interviews without standing.
When he says you, I think he means the team.
Thank you.
That's very kind of you, Dave.
Blur Fiend is EFAA today.
He's at the Porsche Technical Centre
for a module that includes air-cooled engine repair
currently tearing down a 1984 Porsche Carrera motor.
I'll be listening this evening when I go for dinner.
Excellent.
Excellent stuff.
Ed Moser's not EFAA's this week listening with Mrs. M
who really enjoyed the coverage of the N24.
I think we have a new convoy to the collective.
Hello, by the way, to Dan from Stickers4U.
Apparently, I've heard,
and by the way, we're getting close to ordering
for your Le Mans sticker order.
There are rules for whether or not you get
the Haribo with your order for Le Mans.
No, Eve seems to know.
It's about the visual horsepower.
The order is big enough to go in a box
that you are more likely to get in for these weeks.
Having talked about Haribo,
that's twice we've talked about Haribo.
Hello to Austin Hilliard Racing.
Have to get me EFAA in for tonight.
Busy at work today.
Six Sigma training and analysis.
I'll be catching up on the podcast later this week
while working on the fleet of toys in the garage.
P.S. Gore-Catherine Leg.
I've talked about that later on.
Yeah, absolutely.
Oh, Edmonds, you say Black Pudding Pork Pie.
Smoke Brie and Kianti.
Oh, hello.
Oh, yes.
Where are you?
On your travels, you say, with Mrs. M.
Right, OK.
Hello, Chris, tuned in tonight.
My ending, listening live from the garage
in the driveway as he is recycling at its best,
removing parts from a spare's car for the rally car.
Rather than scrapping them,
they go on the competition car.
That, my friend, is upcycling.
Any Rover or MG of that era
donating parts to a competition car,
you have fulfilled that car's destiny.
Absolutely.
James or Donald, looking forward to the show tonight.
All the latest motorsport news from around the world.
Midweek Motorsports.
Alexander Orkin is back with us.
He's fennel and lemon pasta in a glass of Chardonnay.
Lynn Eubank is tuned in as well as Sarah Rigby.
Jan Paccio, absolutely.
Yes, Succo's tuned in.
Sean Crockett's EFAs.
He's trying to sort out the Z4's Brawk and power steering
so that the old lady can be on the furry
for the 12th lemon in three weeks.
No EFAs for Jamie Dwyer.
Family event on Friday
that he's feeling a bit apprehensive about.
He says he's overthinking it too much.
Jamie, you're never on your own.
If you want to have a chat with us or any of the collective,
you know where we are.
Jesse Young, no EFAs tonight.
Max Eukidt took 29.
Early start at Prestatin in the morning.
So EFAs tonight.
Kuiper Hoffman listening live with half an ear.
Some air con constructors are wrapping up some work.
Fully engaged before the 24 starts later on.
Are we replaying the 24 hours of the Nürburgring tonight,
by the way, Tim?
Pretty much as well.
Yeah, I think that's great.
Shall we replay it after we've finished?
Yes, OK.
That's a great idea.
Hello to Haughty Hawkins, Mark,
for listening after a busy weekend of work,
N24 and many other things.
And I'll rattle through the Asampias,
just remembered.
A ton of beat, ACC, for the other weekend
to go through in terms of these pictures, et cetera.
Hello to Frank Plasman.
And anyone else who knows us?
I'd expect you, Tim.
And Tim Gray up in London has shuffled these papers
and gives us this as the top story.
Bradley's pies do a black pudding
and a poor pie.
I do love a bit of black pudding in a pie.
The family size ones, only £6.20.
Also, I quite like about black pudding
around the sausage meat in a scorched egg as well.
Oh, yes.
Yeah, that's always very good.
I like a bit of chorizo there.
Chorizo's good.
Yeah, chorizo's good.
In juja, obviously.
That works very well.
Also, I've had a bit of curried onion barge
around the outside of a scorched egg as well,
which is...
I think there's a lot of very bland scorched eggs out there,
and we need to get rid of those.
Nick Deerman, what's your favourite scorched egg or pie recipe?
I think that there are bigger variants on the pork pie,
and some pork pies are exceptionally disappointing,
and some pork pies are exceptionally good.
And it's actually really hard to work out which is which
if you don't get to eat them first.
No, there's no way by looking at them, you can tell, is there?
Because the key to the pie is the crust.
Is the crust the key part of the pie?
Pork.
Do you like...
Well, the crust to filling ratio is important,
which is why I don't like mini pork pies,
because I don't think they work well.
You need a crispy bottom.
You need a crispy bottom.
I do like sort of water-style short crust pastry, yes.
It's something I've never mastered.
I mean, mother used to be brilliant at it.
Absolutely brilliant at it.
My sister-in-law went on a course to do it.
Really?
Yes.
Blimey.
Blimey Charlie, I think is the right...
Anyway, top story is not about pork pies.
I mean, it was.
Or is it?
Tim Cree, what have you got for us?
I'd like to start by congratulating 24-hour winners.
Yes.
Robert Mallet, Freddie Tate...
Yes, I knew this wasn't going to be...
Callum Wilson, Alan Caulfield and Stuart,
whose surname doesn't appear on the timing screen,
because with five drivers, there was enough space.
So, Stuart.
Is this like the C2 championship or something?
This is the C1 racing club.
C1.
Who had their...
Who held the 24 hours of Silverstone at the weekend.
How many cars entered?
Well, 49 qualified.
How was that all?
The 50th entry.
There was 90-odd one year and the car that started...
No, 89.
89th and last came through to win.
Was it last year or the year before?
I can't remember.
Incredible.
The 50th entry, number 431, which was a Citroen C1,
was disqualified from the qualifying session
and the clerk of the course said this was due
to the contravention of Park Fermi regulations.
One of the drivers of that car is reigning British 2
and car champion Tom Ingram.
Really?
Yes.
It wasn't the fact that they turned up in a Citroen ZX
or a Citroen Zara Turbo instead.
No, it wasn't that.
Most of the cars are Citroen C1s, but not all of them.
Really?
No, because...
Because Toyota Igo and that Peugeot are the same car, aren't they?
Not the Igo.
The Peugeot 107 of Emacs Motorsports was entered as well.
Yes.
And I just need to look and see if I can find out where that finished.
Citroen Peugeot and there's one other...
I don't think it's the Igo on it.
It's the Peugeot 107.
It might be the Igo.
The Peugeot 107 finished 33rd.
Right.
There was also a 2CV.
Was there?
Yes.
That is lost.
That was a previous event.
Yes.
With Nick Road, Nick Crispin, Sean Sidley and Christopher Tovey.
That finished 38th.
I need to have a go at that one year when it doesn't clash.
Because it looks an absolute hoot.
But none of the top three were Citroens of any sort or purpose.
No way.
The top three were all BMW 116Is.
All right.
Well, that's not fair though, is it?
No.
They're not the same classic cars.
They're the BMW class.
Yes.
Nick, I take it back.
It is the Toyota Igo, isn't it?
The Peugeot 107 and the Toyota Igo,
which was a little more different than the 107 and the C1.
I absolutely take it back.
There was a Citroen C1 rhythm that came out in 2008,
which was very popular with the Catholic community, obviously.
There was a vibe of rhythm and a code, a cool and air play,
based on the rhythm, but adding full iPod connectivity
and iPod cradle, a four gigabyte iPod Nano.
The cool, that one had air conditioning.
Did it?
Yeah.
Let me scroll down and have a look.
Blue seat and flash, but available in Lipsian, white or damas blue as well.
Fantastic.
They are great little things.
They are top little cars.
Carry on.
Sorry.
The highest place, actual Citroen, was also not in the main class.
It was in the European class, because it was a Danish entry,
driven by Michael Mack, Marko Kisarka and Christian Kroner.
Maybe I don't want to get into this,
because it sounds like people are taking...
This is a bit like Nick Tandy in the Ford car.
Mm-hmm.
And the actual...
The car that finished fifth overall,
but was the highest finisher in the UK pro class of Citroen C1s,
had some people that no one's ever heard of in it.
Jade Edwards, Josh Cook, Ryan Benzley,
all three of those former British touring car drivers,
and Ollie Cook, who's Josh's brother.
That's brilliant.
They're taking that far too seriously.
So I'll be quite happy continuing to go and commentate at the Nairburg ring
for a huge audience this year.
Thanks to Nelly Telly, by the way, for letting us take over Sky Sports F1
when we were only supposed to be on the website,
but they had no Indianapolis.
Thanks to the rain for...
Yes, thank you to the rain, yes.
In Indiana, for allowing...
Sorry, is that an Adele song?
Thanks to the rain.
I think it is. You might be right.
Anyway, if that didn't clash, honestly, I'd be in like Flynn.
I think it's a...
Didn't they used to have that at Snedtitan for a while?
They'd done lots of things at Snedtitan in the past
and moved him to Silverstone.
Yeah.
How was that Silverstone?
Yesterday, for a behind-the-scenes look
at Cadillac Hurts Team Jordan's final tests before Le Mans,
and you'll be able to hear the audio from that
in our Le Mans build-up in Le Mans Week.
And it was good fun.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Is there anyone going to the opening of the new M24 museum
in Le Mans next Thursday?
Well, Lewis Hamilton is.
Well, clearly, because he is a patron of M24.
Yeah.
We haven't been invited or...
Hang on, where am I the following...
So, a week tomorrow?
A week tomorrow.
I could go to that.
Do you want me to ask and whiz out there?
Let's have a look and say...
Where would you be?
You'd be on your way to...
Somewhere in France anyway, wouldn't you?
Not quite that week, I don't think.
Test Week ends the Weekend.
That was it?
Oh, yeah.
No, it's the Weekend after, yeah.
It's the Week before the Test Week.
You'd be going to Detroit, so that doesn't work at all, does it?
Detroit Motor City.
Well, I can...
Honestly, I'd be quite happy to go to Le Mans instead of Detroit.
No offence to Detroit, except obviously it is.
But that is the worst-looking racetrack in the world.
Having come from Belle Isle, the hint is in the name.
It wasn't a Belle Isle when the first went there.
It was not.
No, but the $13 million or whatever it is
that Roger Penske's organization has pumped into the regeneration of Belle Isle
has made it absolutely superb,
and then they got thrown off it
because they didn't want to have a motorist there
because it upset the people who were now able to use it
rather than the drug users and the criminals who'd been there before,
which I find this supreme irony.
And now instead, the Indy cars and the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship
have to run between concrete walls in the least nice part of Detroit
in terms of what the cameras see
and on a surface that's wholly unsuitable to go racing.
It's just an incredible, ridiculous situation.
But anyway, by the by.
It's a nice museum on Belle Isle as well, isn't there?
There is a museum on Belle Isle, you're absolutely right.
Have you been to that?
I have, yes.
I went once, but it was closed on the day I went,
and I probably should have looked that up before I went.
I would like you to because you always have everything so particularly bland.
I wasn't even staying in Detroit at the time.
I was in Dearborn, which is a bit sad.
To Ford?
That's why I went.
I went to the Ford plant.
Did you go to the Henry Ford Museum?
I did as well, yes.
Outstanding.
Two days.
You could take two or three days there.
I saw a Batman movie on the IMAX there just after it came out.
I think it was the first Christopher Nolan one of the trilogy
and it was absolutely outstanding.
Anyway, we've digressed twice already.
Pork pies and now racing circuits that we aren't talking about.
Where would you like to take us next, Tim?
Well, having supported Max Verstappen's Bitsco racing in the Nürburgring 24 hours,
Mercedes has now said that they're not going to do the same for Andrea Kimmery and Nelly.
In fact, they're going to ban him from racing at the Nürburgring.
Why do you think that is then?
Why do you think the difference between the two drivers?
I think it's a matter of they just want to make sure that the 19-year-old is completely focused.
They were talking about not this year but next year.
They've already said to him, you're not going to race there next year so don't even plan it.
But obviously there are some NLS races this year where he could go and get his license.
I expect to see him in August sometimes when there's room on the course.
Mercedes Deputy Team Principal Bradley Lord does not.
He said, I've spoken to him about it. No.
Was that a definite no? That sounds like a possible may be to me.
It was followed by, give it a try after four world championships.
Well, I'll tell you now Max Verstappen won't be back for EMG.
In my humble opinion.
No, you think that Ford will be after him?
I absolutely do. I think if he goes back again it will be with Ford.
And two reasons.
One, there's probably going to be a new EMG coming for next year which will be under development.
And it won't be the finished article.
It's 10 years since Morrow Engel was on the squad that won last time around.
Actually there's a lovely piece of symmetry. Are we going to talk about that now Tim?
What do you want me to wait?
We'll talk about that after we've spoken to our big interview guest.
That's a good idea. We'll leave that for the second half.
I'm waiting for Pete to come back from another celebratory dinner.
Pie in a pint nighter in his local apparently.
Which Formula One driver has expressed an interest on doing a different 24h race there?
Could be any of them.
Alonso has already done Daytona and Le Mans.
Charles Leclerc wants to do the modern.
You might have said that in the past. Who said it this week?
You're going to have to give us a clue out of the 21 drivers who won.
No, no, no, no.
It won't be Lewis Hamilton because when he stops driving Formula One he will never drive another racing car again.
In my humble opinion.
So let's go through the rest.
Not Leclerc.
Is it Lance Stroll?
It's not Lance Stroll but I think he might have an interest in it.
He does definitely have an interest in it.
He hasn't said it this week.
Let's have a think.
Do you know what? I haven't seen this.
We could end up going through all of the rest of the 18 drivers we haven't mentioned.
So who is it, Tim?
Is it?
He wants to go to Le Mans.
He wants to go to Le Mans with McLaren.
I remember seeing him say that.
Obviously he's done Daytona, hasn't he?
Yes, he has.
When he was a little kid.
He was good. He was very good.
They're all very good. That's the point.
That would be interesting if he got an LMH drive with McLaren as maybe one of the extra drivers
and dropped in for Le Mans.
He has apparently, when he had discussions with that ground about it.
So that's how serious they are.
You need to have discussions with the calendar people
because since they rode back on the agreement not to hold an F1 race the same weekend as Le Mans
there's not as much to do about it, is there really?
Well, you could make a statement and not send one of your drivers.
No, but that's never going to happen whilst they're doing as well as they are.
The only reason that Le Mans have got a week off is because they're rubbish.
It is unfortunate.
I did see amongst some of the more ridiculous and overblown social media posts
from Maxfans and F1 fans and some from Endurance fans as well
which were equally as disappointing.
I did see somebody say, where do they see next year's F1 calendar?
There'll be clashes with every big Imza race, every N24, NLS and N24 and Le Mans.
Absolutely not. This has been a complete boon to F1 as well.
I think you're right. I completely agree with that.
You just kept F1 in the news about an F1 race.
I think people don't understand how marketing and how things work.
F1 is not in a rivalry with the N24 or Le Mans.
People need to understand just how much bigger it is than everything else
and how it can stand on its own.
But the fact is that when you can get focus on another major race
it works. Tide Rises all ships.
One of those ships happens with the F1 cruise liner.
What happened when Hülkenberg won Le Mans as a serving, competing F1 driver?
Why can't Aston Villa have their normal shirt sponsored by the way in the Eurobook?
Is it a gambling one?
Good point.
It depends where it's being held.
Where is it being held?
No, kind of gambling in Turkey.
Yes, of course.
It was in the country, wasn't it?
Yes, absolutely.
Still a little bit.
I agree with you totally.
If F1 had any sense, they would actually keep Le Mans free as well.
And get some guys to do it.
It would be a fantastic cross fertilisation.
And F1 know that as much as anyone else does.
And given that there are a number of F1 manufacturers like GM with Cadillac and Corvette, like Ford,
like McLaren, like Ferrari, like AMG, who am I missing out?
Alpine.
No, they don't have a GT3 car, Alpine.
Yeah, but they've got a Le Mans car.
Yes, that's true.
Well, for this year anyway.
It'll be B-Wide next year, yes, obviously.
Or Geely.
And who else have I missed out?
Williams Daunt, Haas Daunt, Audi.
Audi have a GT3 car, which was relatively competitive still, although they're not going to replace that.
Even though it's 111 years old.
And they've sold 20 million of them.
What? I mean, that's been brilliant for them.
So you're getting on for half the grade, aren't you, in Formula 1, in terms of the manufacturers who are involved.
That have cars in major endurance races, either GT3 or prototypes.
So I totally agree with you.
There was an awful lot of nonsense.
I had a bit of a rant about it in the commentary.
And I sort of want to apologize for that, but don't, because I really believe what I was talking about.
The absolute division that Max being there caused it for parts of the fan base.
And I used that word, advisedly, was just tiresome.
It was totally tiresome.
When we should be, like you say, Nick, absolutely celebrating the fact we had three F1 drivers, including a multiple world champion.
We had champions from all kinds of other parts of racing.
We had the best GT3 drivers in the world there.
People from the state, an international driver roster in all of the classes.
And all people wanted to do was snipe at one side or the other.
And I just found it tedious.
And that was the only negative of having, it wasn't entirely only negative, but it was the only visible negative of having Max there.
There was a couple of logistical negatives which impacted us and how we worked and other members of the press and how they worked.
But that was as much, if not more, to do with the series and the event as it was Max.
But it was just tiresome.
And I was very disappointed at a small section of the endurance fan base who decided that they were going to take against Max and the F1 fans from the off.
That's not what we do.
And I'm glad that the vast majority, 99% of the endurance fan base opened up to them.
And when we didn't have a chance to answer all the questions, they were jumping in and helping us out.
It was great. It was really nice.
Generally speaking, it was a good atmosphere.
And I hope Max comes back.
And I think with no disrespect to him, I'm delighted that Wynwood won and we'll get to that again a bit later on.
But I hope Max comes back because he clearly enjoys it and he made a difference in a lot of different ways, which we'll talk about in the second hour tonight.
Question Horner.
There's been spots that you can this week. Do you think he's been to the film festival?
I think he has. I think he's been premiering a number of films there.
And he's hoping to be the palm door.
Or option B, he's been whining and diaring a very rich CEO from China.
This will be Stella Lee.
Who is building his dreams, not your dreams, but his dreams of getting back into F1?
Yes.
Could this be a BYD takeover of Alpine F1 and the sports car?
No, apparently.
Well, no, because apparently BYD are more minded to do a start from scratch than buying out a team.
In Formula One?
Yeah.
There is obviously one further F1 franchise that's available.
Sort of.
It is available as far as Manhattan cinema is concerned.
Not sure how available it is according to the 11 teams we're knocking about.
However, let's be really honest about this.
If you thought GM could afford the dilution fee, BYD certainly can afford the dilution fee.
Well, they are going gangbusters around the world.
I had some very interesting conversations about F1 whilst I was at the Nurburgring
with people who absolutely would know what was going on.
And that remaining franchise, which theoretically, no, actually is still there.
Whether, as Nick rightly says, whether it would get approved by the other now 11 teams.
And they still all have a veto, don't they?
It's not quite a veto, but it is an ability to stop it happening.
I don't know if it sounds like the same thing.
Well, I've been told quite categorically from a couple of people that that franchise,
that additional franchise has been reserved for a Far Eastern manufacturer.
But not that one.
I'm not going to go into specifics because there were two different manufacturers
that I had mentioned from the people that I talked to.
And one of them was Chinese manufacturer. I'll put it that way.
Okay.
That Chinese manufacturer.
I suppose they're not.
Actually, no, they are both Chinese manufacturers when I think about it.
How many have been to them and he wants a Chinese manufacturer in?
Of course he does.
Which is fair enough.
No, it's fair enough.
I mean, realistically, you look at the way the automotive market's going.
Fair enough, isn't it really?
Because what would happen is they'd still be based in Europe.
You might be able to base a few things out in China,
but you couldn't run a team from China.
It'd be impossible.
Yeah.
Jesse Young says if BYD do an F1, what are the chances that it would be the pathway back to the sport?
For Geolgwang Yu and maybe open the dot spot for Yifei Ye.
If he has the super license points for these.
The thing is that if BYD did decide to do a from scratch entry,
it's at least four years away.
Yes, correct.
Correct.
But that's why Christian was talking about setting the whole thing up and running it if it's possible.
Well, he's got a bit of money, hasn't he, as well.
His bit of money would be of no interest to vast amounts of money that BYD have.
I do think, though, for any manufacturer to go and work in an FIA World Championship that wasn't F1
would not be the worst thing to do to introduce themselves to the...
What's the word I'm looking for?
Politics.
Yeah.
Machinations, I was going to say, of being involved in an FIA World Championship,
but politics could easily be replacing that word.
It would be a good way of saying, hello, here we are, and this is what we can do.
And in that case, to do it quickly, buying an established team that is about to go to you
and also, more importantly, perhaps, on the political and diplomatic level,
ensuring a whole load of jobs don't go down the toilet in France.
And where are the FIA based, Nick?
To be Paris, I believe.
And what country is that? Just to remind our nationalists.
From my basic O-level in geography, I believe that's Le Bon France.
Yeah.
In fairness, Nick's grasp of geography is tenuous, at least.
I also have an O-level in geography, so let's try it.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, God.
So, I honestly think that I think that wouldn't be the silliest idea.
Hello to Alan Proser, having an adult bread's beverage before going home from work.
He said at the weekend, I was sitting with my colleague and he said he'd watched the Nürburgring 24
because Max was in it, told him all about endurance racing, and now he's going to watch more.
And that is the two-way street.
And I strongly suspect that there will be Formula One fans, if not, you know, absolute Max,
aficionados and fans who will have watched what they saw at the weekend and decide they want to watch it again.
And so much of what happened at the weekend was not about Max.
Crowds at the side of the track, flares, all of that.
That happens every year.
So, yeah, I agree.
Sorry, Tim, carry on.
Owen says, John, do not apologise for your rant.
I was there and that snapped me right back to reality after spending the first half totally disillusioned with the state of most public spaces.
And I was quite ashamed at how immature I'd been.
Well, there you go.
Can I just say as well, though, that the fans on the campsite, once again, the German fans mostly, but the international fans as well.
Unlike, interestingly, the fans at Rockham Ring, who leave the place like looking like a municipal council tip,
except not quite as tidy as that, literally on Mondays, we were driving back out past the track.
Although the grass looked like it had been driven on and it was particularly muddy,
it's the first time I've seen people getting dragged in to the campsites by tractors, not out.
But that's exactly what happened.
Other than that, and the grass are recovering a couple or three weeks, there wasn't a speck of rubbish.
There were bags of rubbish that had been piled up, but all of the constructions that had been built trackside,
they were all gone, people took them away on trailers.
And the camping sites in the parking sites were absolutely immaculate.
And I just took me hat off to them.
What's the German equivalent of Schapo, I'm not sure, but absolutely outstanding.
Listen to Midweek Motorsport, it is series 21, episode number 19.
Tim Gray is up in London.
Nick is in most of Lincolnshire, and I'm at Heindorf Towers.
Where are we going next, Tim?
Shall we just finish off Formula One?
Christian Horner, yeah.
No, we don't want to talk about Christian Horner anymore.
Right, we certainly don't want to finish him off.
No.
Who is too slow, and who is annoyed about being too slow, or other people being too slow?
Who is too slow, and who is annoyed about being too slow?
Yes.
I kind of feel that Aston Martin involved in this somewhere.
No.
This is very cryptic today, Tim.
It's about knock-offs, there we go.
Is he too slow?
Oscar Piastri.
No, not a driver.
No, you've completely lost me now.
So too slow, what, is there any developing things?
Too slow in working, and it's all the Formula One pit wall engineers.
Oh really?
According to Rob Smedley.
Oh, OK, Rob.
Rob hasn't been in Formula One for quite a while, has he?
Indeed.
He believes that the people on the pit walls are hesitating instead of showing decisive leadership,
and relying too much on people crunching numbers back in the UK.
Well, he's not wrong, is he?
I agree with that.
Did you sell a motorbike, Rob said?
Smedley's brother, by the way.
Was it you?
No, it wasn't me.
I never sell motorbikes, I just get more.
Oh yeah, that's right.
No, I mean, I think it's true.
I mean, they are in a way, sometimes they're sort of like,
paralysed by the amount of people they've got who want to chip in.
You kind of feel that the strategy only needs like,
they've got like 19 people doing strategy,
realistically only needs two, isn't it?
It's not that difficult in our half race.
You know, you write down, do we come in with the pit stop on this lap or not?
And if there's a safety car, do we come in?
I mean, you feel great, can't you?
You don't come in the first seven laps,
you write it all down in advance, really.
The other thing is though, if, no, when things change,
which they tend to do in motorsport,
then you have to react to them and make a quick decision.
There's no time for a committee to sit and work through,
read the minutes of the last meeting,
and have some kind of proposal put to a vote.
There's no time for that.
By the time you've done that,
the car's gone past the end of the pit lane or whatever,
and you've missed out.
You have a little bit more time at, you know, Le Mans,
Nürburgring, where Spa, where the laps are a bit longer,
and in Formula One as well, potentially at Spa,
their longest lap of the season.
But I agree with Rob on that.
It has become a bit of a fashion, has it not,
to increase the amount of people who are doing things.
And the problem with that is, it's the old adage, isn't it,
of a horse designed by committees is a camel.
And that's not the way good strategic decisions work.
It's also not the way bad strategic decisions work.
The problem is that if you don't make a decision at all,
is that good or bad?
Well, no, it's just no decision that's been made.
Sometimes not making a decision could be a good decision.
But I think you have to game that out as quickly as possible.
Just not making the decision because it takes you too long,
that's not actually making a decision.
That is your process not being up to it.
And in the fastest moving motorsport in the world,
you can't be spending two laps trying to decide
whether somebody's going to come in.
I think there's good engineers in Formula One now,
and I think there's some pretty dreadful ones as well, Rob said.
Indecision makes a dreadful one,
like not being on top of your game and understanding first principles.
They're the driver in a situation, they don't understand it,
they need help.
Now, as far as they're concerned,
they're driving the car, which is difficult to drive,
it's difficult to understand,
they're getting back onto the radio and shouting,
give me some help, and then it's up to the team,
especially the race engineer,
to get that situation under control.
Because you should be able to come back
with 80% of the answer just like that,
and if you can't, you're not a very good race engineer.
I'm just waiting for somebody, is not an answer.
I'm in Miami halfway round the world,
and I'm waiting for someone in Brackley or Silverstone or Maranello,
a 22-year-old graduate, to give me the numbers that I need.
If you're a race engineer, you have to be much, much better than that,
and that's a bit that drives me mad.
Do I agree with them?
100%. I'm with Rob there.
Ultimately, being very forthright in terms of engineers,
where are we going next?
Time now to get another guest on the line,
and we are catching up now with the young racing driver,
who we spoke to around about this time last year
on Midweek Mortar Sport.
Welcome back to Mackenzie Creswell.
How are you, Mackenzie?
Very good. Thank you, John. How are you?
Very well. Thank you.
Been a busy few weeks, and Le Mans just round the corner
means it never, never stops.
As I said, we spoke to you about 12 months ago.
You were getting ready for your GT season.
Then, remind everybody what you were doing,
and tell us how it went before we talk about this year.
Yeah, so this time last year,
I was just ready to make my GT 4 debut in the European GT 4 series
with Elite Motorsport in the McLaren Artura.
Back again for another year in the same championship, car.
Last year, I think we finished fifth overall,
so not bad for first year, but definitely a few things to iron out.
So, yeah, came back and had another go at it.
You'd come from single seat racing mostly before that,
and we talked last year about jumping across to something
with a roof on your head and more body work around you.
How did you find that first year,
and what surprised you most about making that jump,
either positively or negatively?
There was definitely things to learn,
but ultimately, if you know how to drive a car,
you know how to drive a car.
It was a pretty seamless transition.
Obviously, the sort of endurance side of things,
sharing a car, pit stops, all that stuff I had to learn.
But I had a great team around me,
and it was pretty easy to get up to speed.
I think the thing that surprised me most is,
perhaps just how close to racing was.
Obviously, you have a large amount of air and wash.
So, sometimes the racing is perhaps a bit monotonous,
and there's not so much wheel-to-wheel action,
but, yeah, GT4 is constant.
You're always battling with another car,
so that took some getting used to, but, yeah, I really enjoyed it.
When you look back on last season,
and we'll talk about this season,
because your season has actually already started.
When you look back on last season,
are you happy with what you achieved?
You said there's things to learn.
Do you feel you left anything on the table,
or for your rookie season in endurance and GT racing,
are you relatively happy with what you achieved,
and has that put you on the right road, pun intended,
for where you are right now?
Yeah, I think relatively happy is a good way to put it.
There's obviously things that I would go back and change.
Yeah, more wins, more faster slaps, more overtakes.
Yeah, absolutely.
I understand that.
Obviously, you're going with the same team again,
so that bond, that relationship,
which is so important in all forms of motor racing,
particularly in endurance racing, that remains consistent.
And the machinery consistent again as well for this year?
Yeah, same car, same everything.
Excuse me.
This is my fourth year with the motorsport,
so I'm really familiar with everyone in the team.
So, yeah, it takes one element out of the start of the season,
learning everyone's names, learning how we all work together.
So, yeah, that was definitely positive.
And in terms of what's happened this season,
as I said, you've had a couple of race weekends,
one in each of the series that you are running in this year.
And?
Yeah, so we had one round European GT4,
and also last weekend, it was my first GT open round this year
with Greystone GT in the McLaren 720S GT3.
So, that was my first proper endurance race.
It was the Swar 500, so roughly a three hour race,
split over two drivers.
So, yeah, it was really good to kind of dip my toe in the water
in the endurance side of things.
And yeah, it was a pretty good debut.
I think we finished fifth overall fourth in class.
So, definitely some things to take board into the next round,
but yeah, it was a good round overall.
What was the weather like at Spa?
Because I was there the week before for WAC,
and it was absolutely glorious.
And then at the weekend just past,
I was 90 miles down the road, 90 clicks down the road,
at the Nürburgring, obviously.
And it was something akin to being cast adrift in the Baltic Sea.
It was crazy.
What was it like in the Ardennes?
Pretty much the same, to be honest.
It was typical Spa weather.
We had a little bit of everything.
It was sort of what?
We started the race on wet,
and it was starting to dry out.
So, we put slicks on at the first pit stop.
And then it started raining again.
Of course it did.
It was spitting throughout the whole race, to be honest.
So, it was always a bit of a low-grip situation,
but yeah, it was definitely testing as a driver.
But no, it was really good.
It was kind of as you expect when you go to Spa.
But that's why it's one of our favourite circuits.
Question for you then.
Driving for McLaren in both GT4 and GT3,
or driving here McLaren in both GT4 and GT3.
Now, they're not exactly the same car as some manufacturers
have the same car just built to the differing regulations.
Is there enough difference for you to remember which car you're in,
and how did you find it stepping into the GT3 car?
There's definitely differences.
As you said, some manufacturers have the same base chassis
for both GT4 and GT3.
McLaren hasn't.
They run the Autura in GT4 and the 720 in GT3.
So, yeah, there's definitely differences.
But as I said earlier, it's a car as a car.
So, you just need to jump in and kind of understand
where the limit is, how much you can push the car,
and that's something that I think through my career
I've been pretty good at jumping in and out with different machinery.
So, the transition was pretty easy,
and I'm getting back in the GT4 car next week.
So, yeah, it's something I've grown accustomed to.
Did you have to learn the systems again,
because presumably, and please tell me if this isn't right,
I would presume that TC and ABS in particular
are a bit more, maybe a lot more sophisticated
in the GT3 car than they are in the GT4.
Tires are different, et cetera, power delivery.
There's all systems that are a little bit different,
but yeah, the TC is one of the main ones.
So, in the GT4, we just have one TC setting,
just one through 12, whereas in GT3, we have slip and gain.
So, that's something that I sort of needed to get used to,
but ultimately, it was well explained to me by the team.
So, yeah, once you're happy with it,
it's not something you have to think about too much,
but yeah, there's other little bits and pieces
that are different from car to car.
And in terms of the driving style, similar.
GT4, I always think is so much fun,
because you have to really get through the corners
and that minimum corner speed.
GT3, you've got a little bit more help on the aero.
Is it a completely different driving style,
or is it still just hit your marks,
get it rotated and get on the throttle?
I wouldn't say completely different.
As you said, there's a lot more aero in GT3,
so you can kind of rely on that
to fire a little bit more speed into the corner.
The GT4 car definitely slides around a bit more.
It's something that you kind of have to be ready for the car
when it slips, in a way.
And then the GT3 is definitely a bit more planted,
a bit more power, so you're able to kind of be off the corners
just a bit more.
But yeah, all the base principles are the same.
As you said, hit your marks, hit the apex,
all that sort of thing is transferable.
Yeah, and you said you're out again shortly.
Where's that going to be?
Are you out? Is that the GT4 Euro?
Yes.
So that will be, is that in Monza?
Yeah, that's Monza next weekend.
GT4 European series.
Oh my goodness, the cathedral of speed.
You've raced there before though, surely?
No, that's my first time going completely blind.
So yeah, we'll see how it goes.
But it's just, from an outsider's perspective,
it's just a couple straights which are games,
it can't be that difficult.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, definitely, definitely how the way it is.
On paper, it looks like an easy circuit,
but as one famous racing driver once said to me,
yeah, that's all very well, we don't race on paper,
we actually race on the track.
Then at the end of June,
you're back at Spa in the GT4 Euro.
That, from what you've just told me,
seems to be somewhere that you really like.
Obviously, you'll have to plug your GT4 Brinn
in rather than your GT3.
And then Mizano circuits,
Michael Sim and Shelley,
now I've seen GT3s racing around there,
and it's a bit like trying to fly a fighter jet
around your living room.
It is very, very tight,
but it's a really technical circuit.
And then you lucky, lucky person,
you get to go to two of my favorite places to race,
not that actually Mizano in July
will be steaming hot,
and you're right on the Adriatic coast there,
that'll be lovely.
Then Zandvoort in September,
well, that could go either way,
it could be lovely,
you could be freezing from the North Sea,
but that's a great,
and you finish off in Porte Mau
in the south of Portugal,
which is another great circuit.
Now, how many of those tracks that I've mentioned,
apart from Spa,
how many have you raced on?
Have you raced at Mizano, Zandvoort,
or Porte Mau before?
Yeah, I've done all those,
did all of those last year, thankfully.
So Zandvoort and Mizano
were both on the GT4 European Series Canada,
and then I did the GT4 Wind Series
round at Porte Mau as well.
So I've got experience on all those places,
and as you said,
yeah, there are some highlights in that Canada.
I think Zandvoort's definitely a highlight for me.
I've always enjoyed that place.
Yeah, lovely, really good place.
Race as well, as well.
I don't look twisty,
but I think it races well.
I think it's a good challenge.
Where do the GT3 races fit in among those?
Are you going to be doing some more of those?
Yeah, so I'll probably have another two rounds
throughout the year,
where those rounds take place,
hasn't been decided yet,
so hopefully that should be announced soon.
But yeah, the plan is at the moment
to have two more GT3 rounds alongside
the rest of the GT4 Canada.
Right, and you haven't announced it,
or the series haven't announced it?
Both, so we have a rough idea
of which ones we're going to do,
not dead set yet,
but we still need to get it all locked down
and then we can announce it
where we're going to be back racing.
And that isn't a full series of GT3.
Your focus is on GT4,
so you're cherry picking a few rounds.
But ultimately, Mackenzie,
is that where you want to be in one of the European GT3?
I mean, that sounds ridiculous.
We're not even at Le Mans yet in 2026,
but these things come around quickly.
You're already planning for 2027,
and would that ideally be a GT3 championship?
Definitely, yes.
We basically plan for 2027
at the end of 2025 in a way.
Wow.
You always try and put yourself in the best position
to get a good drive the coming year.
So as we sort of were looking at our options for this year,
we just wanted to put ourselves in a good position
so that there will be a GT3 available in 2027.
So yeah, that's definitely the aim at the moment.
And getting a little bit of GT3 race time
will not put you in bad stead at all.
Quite the reverse.
It means you can go up to teams and say,
look, I haven't done a full season,
but here's my homework, if you like.
Here's my CME.
I've already got some experience,
and that should be a good thing for you, Shirley.
For sure, yeah.
The whole reason that we're doing these few GT3 races
is just to get me a bit more experienced in that car,
but also to try and get some results in a GT3 car.
So we can, as you said, go to other teams and say, look,
I've done this already in this car.
I will be a good fit for your squad.
And that's always beneficial.
In some ways, not doing the championship
could be seen as taking the pressure off a little bit,
but quite clearly you're putting some pressure on yourself
because you feel that you need to get some good results
to fill out your Palmaras, your CV.
Yeah, there's always pressure,
regardless of if you're doing the whole championship or not,
you always get compared to your teammates, to your co-drivers,
all that sort of stuff.
So there's always pressure to go and perform.
Obviously, I've not done much running in this car,
so perhaps there's not as much pressure
as if I was doing the full year.
Yeah.
But there's always pressure I put on myself as well.
I want to go out and do a good job.
If that's not your mentality as a driver,
then you're in the wrong sport.
Totally agree.
It's something that I've always put pressure on myself to do,
and yeah, it's definitely going to help
if I go and get some good results for next year.
It won't harm you if you get somewhere close
to a GT4 championship either,
and that presumably is the aim for the rest of the season
in the archera.
Yeah, exactly.
We went into the season with one aim,
which was to win the championship.
So if that's something that is achieved by the end of the year,
then we've done our job well.
So you need to win in every championship that you do.
So yeah, that's the aim for the rest of the year,
is to be consistently fighting for wins and podiums.
Yeah.
And having kicked that championship off,
as you mentioned earlier,
I have to say, you've got some great places.
The preseason was at Barcelona.
Then you were down at Ricard.
Monza, we've mentioned.
I mean, all I'm thinking about is how great the restaurants are.
Around all of those.
I know how they are.
What did you take out of Ricard then,
and are you still confident?
Because you know, new set of people coming in.
It's not all the same people you were racing against last year.
Are you confident that you are a championship contender
with Elite?
Yeah, I think so.
We showed last year that we had some good speed.
We were on pole, I think, two or three of the rounds
that we were at.
So yeah, the speed's not really the issue.
It's just kind of executing on that speed that we've got.
Which I think is one thing that I needed to work on from last year.
So that's something that I'm actually trying to get better at.
So I think if we can iron out some of those mistakes
that were made last year,
then we'll definitely be in a championship winning form.
There is a skill.
I've been watching motor racing for longer than you've been on the planet.
So I don't think I'm preaching to you,
but you will know this.
There is a skill in being able to extract the most from yourself
and the machinery that you can get.
Now, if you've got a winning car and you come fifth,
that's not a great result.
But if you've got a car that is really,
you're having a bad weekend set up wise or whatever,
and it's really only an eighth place car and you come fifth,
that's actually a good result.
And championship wise, that actually pays off at the end of the season.
And is that the sort of mentality,
I've got to get the best if I'm not going to win this weekend
because somebody else is doing a better job
because whatever the circumstances I can't control,
then are you thinking championship at every point?
And if so, how does that affect how you go into races
and how you race when you're out there on the track?
Yeah, you said it perfectly.
It's just all about maximising the opportunities that you got at any given time.
So, yeah, if you have a winning car, go and get a race win.
If perhaps the BOP is not on your favour that weekend,
then the best result you can get is eighth, go get eighth.
That's the way that you win a championship
because obviously it's not always going to be your day.
It's going to sort of flow throughout the year.
So you'll have rounds where you're really, really fast,
you'll have rounds where you're not so fast.
So it's just all about maximising the results that you can get at the time
and just banking points wherever you can.
Well, enjoy Monza, Mackenzie.
Very much.
Obviously put the heaviest right shoe on that you've got
because there's going to be an awful lot of flat-out running there.
Obviously, I'm joking.
It's much more nuanced than that.
That is the 29th to the 31st of May, the GT4 Euro,
second round elite motorsport, McLaren Archer at GT4,
Mackenzie Cresswell joining us on midweek motorsport.
Go get them, champ. Have a good season.
Thank you very much. Cheers, John.
That's Mackenzie Cresswell then joining us here
on midweek motorsport up in London.
Tim Gray is going to take us where?
Well, it's nine o'clock, so it's time for this.
Still to come on midweek motorsport.
And is there any chance you could bring some dessert to the VO booth, please?
I completely lost track of time there, to be honest.
Thanks, Mackenzie.
Thanks to Mark Pass for setting that up in the second hour of tonight's programme.
Nick Damon will be back.
We'll be talking Nürburgring 24,
looking back on that with a big interview,
which will kick off the second hour in a moment.
Formula one this weekend is in Canada,
and there was a lot of motorcycling this weekend
and a lot of controversy as well.
Your submissions via at-spec attainment on X,
but we will kick off the second hour with a winner from last weekend's
Nürburgring 24 hours.
And he's a friend of the programme.
Comes up next, series 21, episode 19.
So into the second hour of tonight's programme,
and I normally start our big interview by saying,
I'm delighted that we're joined by,
in the name of well-known racing driver or friend of the programme.
And our next guest on the big interview this week is certainly both.
The author of Racing Hell, Peter Kate,
whose career we've followed, particularly at the Nürburgring,
he was racing there at the weekend.
It was his 24th outing.
And, you know, sometimes the racing gods just kind of align.
Finished 24th, won his class in SB10,
which is the homologated GT four-cars with the lovely people from Cheney.
In a race that I think it has to be said, Peter,
was not of the normal variety.
Good evening, welcome along, congratulations mate.
Thank you so much, John, great to be here again.
Thanks for the congrats.
It definitely wasn't a normal 24 hours for sure.
Probably the toughest I've done there at the Nürburgring.
Really? In what respect?
It was really the lead up to it.
Thinking about the weather conditions through the qualifying sessions,
it was never consistent.
So you'd go out on slicks, it would start to rain or hail or snow.
You'd go out on wets, it would dry up.
And it was never possible for us to get, let's say,
a consistent direction on setup.
So come Friday night.
I don't think we were alone in this, by the way,
but come Friday night we just felt ill-prepared with regard to dialing in
and not forgetting we'd actually switched tyre brands,
Ember reasons.
Notably, the temperatures were a lot lower this weekend
than they were in the quali races and a lot more forecast of rain.
So trying to get the car set up on those Michelins
basically from the first lap on Thursday till the last lap on Friday
and even the warm-up on Saturday morning
was just a big horrible dance around the weather.
The race wasn't any easier, though, Peter.
It never is. 161 cars entered.
I think we had 159, maybe 160 started the race.
I've seen that many there.
I've seen more than that there, but not for a very, very long time.
Also, I think importantly, 40 or thereabouts,
SP9 GT3 cars, which particularly this year looked super quick.
You were a victim last year of GT3 drivers being a little bit haphazard,
shall I say, with some of the slower cars.
How was it this year in terms of being out there on the track
and how hard was it just to run your own race?
I think it was better this year.
I mean, yes, there was some contact,
but I think it was much more 50-50 than 90-10, if you know what I mean.
There was definite improvement in terms of the consideration
that the GT3 cars were showing to some of the slower cars.
You can't blame the slower car driver if the slower car
can't get through the corner as quick as a GT3.
I think the way that the officials handled that with a new module
in the training that we have to do every year to get our permits
that really did help.
Having said that, there were some very unfortunate incidents
where the slower car didn't look properly at what was coming up behind
and caused the accident to the GT3.
So it swings around about, but I think in general better.
It is hard to navigate.
You've got to obviously concentrate on your own race.
You may be battling, as in our case,
SP10 extremely close battle all through,
and you don't want to lose not even a second to your competition,
but at the same time you've got GT3s coming past
and you've got to not lose time as you let them pass.
So it's all about trying to figure out where to let them pass,
what's going to be the most advantageous route through this next sequence
with a couple of cars coming through,
but at the same time overtaking slower cars at the same time.
Quite obviously, and particularly this year with the addition of Max Verstappen,
there was a lot of focus on the front end of the field, which as I said,
there always is.
Stories right the way through the field,
and you know a lot of the people in the other classes as well.
SP10 is the global GT4 class.
It's always very, very hard fought.
We try to cover that on the international broadcasting.
We give out the leaders every hour and a half, two hours, whatever we can do,
just at least to try and pick out some of those battles.
I know what car number you were,
and I was kind of trying to steer away from it, so I didn't curse you.
How did the race go?
Explain how the race went for you guys.
Oh man, I mean, it was stressful.
And the funny thing was, you know, the driving part,
I know how to manage that stress,
but standing in the pit, watching the screens,
watching how close it all was, and knowing what was going on.
I mean, we had guests with us who, this was their first experience.
Guys from, yeah, guys from Company Harbour Creative,
really fantastic experience for them in the pit watching with us.
And they said to me, and it was interesting to hear,
because obviously you and I, we've done this for a while,
and we know what to expect, but they were just so blown away
by how on edge everybody was,
because the class was so close in terms of quality times.
And then in the race, we never really pulled a decent gap.
And there was a wrinkle to our plan,
because you may know we had a 30 second penalty
that we had to take after the first lap.
It was a very slight speeding the pit lane incident
with one of my teammates.
We're talking one and a half kilometres per hour over.
It's an absolute, though Peter, it's an absolute.
It's an absolute, yeah.
There's no appeal to that.
And so we took it on the chin.
We came in, we used it to our advantage
in the sense that we refuelled the car,
because we had to take that penalty after one lap.
So we refuelled the car,
which meant we were then out of sequence with everybody else.
Well, that's a smart plan, and it paid off in some ways,
because obviously the pit lane's less crowded
when we refuel and stuff like that.
But what it also did is stopped us really having a clear view
about whether we had an advantage or a disadvantage
over our competition until the last stops had happened.
There's quite a lot going on in that race with that.
I always like to use the phrase
that the late great Ron Pickering used to talk about.
David Coleman as well, in the athletics,
particularly in the 4x400 meters rail here,
you have to wait until the stagger unwinds.
And that is absolutely what we were waiting for
in a number of classes actually,
because it wasn't cut and dried,
and of course we don't get safety cars
to put everybody back on the same schedule.
That's right.
You can also be caught out behind one of those Code 60
or Code 120 double yellows.
You might catch one of those, and your competition won't,
and suddenly, out of nowhere, you've lost a minute,
just because they happen to get through the section
before that incident, and then you hit it.
So that stuff tends to even itself out over the 24 hours,
so I don't get too concerned if that happens early in the race,
but obviously if it happens later in the race,
and you've only got a relatively small lead,
it can be absolutely destructive to your ambitions.
So yeah, we were under pressure the whole time.
A couple of things were going on that weren't obvious publicly,
but I can talk about them.
We had a diff temperature sensor alarm going off
for the first sort of four hours of the race.
I realised it was a sensor,
because it was reading minus 21 degrees C for the diff,
which I can assure you it was cold there,
but it wasn't that cold.
You tell my knees that, Peter, I tell you.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, just walking from the car back to the, you know,
where I sleep in the race was freezing,
but all those poor people in tents, you know,
never been there before.
I can imagine what they were thinking,
but nevertheless, that alarm was turned out to me,
nothing to worry about other than the sensor warning
just kept popping up on our screens and distracting us
just when we were entering a Code 60.
Of course.
But then, yeah, later in the race,
we had a mysterious loss of power
when Uren was driving.
Uren Blakeamoulin, my teammate also from 2024,
and he was managing that,
did an incredible job to manage that
and try to maintain our advantage through that
until the pits stopped when the BMW and Motorsport guys
jumped in with their laptop and eradicated that issue.
You see, you've made a really good point there
because here's a race where, at the front of the field,
BMW defending champions won the car with one SP9 GT3 car last year,
had the BMW M3 two-ring N24, 24-inch car up there,
actually did the fastest BMW in the last lap of the race,
which I thought was hilariously funny.
Just brilliant.
Wonderful car.
They told us they're not building any more,
and that one's going off to a collector,
and I'm like, no, but please.
But you had support for you from BMW Motorsport.
They came down and said, we can help you.
We'll sort this out for you.
At least we'll give it a go.
That's very impressive, isn't it?
Yeah.
I mean, it's also one of the things about journey motorsport.
I overheard a conversation.
I think it's OK to repeat.
And it was a BMW senior person asking Cherny how the hell they
can be so successful with relatively little preparation.
Because you've got to remember, in 2024,
we won it together, a different class SP8T,
but still in the M4 BMW, with six weeks' preparation.
This year, you could argue it was even more stressful
because we switched tires and had to go from a zero setup
to a race situation in 23 days.
So hang on.
You said you switched to the Michelin.
So none of the early rounds of NLS or the NLS qualifying weekend
were done on the tires that you raced on?
Correct.
If you look at the pictures from the Quali race,
and in fact, some of the promotional pictures
that were made too early, let's say,
had a different tire brand on them.
It's nothing against each brand.
The point is we were looking at weather.
We were looking at temperatures.
We were looking at competition.
We were looking at everything.
And that decision was made.
So my point is, though, that we got BMW assistance in that pit
stop to fix the mysterious loss of power, let's say, simply
because Cherny are such a dynamic team.
As soon as they realized the problem,
they got hold of the appropriate people, got them in the pit,
got them helmeted up, and ready to attend the car.
So that and a whole handful of wires and mysterious things
that they plugged in.
And that was done in a standard pit stop, Peter?
You didn't have to push into the garage for that?
Exactly that.
It was all done in standard pit stop.
And it was done within the time frame that we needed
to stay competitive.
So we go out after that, powers back on.
All those downturn for miles suddenly became smiles.
And we realized, even at that point, it wasn't.
And then, of course, we're on slicks.
Josh has taken the final stint.
We're doing everything right, and it starts to rain.
You're the lead car in the class.
What do you do?
Well, you certainly don't stop, because if you do,
the other guys won't, right?
Yeah, correct.
So we were in that situation of, you know, who blinks?
And in the end, they blinked.
They realized they weren't going to catch us on slicks.
We were maintaining the gap.
They dived in for wets, hoping it would be a downpour.
It wasn't.
We knew that wets won't go quicker than about 10-minute lap
in the dry.
So we sort of braved us out, or at least Josh did.
He did a fantastic job.
And then the other guys realized that they'd gone the wrong way,
and they went back to slicks, and we ended up with, you know,
something like a four-five-minute lead.
Yeah, which looked comfy at the end.
But I mean, that's still half a lap.
So if you, let's be honest, if you're a brand-such indie circuit,
that's 25 seconds, isn't it, half a lap?
You've got to balance this to what the Nürburgring Nordschleife
and the 24 Hours is.
I'm interested, I'd be interested to know what you thought
generally of the conditions.
It was doing, right, so it was very cold.
It was very, very, I don't think I was warm all weekend,
if I'm honest with you.
I blagged some team clothing from Breakel.
They were very kind.
They gave me one of their sweatshirts,
because I was desperately underclothed for the week.
We'd been at Spa the week and before for WAC,
where it was so hot, I was taking clothes off.
Get that in your head, and there wasn't a drop of rain.
It was forecast for a lot of rain.
It didn't turn up, but the cold temperatures,
the little showers that we had, it looked to me
that it was just like almost all of the race, Peter.
Although it didn't rain, it looked like it was greasy,
and one of those track conditions
that can be described as almost intermediate,
not in terms of tyres that you would choose,
but it wasn't wet, it wasn't dry.
It just looked horrible.
Yeah, it was very inconsistent, even across the lap.
I was lucky in the sense that when I did
what we call the graveyard shift,
the sort of double stint in the middle of the night
from sort of midnight to 3am kind of period,
it was actually probably the most consistent running we've had,
although it's in pitch black,
but the temperatures were the issue.
Getting the tyres to work was hard.
Getting the tyre pressures proper,
because you had to really work the tyre hard,
and of course when you do that,
you can overpressure the tyre just from the aggressive driving you're doing,
so trying to sort of manage that,
not send them out too low,
but not let them get too high in the stint.
You've got all of that to contend with,
but I'd also add something,
obviously you mentioned intermediates,
GT3s can run intermediates, we can't.
We have slicks or we have wets,
so there's a real knife edge balance to be made,
is it really going to be better to run the slick or the wet at this point?
There's no sort of intermediate choice.
Max Verstappen was a huge draw this year,
the BMW M Touring was a huge draw this year,
the Dacia Logan was back,
albeit in a slightly different form.
What are the things about the Nürburgring 24,
and the NLS in general,
but in particular the Nürburgring 24 hours that I love,
is all of the different stories there.
And whilst obviously we had quite a lot of new people watching,
we tried to sort of tell some of these stories,
but ultimately Peter, and you've been there long enough,
we could have knocked on any pit door,
where there was 45 or six cars in,
picked a car at random,
and there would have been a story behind that garage door,
for one or all of those teams.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, the common factor is,
only one of those garage doors would have opened,
and they would have had wildly staring eyes
when they answered your question.
It is not a place for the faint hearted,
it's a place for people who really want to challenge themselves
as drivers, people who want to challenge themselves
as engineers, as mechanics,
because it is a place, of course motorsport,
the car has to work right,
but it is a place where the driver can make a difference.
And even in one lap,
you can be driving around,
you start to see rain on your windscreen,
or you see something on the track you're not sure about,
and that can be the difference between
gaining an enormous amount of time on your rival,
or crashing.
And it's about reacting constantly,
and I think that's something which is,
you know, much less prevalent in short racing.
It's the geography of the place,
it's the weather, it's the temperature,
it's all of that.
It just compounds all of the challenges together.
You would have been out on track at the same time as Max Verstappen,
given when you were out there.
David Pitard made a very...
Well, it's David, so of course it was a thoughtful comment.
A very thoughtful and I thought prescient comment to me,
his car unfortunately went out after dropping a bit of oil,
it had an oil union that went,
and that car was out early,
but he came to talk to us.
And he said, looking at the way Max attacks this,
he's going to make the GT3 drivers rethink how they drive,
because he is driving at a different level of risk versus reward
than most people do around there,
which I thought was a really interesting comment.
And I've not been negative when I say this,
but I'm going to ask you the question,
because you have been on the wrong end of GT3 drivers.
Is there much more to give in terms of GT3 drivers?
And does that kind of thing make you feel a bit more wary
about being in one of the other classes?
And given that you were out there when Max was on the track,
what was it like being passed by a world champion F1 driver?
How was he with you?
Well, I'm going to get into a lot of trouble now,
because I'm going to say that in the two times I've been on the track with him,
the two races, I finished ahead of him in a lower class car.
So he won't like that.
Peter Kitt, you absolutely brilliant!
But you know what?
I hope, you know, on the tiny chance that he hears this,
I hope that also motivates him to come back.
You know, he hasn't had the clean runs he needs
with the mechanical challenges and this and that and the other,
and we can talk about why and what.
But the point is, to answer your question,
is he has pushed it to a level,
which I have to say, frankly,
I would expect him to push it to as a four-time world champion
and probably the best driver on the planet right now.
But he's done it in a way which was still respectful.
If you look at the way he was passing the slower cars
or even the cars in his class,
it was in general putting himself at risk rather than that.
Interesting.
And I think that is a measure of the man,
and I think that when you saw him,
even at the very first races we saw him doing,
and alas, you know, he was driving up past Kessleton
and he had two wheels on the grass,
because there was a slower car there, you know?
He didn't nerf it, he didn't drive into the back of it,
he didn't brake, of course, being max, he just got on with it.
And that's, I think, what, you know, Dave Bitt,
I was talking about.
It's a level of commitment, which is higher.
Now, you know, some people would say,
well, if you're a pro and you're there to win,
you should be absolutely maxed out, no pun intended.
But you've got a track there,
which generally doesn't reward that kind of risk.
Generally, you're going to get bitten,
and Max himself said he had a very, very close run thing
when he was coming down through the bell-off-air,
so he very nearly ran into that car that was going off.
So I think he was lucky, but he was unlucky,
and I think that's the Nurburgring,
and the only way you can overcome that is to keep coming back.
Yeah, I agree, and I hope he does.
There was elements of Max being involved that I didn't like,
which was nothing to do with Max, if I'm honest,
and much more to do with the people who were watching,
on both sides, the F1 Max fans,
and rather disappointingly, actually, for me, some of the endurance fans,
there was far too much sniping,
and I don't understand why we needed that.
If someone like that, somebody from IndyCar, somebody from NASCAR,
wants to jump and do cross-court stuff,
it's so difficult to do nowadays, and so unusual to do.
These are not the days of Jim Clark,
to jumping into a touring car or saloon car
that would have been called that day on a Grand Prix weekend,
or a rally car the next, or the Marvelous,
still in my view, one of the best drivers ever all-round,
Vic Elford, jumping in a variety of different things.
Everything is so specialised now, Peter, that that is difficult,
and probably in circuit racing, and I'll take your view on this,
is somebody who has now 24 experiences of the 24,
and mind the NS races that you've done,
surely the Nurburgring, and particularly the 24-hour race,
has got to be one of the most specialised races.
Yes, it's a GT3 race at the front, or a GT4, or a TCR race,
but it's not really, is it?
It's something very, very different and very specific.
I think it is, even if you drove one car around there on your own,
with nobody else around, it's a specialised place.
We talked about the weather, we talked about temperatures,
let's talk about things like gradients,
300 metres of elevation from top to bottom,
but it's not just one hill, it's lots of those
that get you to the highest point from the lowest point.
A track width with curbs that are higher than you can believe,
and not much beyond the curb other than things to hit.
You know, mud and other, I was going to say another word,
but other stuff coming across tracks.
I know what you're saying, stuff with four letters and ending in T.
Precisely that. I'll give you a great example.
A lot of people who camped around the Nordschleife watching the race,
they know that the drift challenge is going on on the Grand Prix track,
and they say to themselves, well, it's too far to walk over there,
I'm not going to go and do that.
Well, all you needed to do, guys, was to go to Adnar Forst
on Saturday morning in the warm-up, and you would see more drifting
than anything that was going on on the Friday night on the Grand Prix,
because it was so slippery after the legends had run,
the historic cars, they'd left oil and contents of most of their gearboxes
and engines all over the track.
So we were trying to do the last part of our set-up work on that,
and I think I was discovering just how much lock you can get on a BMW M4 steering wheel
as the car was trying to get through those kind of corners.
It is a very unique place.
The good news is, talking to my mate Tiffany Dell,
when he and I used to do stuff when we were picking cars to throw around,
to jump out of and then talk to fans when we were doing Top Gear Live,
he always picked a BMW, and I never understood why.
And then finally, on an evening out at the end of one of the runs we did,
he said, ah, yes, that's because they've got more luck on them, the most cars,
so you can get them back when they go very, very sideways.
Yeah.
Ah, lucky of me.
So, Peter, 24 events at the Nurburgring in terms of the 24 hours.
Another class victory, 24th overall.
Racing Hell, the book.
We've talked about this.
There's got to be more than one chapter to be added to that just for this last weekend, hasn't there?
Well, I'll tell you what, I mean, as I've mentioned briefly to you,
I'm working on a second edition, and I'm sort of doing it, you know,
little bits at a time as things occur to me that are interesting or useful to people.
That was always the screen, right?
I don't want people to think that they're reading an autobiography far from it.
It's much more about things that you may find helpful if you want to either get into motorsport
and drive yourself, or at least watch motorsport and understand more about what you're watching.
So, yes, definitely over the last years, the bad stuff that's happened, the good stuff that's happened,
this is obviously, what happened this year is very much the latter.
I never could have expected when I started doing Nurburgring back in 2003.
Yes, really.
You were very young, short trousers.
Yeah, exactly. Couldn't see over the steering wheel.
So, you know, it was one of those, so let's see where this takes me.
This is an adventure, and I like it, it better than the racing I was doing prior to that,
and it's just carried me to this point.
And to have the opportunity to do 24 is obviously ridiculous, 24, 24 hours at Nurburgring.
And then to have been able to achieve seven class victories over that time is also something I could never have expected to do.
And I will admit, it does come a little easier as you have achieved more,
because people want you to drive good cars, they want you to drive with good co-drives or good teammates.
And that's, let's face it, the big secret. You have to be in a competitive car with a competitive set of drivers.
Well, that's part of the game, isn't it? It doesn't matter whether it's Formula One.
How Fernando Alonso has as few Formula One titles as he does is shocking to me,
but he made, frankly, made some bad choices.
And you look at other people who played the game better, and that's part of the gift.
Peter, do you realise that you've got nearly a third, so you've got nearly 30% win average on your win ratio, on your 24 hours?
That is, frankly, it's class wins, doesn't matter. That is, frankly, made extraordinary.
Talk to Mario Engel about that. It took him 10 years between his last two wins.
Yeah, I mean, it doesn't feel real, to be honest. I mean, I don't want to talk about too much,
because comparison with GT3 in terms of the standards, the number of cars, and all that.
But I will say this, SP10 is, and again, I'm going to get into trouble,
but it's probably the second most competitive class after SP9.
And for that reason, if you look at, for example, BRDC, they look at SP9 and SP10 as two categories that they take seriously at Nurburgring.
They don't really look at the rest. Now, I bring that up only because SP10, I've only ever done SP10 once at Nurburgring 24 hours,
and it was always a worry if I do look at statistics that it would be too challenging, and we wouldn't be able to win it.
So to have done it is an incredible weight off my back, because it's unconsciously or consciously, I'd sort of shied away from it until now.
But now we've done it, and again, I can't quite believe it, but I'm immensely proud of it,
and I'd even go as far as to say it's probably worth two or three of the other class wins.
Really? OK. Peter, congratulations, my friend.
Thank you.
It's been an absolute honour knowing you down through the years and watching what you've done and watching and listening.
To the insights that you've brought our viewers and listeners, and there was a lot of them this weekend, for obvious reasons.
And thank you to Sky Sports F1 for allowing us to take over their TV channel for pretty much all of the race.
Thank you for the insights. Thank you for the honesty.
And again, I'll say this, stories behind every garage door, and of course SP9 will take a lot of their headlines.
That was a great victory, my friend. That was a great victory.
And when you talk to them, say thank you very much to the guys from Cheney and your co-drivers.
Absolutely.
And are we plotting? Are we already plotting for next year?
I already had, so it's only been about three days, hasn't it? And I already had a text message yesterday from Florian.
We talked a little bit back and forth about what had happened and this and that, and then he ended that text message with,
so what about next year? So yeah, it's in discussion. Me too.
It's hard to defend me in any category. Hard to defend always.
I'll tell you this, John. I said to Florian, I said before the race, I said, if we have a really bad race, I'm going to have to do it again next year.
And I said, and if we have a really, really good race, I'm going to have to do it again next year.
So I think you know what's going to happen.
We'll be there to have you and you're always welcome in the studio and thank you also for your excellent work on NLS.
And we've got a few more of those before the end of the season and if you have time, it would be good to have you back.
Peter Cate, Racing Hell is the book. It's available now. Get one now and read it because if you've just got into the Nürburgring, it's worth it.
And there'll be another edition. Heela had a couple of chapters more than that.
At some point.
Well, I'm going to keep pushing you until you do, to be quite honest, Peter, because I so much enjoyed the original book.
Peter Cate joining us live on Midweek Motorsport. Tim Gray is up in London.
Isn't it lovely when our friends, our friends in racing, and I really mean that, get some well-deserved success.
Peter Cate joining us on Midweek Motorsport. Tim Gray, where would you like to take us next?
Not to Istanbul. It's 3-0 to Aston Villa, but it's raining.
So a city that's wet and full of Brummies and isn't Birmingham.
We don't have a lot of time left in this show, so do keep brief any other thoughts you have about the Nürburgring 24 Hours?
Nick Damon is with us as well, listening to our friends.
I'll take a little bit of the time to see what our listeners think of Peter Cate.
Arnaj Rob, another superbly insightful interview with Peter Cate.
Thank you. Breaking down the majestic challenge of the N24 in mind-blowing detail.
Well done once again. A great result, Peter, and Cheney Motorsport.
I mean, just fantastic.
The race, I know you dropped in and out of it, Nick, as you.
Can I just drop a bombshell, Tim, about the weekend?
He brought you tea, didn't he?
He did bring us some trigothonant tea, yes, but about Nick Damon.
What was on at the weekend, Tim, that is Nick Damon territory?
How much of the Eurovision Song Contest did Nick Damon watch this year?
Probably less than half.
None. Not one minute.
Not one minute. He was up in London.
In the West End, watching Oliver.
So it's musical theatre love.
And then the following day, I could have chosen trigothonant tea, because I was at Claridge.
It was one of the options. Why didn't I have it?
And you watched it as well.
How was the Oliver revival?
It's very, very good.
It's a very good revival, actually.
You kind of forget when you watch it.
Lionel Bart could write a few tunes, couldn't he?
He did. I went to see it.
Is this my time on your time?
20 minutes ago. This is your time we're eating into.
20 years ago, I think, when Russ Abbott was playing Fagan.
They had assumed the famous people.
The role was made his own, really.
OK, Wynwood with a car.
The Lamborghinis and the EMGs had not been touched, relatively speaking.
The EMGs hadn't been touched by a tiny little rick adjustment in the early part of the NS season.
The Lamborghinis pretty much left the lawn as well.
They were the two dominating cars.
Wynwood ran a great race.
They weren't the fastest cars.
The Lamborghinis were two to three seconds a lap quicker than all of their drivers.
And I mean all of the Wynwood drivers, all of the EMG drivers in the two cars,
the Ravanol and the Verstappen racing car.
However, both of the Lamborghinis had terrible starts.
Despite having locked out the front row the first time Lamborghini had ever been on the front row and they locked it out.
Puncture for one car, which was hit by Danny Junkerdaya.
It was just a racing incident.
Danny was distressed about that because he'd driven for them last year for the Abt Red Bull team.
The other car got a penalty for a jump start.
I'm convinced that was because the start line was moved further down this year
and actually didn't jump the lights.
He was ahead at the start line rather than the Paul Siller, if you see what I mean.
Wynwood dominated the most part of the race.
Max did a couple of really good dry weather stints in dear lights.
Did a double, got into the lead with another taking manoeuvre that was forceful but fair
and in a place where you normally wouldn't do it.
But as David Pitard said, and I think this was really interesting.
As I mentioned to Peter there, he said it's going to make people drive differently.
It's not that Max is the only driver who can do that sort of stuff
because the GT3 cars and they can all do that sort of stuff with the ABS etc.
But they tend not to.
It's about risk and reward and the caution on that.
I think we're going to see a different style of driving.
Nurburgring has been a bit of an outlier.
It's still a sprint race-ish but because of the circuit, like I say, there's a different idea about risk reward.
Max has changed that.
Let's move on. We've got some sad news unfortunately.
Hang on, just hang on.
I was delighted for Brice and Russell Ward and particularly for their team manager.
Who is anyone?
Think back ten years to when Morrow Engel was winning the last time for AMG.
He was pressed all the way in the last hours.
Do we know?
No.
Tim?
No.
Racing driver who's now their team manager?
No idea.
Come on guys.
Anybody in Texland?
I'm very disappointed with this if you don't know.
Can you not remember ten years ago?
I can't remember the day before yesterday.
Really?
So it used to be the bought out HTP and Heiko Motorsport.
Ben Schneider.
Schneider was involved. That's absolutely right.
And a driver who did he compete?
I think he did compete.
Yes he did.
No, of course he did.
He competed with the wards in Imza and that's Christian Hohenardel.
He runs it now and he was the guy who was running ten years ago,
was running Morrow Engel down for the win and Morrow finally won.
And won it in the same car.
The rest of the classes were a bun fight as usual.
The two big fan favourites apart from Max Verstappen were the Dacia,
which finished and beat Max Verstappen actually.
And the BMW M3 Touring 24 hours which also beat Max Verstappen as well.
Because they finished and he did not.
And I suspect we'll see Max back.
But as we were talking about earlier,
it is more likely to be in a Ford rather than an AMG for a number of different reasons.
Great event, record crowd.
And if you haven't seen it, our archive's up.
And so is the video archive.
Right, now you can carry on.
Some sad news.
The loss of another racetrack.
No.
Yes.
That's careless.
The international raceway is announced to close at the end of this year.
Wow.
The property is planned for future mixed use redevelopment
with more information expected later this year.
Did you also notice the Pikes Peak Hill Climbs got a new sponsor?
Has it?
I haven't seen that.
It's Toyota.
Which is very interesting.
Does that mean we're going to see the new Toyota GR GT3 thing on there?
That's a good idea, yeah.
Yeah, there is a bit of a rumor that we might be seeing it in the NLS.
Probably as early as NLS 6.
I had a chat with a particular driver.
In fact, I asked David Pitard if he'd been testing it and he refused to answer me question.
KCMJ I think will be the team that's running it and I think David Pitard will be running it.
He didn't want to answer, which is fine and I didn't push him into work,
but I think we'll see a non-homologated version of that car in the NLS before the end of the season,
which is the replacement for the Lexus, which will not be called a Lexus.
It will be called a Toyota everywhere.
So what mixed use?
Mixed use?
Like what?
I think they're going to build a data centre there.
That seems to be what they do in most of the US these days.
It doesn't actually host any actual sanctioned racing anymore
because it's not allowed under the deal when it was sold.
It used to be owned by NASCAR.
It was sold by NASCAR because they were going to build a new track in Denver,
which is not that far away.
Have they built a new track in Denver?
They haven't, no.
There has been no further movement in that in the last two decades.
I need to correct something.
The Dacia didn't beat the number three EMG because the number three car did go back out.
So actually it was classified 37th as it crossed the line under its own steam.
I think Dacia took it home for that.
I will say that for another time.
Go on, carry on.
Let's move to Indianapolis, where qualifying did eventually happen on Sunday,
and Alex Polo has taken pole position for the 110th Indianapolis 500.
It's not exactly a headline, is it?
No.
It's not a surprise.
But he's only his second pole position as Indy.
How many times he won?
Once.
It's the fourth time that the number 10 car has won the Indy 500.
Paul.
So with the Indy 500 taking place this weekend, we need to play the answers.
Not Scott Dixon.
All right.
Right, really?
I thought it was going to be pointless this week.
I thought we were playing pointless.
We've got time for both, maybe.
Oh, bloody hell.
Let me be short.
Just very quickly, because I watched the highlights of qualifying,
because I couldn't watch everything that I needed to
when I got back from the 24 hours in our accommodation,
in our luxurious accommodation, the hood.
Nick knows where we were.
We were on the same little street as well.
We were in 251 of 252.
Yeah, it was nice.
It's like going home.
What happened to Rossi, and why might he not be able to race?
Alexander Rossi, did he have a big shunt?
He broke his finger.
He had a big shunt.
Oh, right.
But not in qualifying.
I saw the qualifying.
No, on Monday.
Right.
OK, when they were doing whatever they call that.
Hack testing.
Right.
OK.
So is he going to race or not?
He hopes so.
I think tomorrow is when they're going to do the final assessment.
What happens if he can't race?
Can they replace him with another driver,
so long as he's not a rookie?
No, it has to be a qualified driver.
So no.
So if he can't race, there'll only be 32 cars start?
Yes.
Yeah.
And Catherine Legg obviously has tried to do the double.
First person ever to try to do the double,
who is not a full-time driver in either of the same race.
Call us 600 at Charlotte.
Obviously straight after.
Anyway, sorry.
Carry on.
And she's not Scott Dixon.
Go ahead.
Yes.
There are three active drivers
who have won multiple Indy 500s.
Nick, let's start with you.
Active now.
Yes.
Entered in this year's race.
Hell yeah.
Hell yeah.
Catherine Nevers is correct.
Winner in 2001.
It's Kim Sarto.
9 and 21.
Very good answer.
17 and 20.
20.
Yep.
I don't know the third one.
I don't know if he understands you.
Oh, come on.
Can I steal it for a point?
Or not?
Or we're not doing that?
Is it?
It's not plow.
Is it?
It's not.
No.
You're right.
It's only won it once.
I don't know.
No, come on.
You got it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I know I don't get a point for that,
but I'm basking in the reflectant glory
of actually getting one of these right.
Well done.
Mm-hmm.
John, not including the rookies
named two drivers racing this year
who didn't race last year.
Who didn't race last year?
I don't know what.
I'm not even sure.
I know who is running this year.
Not including the rookies.
All right.
So, Elio Castro Nevers again?
No.
No.
Okay.
Then I don't know.
Nick?
I was going to do the cat and leg,
but I think she said no.
Cat and leg is correct, yes.
No, it's good.
Good call.
And here's the other one.
And the other one.
Declan Masato?
No.
Declan Masato.
Did he not do it last year?
Of course, no.
He was out last year.
He wasn't in the drive.
He was a test driver.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, no points for either of us yet.
Who is the youngest driver in this year's field?
Oh, okay.
Nero Segal?
It is correct.
21 years.
Oh, well done.
John, who is the youngest driver ever to start the Indy 500?
I should know.
I should know this.
Why should you know that?
No, because I was listening.
They talked about this in one of the practice session.
And I've got, I've now...
Youngest driver to take part or youngest driver to win?
To start.
Damn, I might have got that wrong then.
They were talking about somebody from Donkeys years ago
who was the youngest winner, I think, when I was listening.
Are you this weak here?
No.
It was...
AJ fight the fourth in 2003.
Of course it was.
Yeah.
How old was he?
He was 19.
It was his 19th birthday.
The race day.
Back to you, Nick.
Hello, Castro Neves is one of 15 drivers
to start the Indianapolis 500 after his 50th birthday.
Can you name any four of the other 14?
AJ fight.
AJ fight is correct.
After the 50th birthday.
This is going to be really...
Johnny Rutherford.
Johnny Rutherford is correct.
Mario?
No, I'm just on...
All right, fine.
Alan Sucenia.
Correct.
Oh, my God.
If you get all four of these,
I'm not even going to bother answering the question next,
even if I don't know it, which I probably won't,
because I'm just going to bow down to you forever.
This is magnificent.
Gordon Johncock.
Gordon Johncock is correct.
Oh!
Nick Deerman is the winner.
Nick Deerman is the winner.
We can't even...
Do not even ask another question.
Do not even ask it.
Mario Andretti, Cliff Bezier, Gary Bettenhausen,
Dwayne Carter, Ralph Hepburn, Jim McElrath,
Danny Ongay, Johnny Parsons,
Lynn St. James, Dick Simon...
Ongayus.
...and Al Alza.
Ongayus, did you say that?
Danny Ongayus, the fly in Hawaiian.
Nick, I am absolutely in awe...
God knows where those days came from.
A bit of that.
If you're very quick, we can do pointless,
because there's no point in me even trying to answer any...
if the answer is not to go on diction once.
I'd do better on the pointless ones.
Probably.
Let's talk about bikes first, though.
Oh, TMA.
How's the surface in South America, Nick?
I don't know.
How is the surface in South America?
Breaking up.
It's hard to do.
It's Brazil or Argentina.
Argentina.
Is it not a surprise?
Is it not? No.
No.
The surface problems in Argentina and Brazil
are never much of an issue.
I think we've seen gravel rallies
with a more stable surface.
We have had that court before.
We have had that court before
for, I think it was a World Touring Car Race,
a WTCC race
that was in South America.
Maybe it was in Argentina.
Back in the days, they went there.
People were seeing
we were putting the gravel sands on the cars.
We've got to talk about
Catalonia at the weekend, guys.
Let's talk about what happened in Catalonia.
Right.
It was a ridiculously aggressive race by everybody.
Yes.
They all parked their brain and decided to hit each other.
In fairness, one of the biggest accidents
was a mechanical failure.
Yes.
I'm talking about the bumping and boring
that was going on all the way through.
All the way through.
Obviously, the stupidest bit of which
was Ralph Fernandez taking out
his team leader
in the second restart,
but it was just, you know,
absolutely the major accident was caused by
a mechanical failure.
A really bad lack for Alex Marquez.
Was that...
Incredible, isn't it?
Was that a...
It was...
I don't mean below at all.
I mean, Pedro Costa.
Why I got that mixed up.
Pedro Costa was leading the race.
He comes out of term nine over the top of the brow
on that short street down at the left hand of turn 10
underneath the bridge in the hospitality area.
For me,
the moment his ride height device
popped up is when the bike stopped.
Did you notice that?
It was a gearbox failure.
Who was it?
Is that what we know now?
That's why they had to push him.
It was a driveline
failure of some sort.
And that's why he kind of
lost power.
As he was putting his hand up, unfortunately,
he was rammed from behind by Alex Marquez
who had nowhere to go.
It could have been much worse, Carlos.
His bike had nowhere to go and then took out Fabio Giantonio's
Ducati.
Giantonio went on to win the race
with quite a badly damaged hand.
It was so badly damaged, he couldn't take part
in the Monday's test.
Well, when you say his bike,
actually only the wheel
and one half of the front fork
bounced back on.
I would think so.
The second of the third race start,
I can't remember now, you're absolutely right.
Down to term one, there's talk of them moving the start line,
actually, so that it's close to term one,
so they don't get to term one any quicker.
Downhill braking area, which is always difficult
on motorbikes.
The biggest problem there was
one of the right, who was it
who'd been hit by Debra and hurt his foot
and shouldn't really have gone back out.
That was Zarco.
Zarco got injured in that second.
Zarco got his foot caught
in between
the wheel
and the frame
and the swinging arm of somebody else's bike
and he was very, very lucky.
He could have lost his foot there
or part of his leg.
That was a horrible looking accident.
But there was a number of people
saying
after such a big accident
maybe we should have had a longer time
before we restarted.
They weren't really in the mindset.
And when you're doing 200 miles an hour
on a motorbike, you kind of need to be
in the right mindset, I think.
I think that was a big
excuse, to be honest.
I think they're all driving quite
badly, to be honest.
Realistically, because
they were all so worried about tyre life,
they were just trying to keep themselves
in it. And the amount of...
I don't think I've seen that many collisions
between bikes
in a race,
not including the big accident,
in ever. It was just
constant pushing and bumping and barging.
It's like they absolutely parking their brains
in the first couple of laps.
Good result
for Mark Marquez, though.
Well, better result
in some respect for
Bozeki
because he did not have
a good weekend. He just
didn't seem to get on with the bike
at that track.
However,
running down at the bottom end of the top 10
or outside the top 10
in the main race,
then with the restart, then with people falling out,
he...
out for tyre pressure problems.
Yes, yes, of course.
I'd forgotten.
Jeremy lost his podium.
Yes, good point.
He comes away
still leading
the championship.
Jorge Martín
must be as sick as a pig
because he could have been
a lot closer.
But now he's, what,
15 points back.
Digi,
Fabio Di Antonio
for
the VR46 team
is 116 points, so that's
26 points.
And then Pedro Costa could have been
a different weekend for him.
He's in fourth with Aya Gura.
Aya Gura thing.
What are these people doing? It's the last lap of the race.
He just punts him off the track.
That was ridiculous.
On one of the most dangerous circuits
in MotoGP, where someone
has lost their life, they put
the chicane in
for MotoGP
because of that accident, and they've taken it out
again. And that
could have been so,
so much worse.
I don't know what they were on that weekend.
It was just a selection of really bad driving
grass.
Marc Marques is still in ninth place,
albeit 85 points
away. But
on the road to recovery
is what we hear. His brother is going to take away
a bit longer, but
as I said, it could have been much, much worse.
I didn't see any of the super bikes, did you?
No, I just saw the results,
which is a 1-2
for Belaguer and Lacona, every single race
in that. Belaguer's on 19 in the row. It's just
ridiculous.
It really is. It's not their fault.
No, they can only do
what they've got.
Fair enough.
Tim,
let's
squeeze in a bit of this then.
Point missed.
Canadians,
Canadians this weekend,
what is it?
It wouldn't be Canadians, because
although there are
11 Canadians
not to have scored a point
in Formula 1, I've only
heard of two of them. I don't
think either of you would have got
many more than two.
So this week we're going to Brazil.
Who's your one?
Jack Villanerve's
uncle.
Yeah, Jack Villanerve's
senior is one of the two.
But whilst I was thinking,
when I thought we were going to have to do
Canadian drivers, that was the only thing I could think of.
I couldn't think of any other.
I could think of three or four other Canadian drivers
who would all score points.
I would have...
Peter Ryan?
1960s.
Really? Well done.
Alan Berg?
Was Alan Berg...
Alan Berg was Canadian, yes.
People forget that.
What a pity we aren't choosing that.
We were talking about
Alan Berg for his DTM car
with the Tic Tac livery.
That's the only reason I knew that one.
Where are we going instead?
Brazil.
Who's starting?
John, is your turn to go first?
Is it? It can't be.
It can.
Right, the usual rules apply?
Yes.
Pointless Brazilian
drivers.
Well,
you were talking...
This is going to be...
This is going to be...
I want to say Wilson Fittipaldi.
Wilson Fittipaldi
did race in Formula 1,
and did score points in Formula 1, unfortunately.
How many?
One.
Hang on.
That's not the right person.
Wilson Fittipaldi
actually is much better than...
He might have scraped into another
copper secret at some point, I suppose.
Actually, no.
He hasn't started Formula 1 race.
Wilson Fittipaldi has gotten to this.
Really?
What, in three years?
He was in three or four years?
No, Wilson Fittipaldi definitely drove.
He definitely drove.
I've gotten
ever in my database, I think.
Oh, have you?
I'm going to help you out,
because we're going to get driver databases
as...
Wilson Fittipaldi
has scored
lots of points.
Three.
Excellent.
I'll take that.
I'll take that.
Fire away.
Me?
Castle Marquess.
Good.
Ricardo Rossett.
Brilliant.
That's a brilliant answer.
This is probably the right action.
Marie said Googling.
Michel Googling.
I'm pretty sure he scored points.
Yeah, I'm a bit
stuck off the...
You stole my Ricardo Rossett, which is a bit irritating.
I'm just going to
check how many points
Michel Googling scored.
He scored ten.
Also, so you've...
So, um...
Ten-three to you.
Ten-three to me.
Uh...
Why don't you try that and send it up like
apparently he never scored any points.
Oh, really? Do you think?
Yeah.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Pietro Fittipaldi.
I'm going to do another Fittipaldi.
I'm just going to do all the Fittipaldi.
Yes!
Do you want to try Emerson as your final?
No, no, no, no.
Wilson, I'll be wrong.
I've got...
Oh, I've just thought of another one.
I've got...
Oh!
Is that your guess?
Yeah, Bruno says my guess.
Bruno Senna did score points, I'm afraid.
Oh, how many?
Bruno Senna scored
a grand total of
33 points.
Oh!
Really? That's a disaster.
So you're on 43 and I'm on 3?
Yes.
Going into the final round,
I'm going to say Enrique Bernaldi.
Enrique Bernaldi, two seasons
in Formula One
and he scored no points.
Yes!
28 race starts.
Blimey. Blimey Charlie.
Blimey Charlie.
So Nick can't win? Nick can't win.
So you win...
He's got Dickson, but
in a shocking turn around...
Where you stole my man, so...
Let's leave that to one side
immediately,
as it were.
And that, I think, is about
all we've got time.
So you want a final guess for me?
Oh, thanks for that. How wrong am I
going to be?
No, I don't know now.
I'm trying to think about the present.
Oh, I've got one.
That helped me very much, hasn't it?
Um...
Oh!
Did Christian Fritipaldi score any points?
Christian Fritipaldi
did score points in
Formula One, yes.
How many?
Christian Fritipaldi, just wait
for that to come up.
He scored seven...
No, that's not in...
He scored
12 points.
So 43, 45,
55, 55 to 3.
Nick, you could have had
Raul Bozelle,
Luciano Berti, Lucas Degrasse,
Ingo Hoffman,
or Alex Ribeiro as point as
answer. Oh, I
literally thought about Luciano Berti,
but I was sure he'd scored some points.
I thought he might have got one.
See, sometimes you've just got to go for those
ones that you know have only scored a few.
You'd like them in a fair place.
No, I don't mind. Fair enough.
Well, that's one each on the
quizzes this week, but I'm quite
happy with it.
I absolutely bow down
to you with your four
drivers over 50. For my
knowledge of old people...
Old people racing in the
country. Well, they've got the
Wiener 500,
with the hot dog things going around.
What about the Zimba 500?
That's what you would just channel and
damit. Absolutely.
Thank you very much indeed for
your submissions
this evening.
Absolutely outstanding comments.
To our two guests,
Peter and Mackenzie, thank you for joining
us, giving up some of their
Wednesday evening.
We will have
the links this weekend,
although it's not broadcast on our channels,
but we will have the links
for you for Spa Classic. Bruce
and I heading out there
tomorrow, actually,
and broadcasting
on Saturday and Sunday
to Bank Holiday weekend.
The sun's going to be cracking the flags.
British Turing Cars are where?
This weekend for those in the UK?
Oh, the mighty SNET!
Obviously, it's going to be
the hottest weekend of the year, so
you have to go to SNET.
Well, interestingly, I do remember
being there in the old Imsa Radio
days.
Sorry,
talk of radio days.
And Jason Plato,
it might have been his first win,
actually, and it was
so hot.
I was sitting on top
of
the old biscuit tin, the Bob Boo
biscuit tin
van, because it was so warm inside
that you couldn't breathe. It was like
literally burning the sauna in a pair of shorts
and on a lawn chair with no T-shirt on,
with me headset on,
waiting for Ian Titchmarsh to finish commenting
so I could do the links.
It was so hot there,
and when it's hot at Snetterton, it's really
hot at Snetterton.
It's a once-and-a-half century
thing that happens.
But that'll be a good weekend.
What circuit are they running on? The full circuit, Tim?
The 300, yes.
It's not my favourite version of Snetterton.
No me neither. No, I agree.
I agree. I think it's a bit naggy in the middle.
I think it's better for racing.
It's better for spectators, because obviously
you get to see the drivers
half as many times again.
26 times.
Which time?
It is indeed.
Nick might be at full-back this week.
Probably at full-back.
For a huge weekend
of club racing,
I'm very excited about
you having nine different classes with 32
entries.
It's going
fire. You wait.
Non-stop action. Really?
Love it.
It's the final weekend of the Premiership
as well on Sunday, so Job Rodney can't go
to Sunderland versus Chelsea.
An Aston Villa having just won
the
Europa League. Is that what they were in?
They now finished fifth
in the Premiership.
That would knock it down
another place.
It's a big weekend of soccer.
I may be distracted
on Sunday afternoon.
Thanks to the responsible adult
and all of the team
who helped us put together
the Nürburgring 24th weekend.
It was absolutely outstanding.
Tim, that goes for you
and your group back in London
as well as the guys at Nürburgring
and Skyline Productions
as well as all the voices
you heard. It was a thoroughly enjoyable
race. All of the archive
is up and available
for you both in sound
and for those of you outside the US
in sound and vision
as well.
We'll be back next week
when we're a bit of luck and a fair wind.
Shall we have a double stint
next week, Tim? Is that a good idea?
We've not really talked about
European or North American
sports cars at all
this week.
We've got Detroit.
We ought to bring John De Geese.
It doesn't have to be John De Geese. Anyone from
Sports Car 365 could join us.
Well, it's Detroit
and then
Ohio back to back, isn't it?
Effectively.
Detroit, we've got the big cars back out
on the smaller circuit
with the GT
D-Pros as well.
That's not this weekend but next weekend.
Let's get Mr. De Geese back
for that. We'll find some more guests
to talk to as well.
We'll be back with you at 8 o'clock tomorrow
but in the meantime, there's no time to explain
there's going to be a lot of
Aston Villa fans with bad heads
tomorrow when they're listening to the archive.
Kevin, I'm so pleased
for your Kevin Payne, one of our
collectives out there in Istanbul
and we'll see you next week.
Same time, same place. Bye-bye.
About this episode
Midweek Motorsport s21 e19 bounces from football and weather into a packed motorsport rundown. The hosts set up Formula One and endurance coverage, then dig into Nürburgring 24/N24 themes, including class competitiveness, pit-lane and safety-car decision-making, and the chaos of changing conditions. They also cover Silverstone club racing (C1) with a disqualified Citroën C1, plus a deep GT4/GT3 chat on traction control, aero, and tire strategy. The episode ends with Le Mans, Indy 500, and more motorsport banter.
Peter Cate relives the Nürburgring 24 hours, John Hindhaugh talks to Mackenzie Cresswell about his move to GT4, and ahead of the Indy 500 there’s another game of The Answer’s Not Scott Dixon.
