The BMW 5 Series is a mid-size luxury car made by BMW. It’s designed to be comfortable for daily driving while still feeling sporty. The podcast brings it up because of a specific reference tied to the car.
Audi is a well-known car company from Germany. In this clip, they’re being talked about because they built a new multi-level hospitality/paddock setup for the race weekend.
Monaco is a small country on the French Riviera where Formula 1 races on city streets. Here, they’re discussing where things get placed around the race area.
An overtaking zone is a marked part of the track where passing is expected to be possible. If the zone changes, it can change where drivers try to overtake during the race.
They’re talking about an adjustable wing on the race car. When it can move, it can change how much the car slows down from air resistance, which affects passing.
“Active arrow” is an adjustable spoiler/wing that can move while the car is running. In this discussion, it’s used more for efficiency and protecting parts than for making a big overtaking push.
Daytona is a famous endurance race in Florida. The cars have to stay quick and reliable for a full 24 hours, not just for a short sprint.
Car
Ferrari 250p
This is a famous old Ferrari race car from the early 1960s. It’s notable because it used a V12 engine and competed in big endurance races like Le Mans.
A V12 is an engine with 12 cylinders arranged in two groups. More cylinders can mean smoother power and the ability to rev high—common in many performance race engines.
A GT car is a race version of a sports car—built to be fast and durable for long races. When they say a GT car was in second, it means the runner-up was in that sports-car racing class.
“Schumacher” is Michael Schumacher, a legendary Formula 1 driver from Germany. People bring him up when talking about how driver departures affect the sport.
“Hamilton” is Lewis Hamilton, a top Formula 1 driver from the UK. The point here is that even when a big-name driver retires, the sport doesn’t necessarily “end.”
A turbo is a device that helps the engine make more power. A smaller turbo usually reacts quicker at lower speeds, but it may not make as much maximum power at the top end.
A road car is the normal car you can drive on public streets. A race car is built and tuned for track driving, so practicing in a road car doesn’t translate perfectly to race conditions.
The “Formula One calendar” is just the list of races that make up the F1 season. Saying an event shouldn’t be on it means they think it shouldn’t be part of the official schedule.
In Formula 1, there are officials whose job is to keep the event safe. If they think something could be dangerous, they can require changes—like making the cars go slower—for that weekend.
A “Le Mans drive” means getting a chance to race at Le Mans, the famous 24-hour endurance race. It typically involves being assigned to a team and car for the whole weekend.
Private testing means a team goes to a track for practice outside the official race schedule. It’s used to try things out and get the car and driver ready.
LMP2 is a category of race car used in long-distance endurance events. Think of it as a “middle” prototype class—built for speed, but with rules meant to keep costs lower than the very top class.
Brand
Fiesta racing team
This refers to a racing team connected to the Ford Fiesta. The host is contrasting that program with the LMP2 prototype racing they’re talking about.
Petit Forestier is a company involved in the racing effort, likely as a sponsor. The host is saying they’re funding/connected to the team and that the owner’s son is driving.
The Audi RS 3 is a performance version of a regular Audi compact car. It’s made to be quicker and handle more aggressively than the standard trim. The podcast mentions it as part of their preview lineup.
Genesis Magma sounds like a Genesis-branded racing or concept program name. The host is using it to describe a video Genesis produced that shows cars racing.
This is a race car (the Panoz Roadster) that was entered by a team/program called LNT Panos. The hosts are saying it was competitive enough to challenge Porsche cars and still finish at the front.
Simon Hoff is mentioned as the person who shared the post that sparked this discussion. He’s basically the one who brought the car photo to the conversation.
Person
Jürgenmeister
Jürgenmeister is the name connected to the specific Porsche race car being talked about. It likely refers to the driver or the person tied to that car’s racing story.
Jesse Young is mentioned as the person who reminded the host about something important to talk about. He’s basically the reason this topic comes up now.
Jonas Reed is mentioned as one of the drivers involved in a lineup change. The hosts are explaining that a related driver won’t be racing this weekend.
“Factory-blessed drivers” are racers that a car company officially backs. That backing can come with better support and more direct access to the manufacturer’s racing program.
Term
LNP2
LNP2 is a specific racing class for prototype race cars. It’s usually a step below the very top factory cars, with rules that keep the cars more evenly matched.
Tony McIntosh is a person involved with the racing program being discussed. They mention him because he’s linked to the car’s planned paint/graphics for the season.
Darren Lung is the person behind the artwork company mentioned in the segment. He’s also quoted explaining the livery direction and what they’re aiming for next.
It’s a bus that uses hydrogen to make electricity. That electricity then powers the bus like an electric vehicle, instead of burning fuel in an engine.
Here, efficiency means how well the bus turns hydrogen into movement. Better efficiency usually means you get more driving out of the same amount of hydrogen.
Those “wings” are aerodynamic parts that push the car down onto the road. More downforce usually means the car can take corners faster and grip better.
Topic
4-ohl race
That sounds like the hosts are talking about a race that lasts about four hours. They then explain it’s called the “pilot challenge,” which is a particular race series.
Topic
pilot challenge
“Pilot Challenge” is the name of a racing event/series that runs alongside bigger endurance races. The host is saying this event is where the scheme showed up at Daytona.
In endurance racing, teams are judged on more than just being fast for one moment. Awards like this recognize both speed and how well the team works together over the whole race.
“Mustang Challenge” is a racing event where people compete in Ford Mustangs. The hosts are talking about how many cars are entered and who’s taking part.
This means the race is run on city streets in Detroit, not on a purpose-built track. Street courses are usually tighter and bumpier, with less room for mistakes.
Bell Isle is a part of Detroit that used to host a race on city streets. The hosts are saying it looked great and the cars raced well there, more than the newer location.
The Renaissance Center is a big downtown Detroit building complex. The hosts say the race moved there, but the area and vibe aren’t the same as where it used to be.
“Prototypes” are race cars built specifically for racing, not regular cars you’d buy. They’re designed to be very fast, and the hosts are comparing how quick they are versus Indy cars.
IMSA is the International Motor Sports Association, which organizes major sports-car racing in North America. In this segment, the hosts mention IMSA prototypes to compare straight-line speed against Indy cars. It’s a shorthand for the racing series and the prototype class they’re referencing.
This is the St. Petersburg street race track. It has lots of turns close together, so driving takes careful control, not just going fast in a straight line.
Qualifying is the session where cars set their fastest laps to determine their starting positions for the race. On tracks that demand precision, qualifying performance often strongly influences race results.
A caution is when the race slows down because of a problem on track. Drivers have to be careful, and it can change when teams pit and how the race plays out.
This is a Corvette race team effort—Chevrolet’s Corvette—run with help from Pratt Miller. They compete in endurance races and can fight for the overall win, not just their class.
Pole position means you start the race from the very front. It usually comes from being fastest in qualifying, and it can help you control the race early.
This means the Indianapolis race venue (Indianapolis Motor Speedway). It’s a different kind of track than street circuits, so racing tactics can change.
Pit stops are when the car comes into the pits during the race to do things like tires and refueling. When you pit (and how fast) can strongly affect who wins.
Buick is a car brand with deep roots in Detroit. The host is pointing out that the race passes by a place associated with Buick’s history.
Place
Franklin at the hairpin at turn three
They’re talking about a tight corner (a hairpin) where cars slow down a lot. Because everyone has to brake and turn in, it’s one of the few spots where passing is realistic.
Michelin is the tire brand used for this race series. In racing, tires are a huge part of grip, so the tire brand can strongly affect how the car feels and performs.
The Mazda MX-5 (Miata) is a small two-seat convertible made by Mazda. It’s popular for driving because it’s light and fun to handle. The podcast talks about it in the context of racing.
“Spec” means the race cars have to follow the same rules and be set up similarly. That keeps the competition closer and makes driver skill and small adjustments matter more.
SCCA stands for the Sports Car Club of America, a major U.S. motorsport organization that sanctions many road-racing and club-racing events. In this segment, it’s the organization he raced with while learning the MX-5 Cup-style competition in the U.S.
Here, “shootout” means a special high-stakes race that only certain drivers get invited to. He’s saying they didn’t qualify for that extra event.
LIVE
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they can get their own copy wherever they get their podcasts.
Good evening listeners and welcome. It's a very warm welcome to
Peter Otto classic and we have the 24-hour series the Mr. 24-hour series
from Paul Ricard so it's from very French this weekend as well as Le Montest
of course on Sunday exclusive live coverage from the Sepulchre de la
Sarte. We'll also have a scrutineering programs as well so that's all to look
forward to but up in London Tim Gray our executive producer is going to tell us
what to expect on a pack program tonight.
Ula Lama. Ula Lama very good. Like that.
Tonight I think we need to adopt that for next week. I watched the Michael Jackson
film yesterday and he had a pet llama.
Any good? Yes he did. And apart from the fact that it stops in 1989 it was quite good yes.
His nephew is very good at foresaying him.
On a pack program tonight.
Peter McKay is here with Rally Report. Double fill. An extended rally. Yes because we didn't quite get it
from I didn't quite get the connection from Japan last week so he's got plenty
to catch up on there from the what was the last tarmac rally really of the
season. We're all gravel for the second half looking forward to hearing what
happened. I wouldn't just call them on that there was so much going on and I was
so busy at the weekend. What else do we have? Nick Damon is going to be here. He's going to be looking ahead to the Monaco Run 3.
Is it Monaco this weekend? It is.
There's a lot of things happening in France this weekend.
It's a pay-it-pay-it.
It's on Monaco. Well Monaco is in France though is it?
I mean that depends if they're talking about football or not football because they play in the French league.
And again there's teams in Liechtenstein that play in the Swiss league so that's definitely set for country.
We have a big interview.
Yes we are catching up with a debutant MX-5 driver if we can get the technology to work.
He's over in the States at the moment preparing for Mid-Ohio this weekend.
A young British driver who's headed over there and I want to know why and we'll be asking him that in the second half of tonight's program.
Nick Damon is just going to be looking ahead to the 24h series at Paul Ricard this weekend.
Go to the entry list there.
And John we're going to ask you a few questions about Dijon even though you're not going are you?
About where?
Dijon.
I'll be busy with everything in Sir from Mid-Ohio whilst I'm in France.
We'll talk to you about Mid-Ohio as well.
So that's what's coming up on the show.
Shall I do a few parish notices?
Do.
Very busy tonight. Hello to Chris Soukou with a partial EFE.
Alex and Chris together in Royal Lemmick and Spa.
They'll be along as soon as we finish.
Hello to Brody, Daniel Roberts, no EFE's from them tonight packing up some clothes for British touring cars this weekend.
Alton Park isn't it?
It is.
Sunny Oldton Park.
Sunny Oldton Park.
My face is nervous.
I like that circuit as well.
I've driven it but I've never raced there.
Daniel Roberts no EFE's as I said.
Johannes is on his way.
We started a couple of minutes late to try and help you out there.
Johannes I hope you're with us now.
Jerry Z with us from an overcast central Florida listening from the office this week.
Josh Smith from the Isle of Lewis.
Lewis.
Checking in currently on a 12 hour drive from Ulapool to Portsmouth ahead of a furry to Kong tomorrow.
Ready for scooting here on Friday.
Been a long time. I bet it has.
I'll be kind of following you tomorrow.
I'll be coming across tomorrow.
Hello to Kevin Payne.
To Enchi Autowart who's getting ready for his birthday treat from these lovely wife Curry who will be at Le Mans next week.
Simon Hoff looking forward to the Le Mans build up show this evening.
Won't be track side this year.
Don't worry. We'll have it all.
We'll have it all for you on 91.2 FM and around the world on RS1.
Jesse Young North AFS tonight. Super Taiku this weekend as well.
Blur Fiend listening from the workshop in Florida which we had more Porsches running at Le Mans.
It's a bit empty and hearted without them there.
There is Porsche Carrerica Brazil bizarrely.
Not sure how that fits in if I'm honest.
I think we should do a little feature about that.
No. We don't have time. enough people either.
Oh I'm sure we can spare Nick for half an hour again.
Oh yeah he loves that.
I've heard Dick does like a Brazilian.
Jamie Dwyer is finishing at 11 o'clock next week so he can tune in.
Yes good point Jamie and well remembered.
It will be midday France Morta Sport next week as we get ready for the first LM24 action.
See if it changes order for that.
Right turn lover tuning in.
Has a business relations question.
I'm about to start selling Edible Whistles which I expect to find a market for in IndyCar.
Nims are stewarding circles.
They're currently swallowing a lot of the non-Edible ones.
Can you help get me introduced?
Very good. I'm sure we'll talk about IndyCar and IndyCar on the streets of Detroit last weekend.
Tom Marshalegh taught me to be listening in heading down the middle high on Friday morning
for a full weekend of racing.
Kevin Payne might be squeezing thoughts about that GT4 racing inverted commas at Monza.
It was a mess. That's what it was.
Ed Moore's EFA early start with the archive listing all next week from Porsche 16 and 17.
That's the Michelin chicane.
Thank you very much for your service and your time.
Otter, EFA suffering from rising Le Mans fever, World Cup fever, not so much.
Really nice picture of a General Motors product in green.
I need to know more about that car Otter. That's mega.
Dave Oldcock, hello. Looking forward to joining us tonight.
Benny, Speris, G&G Grandstand ticket full of Mon.
One of our group has dropped out. Does anybody in the collective need a ticket?
Benny, I'll repost that for you on aspect attainment.
And have I got any more? Have I got any more? Quickly, quickly, quickly.
Stiggs, fat cousin, getting EFA in early, loading the car ready for Bournemouth tomorrow.
Early departure from Poole Friday morning.
First ever trip to Le Mans. First trip abroad in about 30 years.
Going with my son and a friend of 40 years standing.
Edwardian, another EFA's this weekend.
Truck racing at the bend, making beef stew, roasting my own beef bones for it.
That is the best way.
And Joplin at frozen speed, hello to him as well.
And, oh, there we go, aspect attainment if you want to get in touch.
Let's get into the bulk of the show as we are getting that Le Mans fever.
Tim Gray has shuffled the papers and will play the jingle.
Just a quick addition, by the way. James O'Donnell was a bit late tonight.
But he can't hardly believe he's off to Le Mans on Monday.
Stickers have shown up from stickers for you.
Stick it up for Le Mans. Dan and the rest of the team have been working hard.
And Sean Crockett is still on his way home from working Salisbury.
So he'll be listening on the podcast tomorrow.
Where are we going for our top story in the world of motorsport this week, Tim Gray?
Well, I'm going to start by introducing Nick Damon. Good evening, Nick.
Good evening, John. Good evening, Tim. Good evening everybody out there and listening.
You do like that Listen The Land comment, which is very good.
I just feel, you know, we have as many catchphrases as possible.
Yeah, but that's one that you stole from Sir James.
Oh, that's fine. Is the person there now? No. Am I still here? Yes.
Fair point, well made.
Many, many good catchphrases in motorsport have been stolen from someone else.
I've never heard...
Well, no one, no one can can actually agree who was the first person to say to finish first,
to finish, to finish first first, it was finished.
That's quite about 11 people.
Lights out and away we go. Ben Edwards originally, that was.
I'm sure it's somebody else. No, no, I was Ben Edwards.
I'm sure someone else said lights out and away we go.
I don't know because the lights are out and away you go on all sorts of different championships.
Well, that's true.
Anyway, moving on. Where would you like to take us, Tim, for this top story?
Oh, what was that, Nick?
That's me dropping something on my table.
OK.
I'm going to ask Nick, what is 30 metres longer this year?
Stop.
The pit lane at Monaco?
Not the pit lane at Monaco, no.
Is it something at Monaco?
It is something at Monaco.
It is.
It can't really make much of Monaco longer because it's fairly, it's fairly well.
Is it a paddock because they've squeezed Cadillac in or something?
It is a paddock, yes.
And not only have they squeezed in Cadillac,
who have their hospitality units at a race for the first time this weekend,
but they're on because they were using the old Apex F11 from the movie, weren't they?
No, no, they've been away, so they're not happy with the first European race.
Very good.
So it is still, so that is the former Apex F1 from the movie that was in the paddock for the movie.
They bought it from the film production company, so it's the first time that's been out then.
Yeah, that makes sense.
Audi have got a brand new paddock building, which is three stories.
Is that once upon a time?
That's one story.
The first floor is too hot, the top floor is too cold, but the middle floor is just right.
Just right, very good.
Very good.
They like that a lot.
Now that's good.
See, now when I see that at the weekend, when I'm watching the government,
I am going to giggle every time I say that now, and you've done very well.
That's why you have three stories.
It's the Goldilocks paddock edifice.
Yeah, absolutely brilliant.
And which other team has got a brand new motorhome?
You can't call them motorhomes now.
Okay, not a motorhome.
Edifice.
Civil construction.
Where did they put them in Monacoor?
Because there's no room in the building.
No, but there's a paddock, isn't there?
It's down past where stars and bars are, and then goes down to that side of the harbour.
Oh, so behind the comedy positions?
Yeah, but extending downwards rather than across.
Yes, further away, yeah.
So where we have some of the auto cars, right?
So I'm going to guess, because I'm going to guess Mercedes.
It's not Mercedes, no.
No, Ferrari.
I'll reveal that later in the show.
Oh, how exciting.
What other changes are we about to see in Monaco?
Do you mean the engine changes?
You know, overtaking zone changes.
Overtaking zone.
There aren't going to be any...
No, there are.
Well, there's no overtaking zone anywhere in Monaco.
There's not going to be any straight line mode.
No movable arrow.
That's the easiest way to say it.
Apparently, the first time there's been no movable arrow in Formula One
since 2007.
Since DRS was introduced?
No, there were a couple of years of movable front wings
prior to DRS.
Some of them were legal as well.
Yes, apparently.
That is a stat I read, by the way.
I did not do the research myself for that one.
But yeah, so they're going to do that.
They're also going to have a lower top speed
or a lower potential by ramping down the electricity.
However, for all you who are total purists out there,
it is very unlikely you're going to have an issued region
because it's so easy to regen the solar power
that they should actually run full fat the entire time.
Right.
Well, can I just...
surely Monaco is the place where you want as much assistance to overtake?
No, no, the overtake system is still on it.
That extra half megajoule you get if you're behind,
that still happens.
But no arrow or help.
But don't forget the arrow wasn't an overtaking egg
because everyone had it.
Right.
Active arrow is not for overtaking.
Active arrow is just to reduce the drag
to prevent the bashers wearing out.
Right.
Running out, running down.
OK, and that doesn't matter at Monaco
because you've got so much regen.
And also you need...
they are on full arrow anyway at Monaco.
Well, they didn't want it because it was only going to be...
there were no periods where you could be on for long enough
and they were...
so it's...
and the bits it was on, there were curves.
And basically, I mean, it's a bit of a...
because it's basically...
is everyone's going to have full downforce the whole time.
And it's not going to affect anything.
It's going to be like 1980, mate.
Hopefully.
Yeah.
It might be a lot more like 1980 before
because it's a good chance of unreliability
we've not had recently.
That's a good point.
Yeah, I mean...
And it's going to win.
Is it?
Oh, yes.
Oh, nice.
I haven't seen the forecast.
I'm predicting now it'll blur.
It'll blur.
Yeah, may we?
Yeah.
But...
Yeah, I mean, I think it would be...
I think it would be a Monaco would be
as spectacular and as boring as ever.
Spectacular on Saturday and boring on Sunday.
Which F1 driver has still...
picked up a model car this week?
A model car?
Yes.
Not a real car?
I mean, it's a real model.
It exists.
It's just not full science.
No, it's a model of the Ferrari 312
with the number 18 on it.
Oh, number 18.
Is that the Clare?
Is it?
The Clare.
The Clare was 18.
The Clare was 18.
Ferrari 312.
The Clare?
Think about someone well before the Clare was born.
Is it actually someone in the 312?
Well, it's a 312.
Then it can only be...
more to loud...
louder...
record zone.
Both passed, haven't they now?
Who else from the 312?
The 312.
The 312.
Who?
Jackie X was the driver before the 312, wasn't he?
Carlos Reutemann also drove the 312, I think.
Oh, very good.
But he's also not with us anymore.
I don't know the answer.
I mean, this person is no longer with us.
He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1963
and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1967.
Phil Hill?
Nope.
No, that was 62.
That was my guess.
62, that was 62, Phil Hill.
He was born in Libya.
Wow.
Why did they give him...
So who was picking him on his behalf then, if he's dead?
No, it's the trophy named after him.
Oh, the trophy's named after him.
That was not what you said.
The car was the trophy.
Oh, right.
The car is a trophy.
Is that the trophy for this weekend at Monaco?
No.
Is this going to be the trophy for what then?
This is the Trofeo Lorenzo Bandini.
Bandini!
It was killed at Monaco in a horrible, fiery accident.
That was a disgusting accident.
Wasn't that a prize they used to give away before the San Marino Grand Prix?
Oh!
There was a Lorenzo Bandini trophy that one racing driver got every time it was done before the...
Whatever Grand Prix it was, which of course it hasn't happened this year.
They used to have a presentation before that.
I mean, recent winners, obviously, include Max Wistappen, there was Hamilton Oscar Piaztri, Michael Schumacher.
Basically, if you hang around long enough, you only ever win it once.
And so if you imagine the years when a particular driver was dominating,
so in the four years that Wistappen won it, they'd gone to three other drivers.
And in the seven years, seven championships,
the seven championships that Lewis won it, six other drivers would have got it.
So it goes quite a long way down eventually.
People have won the award.
In 1963, Lorenzo Bandini was driving a Ferrari 250p,
which was a three-later V12, confusingly.
And they won by the small mater, he and Lidus Gaffiotti,
of, let me see, 16 laps at Le Mans,
of a GT car that was in second.
They were running the Ferrari C-FAC car,
and it was the Keep National Belgian that came second,
Jean Blatton and Gerard Langois von Oppen.
Mike Parks was his teammate that year,
with Umberto Maglioli in the other works, 250p.
Beautiful cars, those 250p's.
Before you move away from coming out to the NLE.
Oh, is that who got it?
Yes.
All right, OK.
Yeah, all right.
Who thinks he's going to win the title this year?
Lots of people.
Which Formula One World Champion thinks he's going to win the title this year?
Jacques Villeneuve.
No, that's not the answer on the card.
Nico Walsberg.
Yeah, not the answer on the card.
Oh, really?
Jensen Button.
Not the answer on the card.
Sebastian Vettel.
Not the answer on the card.
I'll give you a clue.
This is not the sort of Formula One World Champion
you would expect anyone to approach
for their views on Formula One.
Or indeed anything.
Really?
What year did you win the championship?
In the last 20 years.
Michael Schumacher.
Kimi Raikkonen.
Because you can't approach.
Kimi Raikkonen.
Wow, yeah, that was a long wait for my thoughts.
Well, he was named after him.
Let's ask Kimi Raikkonen his views.
Because you are rarely going to get anything.
Yes.
Well, he's named after him though, isn't he?
So he's got an interest there.
And he keeps getting introduced as him.
Which is nice.
Which is nice.
Keeps his memory alive.
I'm sure it's happened more than that.
Only once on the podium by Bob.
Well, yes.
But my point is, I'm sure that...
He said Antonini won't lose focus.
He's showing maturity.
But you'll have to avoid imitating Piazzari last year.
At one point, he had the title in his pocket,
but he couldn't handle the pressure.
The Italian won't fall into the same trap, said Raikkonen.
Okay.
Fair enough.
I'm surprised he managed to get that co-hearing answer.
Lots of good words from...
A lot of words, Kimi Raikkonen.
I'm impressed by the level of words there.
He went on to say, in Formula One,
you don't win four consecutive Grand Prix
unless you have special talent.
His numbers were a feat having the white car was crucial,
but it's always been that way throughout history.
Well, that is true.
That is absolutely true.
I still can't imagine Kimi Raikkonen saying it though.
Seeing that much...
I think seeing that much is the key part of that, Tim, though, isn't it?
Really?
Yes.
I'm sure he thinks it.
I'm just pushing into words.
Maybe he's got a Elon Musk chip in,
and he just thinks it and it comes out somewhere.
Yes.
Maybe he just writes it down and gets somewhere else to send it.
Shall we move on?
Who isn't going to win the Monaco Grand Prix?
Who isn't going to win the Monaco Grand Prix?
Well, about 14 of the drivers taking part.
Fernando Alonso, he isn't going to win.
Do you think Fernando believes he could win?
No.
Oh.
I don't think this person believes he could win either.
This is Max Verstappen.
Oh, gosh.
No, no.
Let's not do that, because it's every week,
and it's just becoming boring.
The car's undrivable.
Oh, fastest lap of the race.
I can't get anything out of the car.
It's rubbish.
The gearshifts aren't sinking.
I'm resigning unless you change it.
This time, he's talking about how uncomfortable the red bull is.
His back, apparently.
Yes.
His back hurts.
His spine transplants if he does the Monaco Grand Prix,
apparently.
Really?
There's so much you could say about that,
which I'm not going to.
So let's just move on.
I just want to say something about the whole thing
that was more last week than this week,
where if the rules don't get changed,
I'm leaving.
Well, then you leave.
Put your money where your mouth is, son.
He has absolutely decided he's bigger than the sport.
And all the fanboys go, oh, that's the end of F1.
Oh, yeah, right.
It wasn't the end of F1 after significantly more important,
but people left.
Sometimes not their own accord.
You know, Schumacher left.
No one cared.
Within three races.
When Hamilton retires, no one cared.
When Fettel retires, no one cared.
It just moves on.
It just goes on without you.
You might get three races of references, and that's it.
It's big at the sport.
It's so much bigger than anyone individual.
Well, I'm also bored of everybody talking about the rules.
I think they should ban people from talking about the rules
in the same way as the ban people talking about BOP,
because it's exactly the same thing.
The rules are the rules.
Just get out there and race.
And if you don't want to get out there and race,
or you can't work it out, or you're not very good at it,
or it doesn't fit your mindset,
then go play tiddlywinks, honestly.
I'm just bored with it.
Just go out and race the cars.
I'm not saying that the regs are perfect.
I'm not saying that they are better or worse than anything else.
But the regs are the regs.
You don't say, oh, the football pitch is too big for us.
Can you make it a bit smaller
and take two players off the other player?
Two players off the other team plays,
because it doesn't suit how we play.
It's just bollocks, I'm afraid.
I think it's about the people who need to talk about the rules
in ways in which they can improve them
or modify them for safety reasons.
But that is, we have a set of rules
which are released three years, probably four.
And there we go.
Yeah.
Anyway, can we move on?
Yes, we can.
I tried to quite a while ago.
You threw a hand grenade in.
You still talk about F1.
Who is going to be on pole according to Lando Norris?
Nobody cares.
What is that?
Charlotte Clear.
Charlotte Clear.
Yes.
Charlotte Clear.
Charlotte Clear.
They've all decided that the Ferrari's got the best car
for Lamont.
Sorry.
That'd be quite fun.
For Monaco.
The Ferrari has the best car for Lamont for the last three years.
Yeah, very good point.
With absolutely nothing to back it up apart from
it's got a smaller turbo and that doesn't make it either.
So practically, it's absolutely going to be a Ferrari benefit
at this race.
I mean, the fairness dude, Leclerc,
much to you as rubbish at Canada,
he's very, very good in Monaco.
So it does give him a slight advantage.
But no one knows.
Do you think he's out every night practising in his road car?
I think it's quite hard.
You've ever been to Monaco,
you have been to Monaco,
obviously, recently.
If you ever go to Monaco when the race isn't on,
going more than 30km an hour is very difficult.
Yeah, but the price is actually Monaco, isn't it?
So they probably closed the road for him.
Probably not.
Two o'clock in the morning, it's closed
and he has a bit of a black round.
I still think you can probably do it fast
on a scooter than on a car.
I think even the Monogas won't shut it for him
because it's, you know,
one thing they like more than success is money.
Yeah, he's got the more than he does though.
He has millions more!
See?
He's got millions more.
He's been signed up for an indeterminate period,
which everyone says is the age of 2029,
so he's determined quite quickly.
And yes, he's signed on,
despite constantly being let down by Ferrari,
he's gone on for another three years,
but there's a kind of a reason for that
in that there isn't anywhere else to go.
I was just about to say that.
It may as well sign up
because the only other potential outside chance
might be Red Bull if Max does go somewhere,
but is that an uplift from Ferrari
in its current state?
The answer's no.
So there's no room at the unit,
there's no room at the unit of McLaren,
so may as well get the extra cash,
the adulation of being a Ferrari driver.
Which two teams are running a special livery this weekend?
Aston Martin are, but we'll still see them
and we'll still know who they are
even though they're trying to hide
in a different paint job.
Amaclaranok, it's their thousandth race.
It's their sort of thousandth race.
It would have been,
it would have been they hadn't cocked up in China
when another car started.
Yeah, McLaren have miscounted theirs as well.
It's their 999th start,
hence this livery is going over two weekends.
And McLaren's special livery is wrong as well
because they didn't start cars in a race either.
I thought you were talking about Aston Martin.
No, Aston Martin is a sponsors one.
It's called from Vokta Race Track.
It's to chart the journey of minerals and metals
I'll start this again.
Minerals and metals from extractions,
a high performance engineering.
Do you go by Charlie about any of them?
Just asking the question.
It features a colour shifting iridescent wrap.
Does it?
Right, yeah, I know.
Yeah.
Right, okay.
None of it will be as exciting as what's going on
at Deijon or Mid-Ohio or...
No, no, no, no, I think Monaco,
the Monaco Grand Prix is one of the three
greatest motorsport events,
whether you like it or not.
It's an event, it's not a very good race.
Didn't say it was.
No, no, I'm saying it, I agree with you.
It's a good event, it's an awful race
and it's long past its best.
I know it will never be the case
and an unpopular opinion possibly.
It has no place on the current Formula One calendar.
Of course it does.
It would never get a circuit sign off today.
There's a vast bunch.
There's loads of stuff where that applies.
You can't do the retrospective thing.
No, it absolutely needs to be on the calendar.
It's one race out of 24 that's a bit different.
That isn't a problem.
I don't think it's safe.
Well, unfortunately the F1 safety inspectors do.
Okay.
Well, they have slowed the cars down a bit this weekend, so...
Anyway, can we move on from Formula One?
We can, because this is sports kind of news.
Oh, all right, okay.
We're going to talk about Esteban Masson.
Yes.
He's got himself a Le Mans drive.
Well, he hasn't, has he?
He's got himself seats on test day.
Okay.
So, he is in both TR10 Toyota's.
We must remember the RTR10s this year.
He hasn't been in the Toyota since two years ago.
Correct.
The Bahrain.
He normally races for...
Lexus.
A Toyota brand, which is Lexus.
And he has been doing some private testing.
So, he won't be in his Lexus,
which I think is the 78 at the weekend.
Anywhere, because he is going to be racing for the Panis LMP2.
The Fiesta racing team, yes.
Yes.
Petit Forestier is paid for by that company
and has the son of the owner of that company in that car.
There's a couple of other non-regular drivers.
Do you want to talk about them?
Well, let's stick with Toyota,
because he's not the only person
who's been put into both cars, is he?
I presume Conway and somebody else will have been.
Sebastian Bramie.
Yes.
And I know that the Cadillac Hurts team,
Toyota drivers are...
Four of them are in both cars, yes.
Four of them are in both cars for the test.
We've got a special programme actually coming up.
I've quite decided when that's going to go out yet,
but I was at the...
It goes at lunchtime in test day.
Will it?
Yes.
Excellent.
OK, that'll fit nicely.
Inside story really of the final test day at Silverstone
before Cadillac Hurts team,
Toyota went to Le Mans.
Really great insight from Dieter Gas
about why they're doing it and what they're doing
from Sam Hignet on the bits we never talked about,
which is the bits that's going on behind the scenes
in sort of logistics terms.
And Jack Aiken, just me and him having a chat
over a cup of coffee, which it was great.
He was brilliant.
I really enjoyed doing it.
So they're all together.
Are they...?
Oh, yeah, they're in both cars, yeah.
What else have we got this weekend
for Johnny and Trusses to talk about?
We're going to talk about some other interlopers on test day.
BMW have brought in Philip Eng and Marker Wittmann.
Well, they're both...
And again, put them in both of their...
Yeah.
Cars.
They're both WRT Imza drivers, prototype drivers, yeah.
DKI Engineering have added Marlon Hernandez
to the number three car.
Oh, have they? That's interesting.
Why do I know Marlon Hernandez's name?
I don't know.
What's he doing?
I should say, don't read anything into this.
This could just be people getting qualified, doing their
rookie laps and getting on the list.
Quite often, that's not for this year.
That might be more relevant next year.
Yes.
He's been racing in the...
Oh, excuse me.
You were pinning him on the show.
Sorry, keep me awake.
Absolutely.
With the young Mr. Pannis.
Did I see Sammy Megatunev as well?
You did.
Again, he's someone who's got his name in two cars.
Right.
Two completely different teams.
He's in the number 29 first year racing by Pannis car
who we spoke about earlier.
He's also in the 14 TDS racing car.
Wow, okay.
Presumably one in the morning, afternoon.
Well, yes.
Algarve Pro Racing have added Oli Caldwell.
Oh, that's interesting.
Yeah.
And Garage 59 have followed the Cadillac Team Jota pattern
by putting four drivers on both cars.
So, Alexander West, Benjamin Guter, Antares Al and Marvin Kyh
are listed in both of those McLarens.
Yes.
And that is their normal lineup, as you said.
Two three-hour sessions, 10 o'clock local time.
So, that's 9 o'clock UK.
So, 10 o'clock Central European time till 1.
And then there's a bit of a break
although there's still stuff on track
because I think there's a leisure race or two.
There's a whole leisure race, yes.
Yeah.
And then half past three in the afternoon
and half past six in the afternoon on Sunday.
So, it kind of works around some of the other stuff
that we're doing.
But if you miss any of it, we'll have it all on archive for you.
We are the only people broadcasting at Coverage Live
from that event.
And our preview programs start tomorrow night at eight.
Johnny Palmer joining me here in the Ford Racing
Global Broadcaster Center for the first of three programs,
including some vocal interruption by Brian Sheehan
from our travel partners, Travel Destinations,
who are our official travel partner for Radio Lamont
and indeed Radio Shaw Limited.
What do you want us to talk about tomorrow night, Tim?
Which way do you want us to do it?
Some sports cars of some sort.
Yes, but which class?
I don't know.
There are three classes.
Do you not mind?
You talk about what you want to talk about.
All right, that's fine.
And then are we doing the same on Friday and Saturday
at the same time, eight o'clock?
At the same time.
No, this is six o'clock, not eight o'clock.
Six o'clock.
Six o'clock?
Yes.
So, it'll follow neatly on from the end of the coverage
from Paul Rickard on two of those three days.
Ah, right.
Yes.
Got you.
That's why it's six o'clock.
Got you.
OK.
Better get us in the right time, then.
We've talked about drivers coming in for test day.
We've got a driver coming in for the race this week
and this is in the number two Chevrolet Corvette.
Ah, yes.
Now, this was quite a late change, wasn't it?
And I've got to remember who this is.
Lorcan Hirefan.
Yeah.
Who's coming in.
Lorcan Hirefan.
To join...
Prince Jeffrey.
Prince Jeffrey.
Eamon Ben Green.
Yeah.
He replaces Afiq Iqwani Azid.
Not sure why...
No, there's been no reason given, Tim.
And I won't speculate.
Yes.
He has also been taken after the team for Spa 24 hours
and Suzuki a thousand kilometres.
Can I just ask one question that I've already been asked
on that's about your tournaments?
I take the Le Mans coverage at the weekend on Sunday.
Is on RS1, is this?
Yes, it is.
And on 91.2 FM if you're going to the track, by the way,
as well.
OK, fine.
That's what I was going to ask.
And that is where you'll have me and Jody rambling on
about the entry lists as well on Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Yes.
On RS1.
OK.
I'd just like to know.
I'd like to know where my voice is going
when I'm sitting talking.
Yes.
So the preview shows will also be on RS3.
OK.
But RS3 will be staying at Rickard for Sunday
while RS1 heads to Le Mans.
And RS2, of course, will be at Mid-Ohio.
Yeah.
We've had some livery revealed this week.
Oh, yeah.
Shall we start with the Genesis?
Magma.
Doesn't look very different from...
Magma.
Oh.
Oh, it does.
It's completely different.
I think.
It's...
Well, it reflects the underlying heat and excitement
of the country, apparently.
Does it?
OK.
And it is much more...
It's much more like the...
What was it?
The debut car, the concept car.
It is like the concept car.
A launch car.
Yeah, the launch.
Thank you.
So it's not just plain orange.
It's lava orange.
Hence the Magma name on the car.
And it's...
You're not going to put it this way.
You're not going to lose it in the car park or the pit lane.
Well, it shouldn't be in the car park.
So I hopefully won't lose it.
No, indeed.
Another...
Hopefully it won't be in the pit lane
for a huge amount of time.
Absolutely.
We've got a special Genesis.
I will, because I've got to look at it.
We've got a special Genesis guest in our Le Mans week programme,
which I'm not telling you about at the moment,
because it's an exclusive...
Sorry.
I just went to look at the pictures of the car.
So I put in Genesis Magma.
It's given us Genesis Magma racing.
It's got a very nice AI-generated video of the two cars racing.
Underneath it, it says,
concept cars show not for sale across the UK,
Northern Ireland or the U of U.
They have to do that.
They have to do that.
Obviously, it's a racing car.
I know.
They have to do that now.
We've got a special Genesis inside type programme
with one of the principles of Genesis.
I'm not saying who it is yet,
because it's exclusive to us.
They've not talked to anybody else.
And it is a pre-record,
but it's really going to be worth listening to.
I was very excited that we got this person,
and I'm even more excited after we put it together.
And you'll hear that during race week of Le Mans.
What's your favourite racing car, Nick?
No, that's a very good question.
Oh, I know what mine is.
Probably the McLaren Canon.
The M8.
What's that?
The M8?
The M8.
I'm going to say the history-making orange winner
of GT2 in 2006,
radio show limit as first year.
What was that, Nick?
I don't know.
It was in 2006, 2007.
It still happened.
It's like your chicken pox.
It never happened, mate.
Tim, without looking up, do you know?
I don't know.
Was it Dutch?
It was the first...
It wasn't Dutch.
It was the first time a non-Porsche
had even got on the podium in the GT2 category,
and it only went in one.
Is this the one with...
What's his name, driving it?
What's his name?
Yes, exactly.
Oh, he's great, he is.
He's not going to do an instrument flip, though.
He won the SLO Championship
two or three years in a row, didn't he?
Did he?
Did he?
Well, if he did do something...
Possibly?
Yes.
It was from Yorkshire.
Oh, it was a journey, was it?
It...
No, it wasn't.
But it was...
On the right part, it was an LNT Panos Roadster.
Richard Dean, Lawrence Tomlinson,
among the driving talent.
Front-engine GT car, beat the Porsches,
still on the top step of the podium in 2006.
That's not who I was thinking of.
No, I know that.
I realise that.
Anyway,
what else do you want to talk about?
You're not...
None of you nominating the...
You're not nominating the Spyker, are you?
No, or the Spyker, no, no.
Yeah.
I'm just trying to think who...
Johnny Palmer would nominate every orange car
because he's a Blackpill supporter.
Absolutely.
I'm not nominating the outspan minis, either.
Oh, what a car that was.
Moving on.
BMW livery revealed as well.
The Jürgenmeister Porsche.
Yes, that was a good car.
No, that is good.
I had the Jager...
I had the Jager Master BMW
on my Matchbox Power Slot track.
Oh.
That was about 12.
635.
That was a lovely car.
All wings and everything, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
All Batmobile.
Simon Hoff has posted the Jürgenmeister
Porsche Le Mans car,
the Short Tail version, actually, he's put on there,
which is very...
I always liked the Short Tail version.
I thought it was better proportioned.
Carry on.
Oh, by the way,
sorry, just before you go that,
Jesse Young's just reminded me,
and I must remember to talk about this
in the previews.
Another interesting driver change
is that Harry King and Jonas Reed,
Jonas's brother has been kicked out for cackle water.
So he won't be doing the Fuji 24 hours this weekend.
Thank you, Jesse, for reminding me of this,
because he's got to go up the test day.
Cackle water,
there's an awful lot of factory-blessed drivers
in LNP2 and in some GT cars as well.
Cackle water, who I think is about 25 or 26,
he is the favored son of Honda.
And we'll talk about that more
when we get to the preview programs.
But thank you very much, Jesse, for reminding me,
because that's sort of come out a left field.
As I say, he's been taking out the Fuji 24 hours
because he's going to have to go and do the test day
instead to get his laps in.
So very good.
Sorry, BMW, yes, go ahead.
Yes, let's talk about BMW liveries.
Shall we start with the 32?
Is that the WRT car?
No, that's Tony McIntosh.
He's having eight different liveries this year.
That's the 69, though.
Okay, sorry.
Then I don't know what the other one is.
So this one is artwork inspired by
Powerdyne, Darren Lung's company.
Right.
So that's the Augusto Fafas and Schoenke Leal
sharing this car with him.
It has some elements of the car's normal livery
with some new shades representing what is still to come.
Darren Lung said,
we are not ultimately concerned with staying where we are.
It's all about where we want to be.
It's thriving.
Tony McIntosh, yes.
That car is equally colourful.
Red, blue, green, black.
This is celebrating the partnership
between BMW McLaren and the McLaren cars of the mid-90s
with the BMW V12 engine.
And we'll have much more about all of that
in the preview programmes.
And, of course, in our live coverage at the weekend.
Shall we talk about, rather than sort of
getting into preview territory, shall we talk about...
I've got one more car I want to talk about
that isn't mentioned in your previews.
And that is not the Toyota TR-010, but the TR-LH2.
This is the hydrogen car.
There's a hydrogen village at Le Mans this year.
The whole load of hydrogen powered vehicle.
There was a Toyota hydrogen bus doing track laps at Spa,
which is very interesting concept, actually.
That is really interesting.
You've had hydrogen buses in the UK for decades.
When I was a student, there were hydrogen powered buses
in Southampton, that was 30-something years ago.
Yes, but this is a fuel cell hydrogen bus,
not just something using hydrogen instead of petrol.
And they've managed to get a lot more efficiency
out of it, which is really interesting.
Some good British companies, including a spin-off
from Newcastle University, actually,
were doing a really good hydrogen programme at the moment.
They just needed a bit more funding, I think.
ATT has got the BMW Turing car,
the best orange racing car.
That was the Jägermeister with the green and orange.
That was a great car.
That was all flared arches and ridiculous wings and all of that.
Your best orange racing car, anytime you want.
Carry on.
It's across the channel.
Talk about Mid-Ohio, where we have another driver change.
Across the Atlantic.
Yes.
Across the channel first.
I say where you're going.
I say where you're going.
It is the 4-ohl race this week.
We should say it's a pilot challenge.
The scheme was in the car at Daytona, wasn't it?
Yeah. Which is the other four hour race. A pilot challenge is the featured race. There
is no weather tech this weekend. That was last weekend and we'll talk about that in
a sec. Because we've got to do our endurance team work and speed, CrowdStrike and endurance
team work and speed award from that. And we've also got Mustang challenge going back to where
it started. Yeah. Very nice. 16 of which are on the entry list apparently. And one
which isn't he's going to be there, but isn't on the official entry list yet. And that's
number nine pretty much sports car of Chris Clark. Okay. Jim Farley CEO Ford is is racing
I think for his fifth or sixth time in Mustang challenge, he really likes it. He's a decent
peddler. And that's made a huge difference at the head of Ford just having a chat actually
to a couple of people who have been high up in various parts of mortars, mortaring automotive
organizations, manufacturer organizations recently and just seeing how much difference Ford is
now as a company, particularly as to how it views mortars board because of Jim Farley's
influence as the man that sits at the big desk in Detroit. And fair play to Ford getting
back to something like their best in terms of looking at their history. A couple of really
interesting programs in the mom week with Ford's official archivist and historian will be
looking back to 1966. And that famous Ford victory and discussing whether that was actually the
first American manufacturer or not. I probably say it was 1967 rather than 1966 because that was a
British car. The and also going all the way back to the foundation of Ford in 1901. And what you
may or may not know is that started with the motor race. So a couple of decent little programs.
They're Ted, who I had on. He's there. The archivist is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And
we're going to get him in at Le Mans as well. We've done a couple of pre recorder programs,
but we're going to get him to come down. He's gonna have a great display of artifacts at Le
Mans if you're going down there. What else have you got from the weekend? Tim, look ahead. Well,
let's talk about the weekend just gone and the strike endurance teamwork and speed award
for the streets of Detroit. I want to talk about this is another street circuit that might be
passed itself by day much like monitor is despite what Nick says. I think he's going to
disagree with you on Detroit, though. Really? In fact, after the weekend, I don't think you'll
find very many people disagree with you about Detroit. They've tied it up. There's no doubt.
They've tied it up. They've done a lot with the sides of the track in terms of painting the concrete
and putting more advertising on the concrete and sort of tidying up roundabout and the viewing
areas. But it's still not Bell Isle. And I think that's the problem. The problem is that we had
Bell Isle, which even though it was not the tidiest place when the first start going there, ended
up being really rather picturesque and raced very well too. And round the Renaissance center, which
is where they run this race now. Well, the part of the old Grand Prix circuit, but nobody knew
all of it just under 1.7 miles, nine corners. It's not the salubrious area of town. And in fact,
the Renaissance center doesn't even hold the head office of General Motors anymore. It's pretty
much an empty building now. Still got the big GM Bortai on the top. But it's an almost empty
building from what it used to be. And GM have moved their corporate headquarters up the river.
They've actually got a tremendous testing facility with, oh, I don't know how much
test track and variations up there, which would be much better for the motor race. It's narrow,
it's bumpy, even though they've resurfaced it and made it a little bit better.
And the Indy cars kind of make it work. But no quicker in a straight line than the prototypes.
Prototypes pulling in IMSA were pulling 180 miles an hour, which was right on there with,
I think the Indy cars pulling 178, 176. And did you watch it, Nick, in the way that any of it?
I watched the Indy car. It was messy, wasn't it?
I mean, I think it's a much nicer circuit by that you already said that.
I'm not American street tracks. Because of the way the American streets are,
tend to be very hit or miss. And they aren't. And that one particularly is miss.
Well, Bell Isle isn't a typical street track, and it didn't race like a typical street car.
It's actually quite quick. The other street track that I think works. And again,
it's not a typical street track. It's St. Pete's because it's not just point and 90 degrees,
point and 90 squirt and 90 degrees. There's a couple of fast left, right chickens. There's the big
hairpin at one end of the the airstrip and that little complex through 12 and three.
It's really quite naggy, but it's it's it requires particularly qualifying. It requires a lot,
a lot of precision and concentration. The GTDs in particular blotted their
copybook at the weekend after a race that it was looking like it was going to be pretty good.
And we'd only had one caution and then all kicked off in the last quarter of the race. And I think
there might be one or two people, they might need to get together and have a little
comfortable barfield meeting before the next race for the IMSA Weather Tech Sports Car Championship,
which will actually be still in six hours of the Glen, which is another place where sometimes
you can get a bit lairy. And the first part of that track is you go up through the S's down
through turns one and two and then up over the top of the brow. That's like a straight track.
And the driving standards, I think, left a little bit to be desired at the weekend.
Congratulations to those that won. It was a Bortai in both that won because it was Cadillac
number 31 Whelan won and Tony O'Garcy won in the GTD Pro category. And it's an honorable mention
in the CrowdStrike Endurance Teamwork and Speed Award to one of those two. And it was very,
very close indeed. Acura, by the way, have dominated it in recent years. The Endurance
Speed Teamwork and Speed Award, however, goes to the number three Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller
and Pratt Miller are right up the road from there with it was a very tight decision between that
and the overall winner, the Whelan Cadillac. So well done to those two teams and someone's
getting a nice trophy as well. Do you want to do IndyCar whilst we're there or are you going to
our two, Tim? I mean, we could probably squeeze in two minutes and eight seconds because
very different happened. Alex Polo, who got pole position twice at Indianapolis and didn't
converge into win, got a win here. That was nice. Yeah, it was slightly taken in the first couple
laps when the wheel power got ahead and then didn't work out and the pit stops and kind of
tire race and they became a bit chaotic at the end and makes you mark a bit of a chance
for a good result. And there we are. That's the whole thing. Yeah, I had a decent weekend before
that. Joseph Newgarden and Alexander Rossi, the two stars for me, both driving injured. Rossi
with a carbon fiber bit of strapping over his right foot with an injury there and on his left
foot. Joseph Newgarden was hobbling around on a crutch in a sort of a walking boat before he
got in the car. Newgarden got a decent finish actually just by keeping out of trouble. And there
was a bit of argy and bargy between Will Power and Scott McLaughlin who ran him into the wall
because he didn't know he was there. Again, it was just untidy. I don't think,
so my take from that race is for IMSA and for Detroit and for IndyCar. I don't think it does
any of the many favors, Nick. Some of the shots that we saw from the helicopter looking out over
the river were lovely and I really don't understand why they didn't do more of them,
but the track, it's difficult to see the track with the river in the background because all of
the buildings are there. It's not a great part of Detroit. It doesn't showcase the city. It
doesn't showcase the race cars and the racing. There's got to be somewhere, if you want to race
there and I can understand why they want to race in that catchment area, there's got to be somewhere
better that you can race. It just looks very poor and doesn't race very well.
No, I agree. You do get to see a great shot from one of the cameras of
John King books though, which is great. And they do race past the Buick
Motor Company was started here, Memorial as well, half way down Franklin or a third of the way down
Franklin. And it was good to see. Oh yeah, he had a really good race mostly until he was taking
out. Yeah, he was having an even better race till he was taking out, but he fought back.
What changed from last year when he couldn't abort the win? I don't know what's happened.
But at least he's finishing in the top three.
Yeah, I thought you're right that he did well.
And who else did I thought ran a good race until he got barged out by somebody. There's
a couple of people who got taken out by questionable driving, but you know, people get desperate.
And there's for Indy Carloo really only one. There's only really one place to pass and that's
down at the end of Franklin at the hairpin at turn three. You can be a bit cheeky and try and
get up the inside into the first corner. But often that doesn't doesn't really work. There was
something like 180 passes in that race, which means according to their claim, it's the passingest
street race of the year so far. Indy Car's back this weekend with the Bomberito. Yes,
the Bomberito Automotive Group 500 presented by Exalter and Valveline.
So does that mean we're going to have that? Is that an oval?
That's at 9 p.m. Eastern. Two in the morning for us.
Yes. It's a night race. Is that Saturday night though? That'll be Saturday night.
Really? Yes. Wow. Yes. I won't be watching that live then.
So does that mean we've got the answer is not Scott Dixon in hour two?
We might do. We've got time. He hasn't done it. He's not done it.
Right. It's after nine o'clock. It is. Let's head into the second hour.
Oh, sorry. You caught me off guard there. It's midweek motorsport and here's what's coming up.
Well, possibly a quiz show in hour two with the answer is not Scott Dixon or maybe a pointless,
not sure. Depends how Tim decides to go. We've got a bumper edition of the rally report with
PMAC coming back to join us. We'll be telling you what's going on in historic racing news,
which follows us tonight as well. Oh, and the jingle just ran out without me expecting you to.
No, I accidentally clicked next and started playing Peter McKay's theme music, which
we're not ready for Peter McKay yet. He's not on the line yet.
He's not on the line yet. No, we do not have Peter McKay yet.
There you go. Okay. Thank you very much. I've got somebody on the line
and he's making his debut in the Wheeler Mazda MX 5 Cup this weekend. He comes up next.
Coming up this weekend, we are back with IMSA action from mid Ohio Sports Car Course. It's the
four hour Michelin pilot challenge and we've also, we're also going to welcome back after a rather
long absence, actually, the Wheeler Mazda MX 5 Cup presented by Michelin tyres.
Well, we've got one of the drivers with us and it's a baptism of fire because making his debut
in the championship this weekend is Britain's Luke Pullin. Welcome to midweek motorsport Luke
and you're going to have to tell us how's it been the last week or so doing a bit of testing in the
US? Well, thank you very much for having me, John. It's been a bit of a whirlwind few days,
to be honest. Me and my dad flew in one night's sleep. Next morning, we were at the track at
mid Ohio, so met with the team for the first time, dialed in the car a bit and just tried to pump
it as many laps as we could. So touch wood, we seem to be in a nice spot, but yeah, it's like
you say, it feels like a bit of a baptism of fire. You've done some Mazda racing in the UK,
going back three or four years actually, did a full season a couple of seasons ago, got third
in the championship. What was the motivation then to move off? Because I know you did some
SCC here, Miata racing, MX 5 racing last year. What was the motivation to go to the States?
No, it was kind of something that we always wanted to aim for. A couple years back, one of my
teammates got invited to, when it was like the start of Global MX 5 Cup, when they bought people
from all internationally to come, I think it was similar Gunasekka. And we always asked him,
what was that like? And then we just thought, well, why hasn't anyone really been invited back from
the UK or anything? And we just started there. So about 34 years ago, we got in contact
with Josh at Mazda Motorsports USA and just sort of said, what can we do to kind of have a shot
at this? And they got back and said, to be honest, we want to see if you're any good out here in our
championship, which is fair enough. So we spent a lot, well, all of our budget last year, flying
back and forth, doing some spec MX 5 races with the SCCA, getting to grips and luckily,
weren't fast enough for an invite to the shootout. Didn't quite make it. And then we were like, well,
we'll pull again all of our budget and with a little help from us themselves, which has been
amazing. Try and just at least get one round in. Have a see what it's all about.
How has it been then to effectively convert the experience that you've had in far more
spec type of cars? And when we're talking about spec, we're just saying that all the cars are
the same. They're much more of a roadgoing car with some racing attributes, whereas the Global
MX 5 Cupcar, the Cupcar that you'll be racing at the weekend, those are taken apart and rebuilt
by Flis Performance in Florida, just down the road from Daytona. They are rebuilt into proper
race cars. So have you been able to feel the difference and how's that effectively, how's
that conversion been? Yeah. Well, first of all, I felt very fancy, very used, especially for the
UK series. You know, we were running road tires, still kind of new to Flix. And most of our cars
were held together by Cable, Tires and Hope. Whereas, you know, with the testing we've done
in the run up to this, it's been really eye opening, the amount of detail, you know,
stringing the car after every session, you know, and where all the margins are. And when you drive
it, I mean, like you say, now they've got the sequential box, you know, you do feel like a
proper pro, which I suppose you're racing on IMPSA, I suppose you are. So I just feel really
excited. And when you drive it, the whole thing just feels mechanically tight, not tight as in
understeer, but as in everything feels like it was built to go racing, like you say.
The circuit itself, mid or high or had you raced there before in the spec championship?
Yeah. So last year was, I think it was the fourth round we did in SMX, which is our final round.
And we rocked up and I immediately fell in love with the track. You know, it's kind of got
a little bit of that Alton Park UK feeling to it. I've always enjoyed that. So yeah,
the elevation change is so much fun. And we did so well there last year, we managed to get
two podiums and chopped through the field, you know, on our way to get them. And it was kind of
when Mazda approached and wanted to help out, they said, do you have a track in mind that
you'd like to aim for? And I was like, well, I said Daytona and then my dad went, no, we're not
doing that. So I was like, well, we'll do mid or high then, please. And here we are.
Luke, is this going to be your only outing?
Hopefully not. Hopefully not. You know, having already driven the car now with a bit of testing,
it's going to be hard to say goodbye after one round. So, you know, we're going to do everything
we can to get any sponsorship to kind of push for more. I've been joking around because obviously,
you know, we're fighting for real cash money in these races. You know, we saw some familiar
faces at testing, they were like, it's good to see you, what you're planning on doing. I said,
well, look, you know, we're going to come away with 12 grants, we'll just put it towards the next
one. But it would be very nice, very much wishful thinking. But yeah, no jokes aside, if we can,
if we can draw up some interest, it will be our first time racing on this package.
You know, if we can do a big social media push, get any help we can. Yeah, hopefully it's not
one and done because I'm already in love with it. She and I always talk about real cash money,
but there's $1.2 million at the end of the season, $250,000 of which is for the championship. Now,
obviously, you're not going to be contesting for that. But every weekend, the top 10 are taking
checks home. Even if that's only a grant or a couple of grants, you don't get that in other
championships, do you? No, you know, it's very much a new concept to me from the UK club level
racing we've done. So I'm like, you know, at the very least, we're looking at it going, well,
you know, if we place here, that'll cover our flights if we do that. So you know, it's all
that extra bit of motivation. But yeah, it's the whole things I open in, you know, racing at this
level. I've not even actually raced it yet. And it's already like, oh, wow, I've got stuff to
fight for here. Right. So you've been doing, you were doing the BRSCC master MX five championship.
You did some master in endurance. You came third in the 2024 championship, which was the gas shocks
championship. Do you own your own car in that? Are you renting a car in that?
Yes. So for the UK stuff, when we started, we rented a car for a team called AV Motorsport.
They were just incredible. And then like two years in, we were like, oh man,
we need to, we need to try and win this thing. So we're like, we may as well get our own car and
stick at it. So we had our own car for that. Desperately trying to sell it at the moment to try
and fund more adventures out here. But then yeah, we'll ask you that. So what's that worth then?
So you've got, you've got a third place in the championship car from a couple of seasons ago,
and presumably a few bits and pieces to go with it and a trailer. What sort of money to buy a
competitive car then? Tempted to inflate the number here so I could try and get more for it.
But realistically, you know, that car's got a nice few amount of wins on it. Like you say,
third place finish. We're really looking for that £10,000 mark, which compared to the cost of
stuff over here is much, much less. So those of you listening now, you thinking, I'm thinking about
a nice little Mazda MX-5 to run around in for the summer. And I might be able to spend 10 or 12
grand and get a good one. Maybe a Mark I or a Mark II, any R and MB. But you could buy a fully prepped
any Mark I Mazda to go racing and get your race license and off you go for £10,000. That seems
like reasonable value to me. So the question is, what do you see about wheeling Mazda MX-5 Cup
that has made you and the family think to themselves, yeah, this is something that we've
got to have a part. First and foremost, it's just the racing in all sorts of Mazdas and most single
make races. It's just incredible. And to kind of have it on a big stage, it's like, you know,
you look at it and go, man, that's where I want to be. You know, again, it's like that whole
destination championship. I know, but a lot you can use it as a progression. But, you know, when
it's at the pro level, it's like, we want to get there. And over in the UK, we couldn't really see
a lot of pathways, you know, for our budget to actually try and climb that motorsport ladder.
You know, we sat in that the Mark I championship with the BRCC for a few years, got good. And we
were like, well, you know, what now, we can keep doing this and spending like a season's budget,
or we could go, well, look, maybe we can only do two or three races out in America in, you know,
like spec MX-5. But it might give us a chance at the shootout and that might give us a chance to
get on the ladder, you know. And it's just one of those things where we just thought, let's just
try and do it a bit differently. No one else was really trying it from the UK. And we just thought,
I don't know, I reckon we're good enough. And if we're not, we still have an adventure. So,
send it, right? Have you watched it on the TV? And was that part of the decision making process
that made you think, hang on a minute, I'm driving one of these or something similar. And I'm
looking at this thing going, oh my God, this is incredible. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's
the case, isn't it? So many people from all around the world watch it. And it's something that we
watched for years. And then obviously this last, well, this current season, a lot of the guys in
it are guys that I raced against in SMX last year. So it's kind of like, you feel like you've got
skin in the game now, like mates to root for and so on. So yeah, it's like, I want my spot on there,
really. And what goal are you setting yourself? Is it realistic to think you might get into the
top 10 and take some dollars? Yeah, I think so. You've got to back yourself. You know,
whenever I get in the car for a race, my dad asked me, like, what's the plan? And I say,
go fast, have fun, which I think is a good thing to sort of go by. But you know, we've flown a
long way, we've put a lot into this. I think we're with Hendrix, who are a great group of guys,
the car seems really, really good. So I'm just shooting for as high up as I can go, really.
Like, I think, I think top 10 is something we can absolutely do. How high up in the top 10,
kind of, that we'll see. What's been the biggest challenge for you? Technically,
have you had to change your driving style at all? We were used to running on a road tread compound
in the UK. So you really had to be quite aggressive and flick the car into the corners.
Moving to Slicks was a big shift because, you know, I was always told, slow your hands down,
kind of let trust the car has the grip in it. And with that kind of change as well,
I'm driving on the left side of the car. So that takes a little bit of getting used to road
position wise. I started off turning in very early for all the rights.
Changing gear with your right hand. I know. I know. Thank God we've got the sequential now.
I don't have to worry about the second to third. I don't want to think about it.
We wish you the best. Well done for pushing the boat out. And we hope you go well at the weekend.
And let's hope we're talking about the name of Luke Pullin this weekend.
And in the future, Luke, thanks for joining us here on Midweek Motorsport.
My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, John.
Tim Gray up in London. Luke Pullin, a British driver, giving it a go over there.
Where would you like to take us next in the wide world of motorsport?
I'm going to tell you about what's coming up after we finish tonight here on RMS One.
And that is the June edition of the historic racing news radio show. Remember that June,
we get extra HRNs because they'll be doing a Le Mans special next week as well. But this week,
Paul Tarsi is talking to Ross Braun about his life in Formula One from his earliest days with
Williams and working with Michael Schumacher and Jensson Button, where he won the world
championship as a team owner. Derek Daly will be joining the team to talk about
life on both sides of the Atlantic and the difficult time he spent as teammate to Keke
Rosberg. And Nick Padmore will be telling us about his up and or telling them about his
up and down Monaco History Weekend, the historic racing news radio show, which
follows us at 10 p.m. with Paul Tarsi, Paul Judd and Jim Rolder on the panel this week.
So that's that. Let us... I played a little bit of this music accidently earlier, but now I'm going
to play it for real because we are joined by Peter Mackay. It's time for Rally Report.
Welcome to a bumper edition of Midweek Motorsport Rally Report with me Peter Mackay,
a double header this week to recap the events of the European Rally Championship event in
Scandinavia and the World Rally Championship event in Japan, where I was very, very lucky to
travel to both of those events and report at the stop line live for Rally TV and the World Feed.
So much to talk about. So let's dive in. Royal Rally of Scandinavia is an event that's been on
the European Rally Championship calendar since 2023. And the best way I could describe this event
is that it's a gravel grand prix. You have much more rough and much more tactical,
more survival rallies on gravel in certain places like the Acropolis in Kenya and in the
European Championship, the old Rally Hungary was very, very challenging. Sardinia would be
another one where raw pace is important, but actually getting the car clean all the way through
the rally is equally as important. Whereas at the Royal Rally of Scandinavia, beautifully kept
gravel roads through the forests in Sweden just outside the town of Karlstad. Now, if the town
name sounds familiar, you'd be right because Karlstad used to be the host for WRC Sweden,
but in recent years, the way that the climate has changed over the last few years, they've
struggled to get the snow at the time of year when Rally Sweden is held. So they've had to go
further north to guarantee that they'll have the conditions that they expect. But the roads
themselves are used in various national events, but also for the Royal Rally of Scandinavia,
which of course is held in summer and therefore on lovely pure clean gravel. But the routes are the
same as WRC Sweden in the past. And the European Rally Championship really is in a golden age right
now because I have never seen it, both in my time working in the championship, but also in the past
have such a high standard of competition. The top level of competition in the European Rally
Championship uses the Rally 2 specification car, so Skoda Fabias, Toyota Yaris, Volkswagen Polos,
there's a few of them still around, Ford Fiesta's etc. Around 300 horsepower four-wheel drive and
around 300,000 euros depending on the model that you go for. And if you're a sports car fan, imagine
GT3. That's kind of where the Rally 2 is at. A brilliant package and great competition. And in
the European Rally Championship we see the mixture of the championship regulars and local heroes,
but nowadays we're seeing the third element of drivers coming in who are either current WRC or
WRC 2 drivers or drivers that are trying to rekindle their career in the world championship.
And they see the European Championship as a way of proving that because the level has become so high
with so many good drivers coming in that if you win a European Championship event it's a real stamp
of authority on your pace. Now from 30 entries in the Rally 2 category for Royal Rally of Scandinavia,
10 of those entries had won national championships before and many of them several times, but there's
also X World Rally Championship guys, current WRC 2 guys, ERC regulars and current WRC stars in the
case of Martin Sesks and then you throw in the local hotshots as well. But the story that emerged
from the Royal Rally of Scandinavia was the arrival of a young Estonian called Jasper Vahar,
a driver that really only really known in the very nuances and the very niche areas of Rally fandom.
He's been in the European Championship for a little while but in the junior category and to be
very honest hadn't really shown the pace that he was about to show in a Rally 2 car with the Toyota
GR World Rally Team Junior program. And when he was announced as the selected driver for that
program I have to be honest I was surprised given the fact that he hadn't shown the results in the
front wheel drive junior categories but there are some of these drivers who just show much much better
in a four wheel drive car. It's his first season in the four wheel drive Rally 2 car and wow oh wow
did he announce his arrival on the scene. In the European Rally Championship the road position
unlike in the World Rally Championship is set by a qualifying stage so in the World Rally Championship
it goes in championship order so the championship leader has to open the road and sweep loose gravel
away. In the European Championship the qualifying stage sets the road order so if you have a good
qualifying stage you get a great road position so Jasper Vahar quickest and free practice on the
same stage and then bang qualifying wins the qualifying stage and bags him the dream road
position 22nd on the road so 21 cars ahead of him sweeping one after the other creating a nice
grippy line and alternatively those who didn't have a good qualifying stage their rally was
really ruined on the spot. Defending champion of the ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia Ivan Brinkelson
he unfortunately made two little errors in the qualifying stage and that put him very far up
the road on day one and really compromised any chance of defending his crown but was this
a fluke for Jasper Vahar would he be able to follow up this qualifying performance when the
rally got going for real and the short answer was yes absolutely straight away by Saturday lunchtime
on the first day he was leading Teimosunanan former works WRC driver by 10.7 seconds and the
impressive finish driver Miko Heikila by 14.5 seconds very far ahead of current WRC driver
Martin Sesks and many many others as well. Jasper Vahar proving that he has got the pace
but Saturday at Royal Rally of Scandinavia wasn't just about the outright stage times of course
that's the most important part but WRC fans of old will remember the old Collins Cress named after
the late great Colin McCray my boyhood hero and he was known for jumping in the snow in Sweden
higher and longer than any driver who ever came before him and the Collins Cress was named after
him now that stage is still used in the ERC Royal Rally of Scandinavia but instead of using it on
snow we have it on gravel now the last couple of years it's been Mads Osberg who's been the
the driver who's jumped the furthest on this Collins Cress jump and has been rewarded from the
rally sponsored Bauhaus with the first year was a jet washer that he won for his biggest jump and
last year he won a robot lawnmower but unfortunately this year Mads Osberg wasn't competing he's
stepping back from his position in the European Rally Championship as a driver at least but was
on site as a coach this year Bauhaus put up a mini digger a little mini excavator for the drivers
for whoever could jump the furthest and entertain the fans all around Collins Cress and it was
Canadian driver Brandon Seminook on his ERC debut who jumped the furthest on the first pass
42 meters but on the second pass everybody just started to turn it up a notch defending champion
and former Collins Cress record holder when it was a snow rally Ivan Brinkelson he jumped 43 meters
and was already making plans of what he was going to do with his mini digger but then his
teammate Philip Allen jumped a meter further so was it going to go back to Northern Ireland a
little mini digger well in the end it was young local Patrick Hallberg who blew them all away
matching Osberg's record of 47 meters and get this Patrick Hallberg's family business
excavators so they will genuinely have a use for that and I'm sure it's already being put
to good use but Frivolity's aside at the end of the day Jasper Vahar led with just one day to go
by 8.8 seconds from Timo Suninen 14.3 from Miko Hekula and from WRC driver for M Sport
Martin Sesks by 17.5 seconds Vahar was the name on everyone's lips in the bar on Saturday night
in Calstad but on Sunday he would have to fight off a cast of rapid drivers not just one but several
of them and on Sunday morning Miko Hekula a driver who's experienced such heartbreak in the past
been leading European Rally Championship events in Portugal he was leading on the last stage and
had a puncture in Hungary he was leading on the last loop and a wheel shattered on one of the big
rocks on that stage and he really really needs this win to keep his career going and he turned on
the heat on Sunday morning out of the four stages he won three of them to close the gap down and the
gap closing not by a knot an awful lot but the gap closing just put Vahar under the vice
that little bit and coming out after lunchtime service could the young Estonian handle the
pressure well the pace had been remarkably impressive but the most minute of mistakes
sent Vahar off the road into a tree and it was game over for the win amazingly Vahar was able
to drive the car away and make it to the stage end and indeed after some amazing work from the
red grey mechanics was able to complete the rally but the chance of the win was over so with two
stages to go it was the two fins Suninen versus Hekula with Suninen holding a gap of 2.8 seconds
over Hekula and on that penultimate stage again the most minute of mistakes from Tamos Suninen
sent him off into the trees opening the door for Michael Hekula to come through and win the rally
and take his first ERC win in emotional fashion this was one of the most competitive ERC events
I've ever seen and it sets the championship up beautifully because if Suninen had won that rally
he would have been long clear in the standings now it's absolutely wide open going into a rally
the Roma capital in a few weeks time so with ERC putting on the show the world rally championship
really had quite a tough act to follow the following week and well if you want a good act
you go to Japan Japan is a round that's been on the WRC calendar in this form since 2022
it's a really really special event to go to Japan for any purpose is a real privilege from us who
live in the you know in the general western world Japan is so different to what we're used to and
in the best possible way I adore the country people their way of life the food the
cars oh my god the cars um but I'd only really spent time in the cities Toyota city was where the
service park was based but all the stages were up in the mountains and wow what a location to go to
round seven of the world rally championship halfway of the 14 round season but the final
tarmac round of the year now already we'd had three tarmac rallies Monte Carlo which this year
wasn't a full tarmac rally it was quite a lot of snow and ice that was won by Oliver Sauberg
Croatia became a little bit of a lottery with punctures with a lot of loose gravel on the road
that was won by Takamoto Katsuta after Thierry Neuville crashed on the final stage and then in
rally is Las Canarias which was the most pure exam of tarmac pace very smooth roads very high grip
Toyota absolutely pulverized the competition with Sebastian Oje leading a Toyota 1234
so what would rally Japan bring well rally Japan has traditionally been held in the autumn so to
be held in the kind of early summer there was question marks over how that would affect the
order in the end it worked out in a fairly similar way higher temperatures of course but the character
of the roads very very similar to what we saw in October based in Toyota City the home of Toyota
who are the most dominant force in world rallying and the passion from Mr Toyota himself is palpable
and is so clear to see and clearly drives that whole team forward but the whole area just came
out not just for the Toyota team but for all the other crews and to be honest the whole
wrc service park as a whole i've never seen a warm reception quite like it it was truly
truly heartwarming but on day one it was down to business and with elvin evans the championship
leader starving on the front of the road he had a job to do to put himself in position to go into
the gravel events in the summer in a strong position the first stage of the day asuki was brand
new to everybody and was won on both passes by oliver solberg but the key stage was is a gammy's
tunnel every year at rally japan the photos all that just dominate social media are always from
is a gammy's tunnel this big long narrow tunnel through in a very densely wooded area i got the
chance actually to drive through the stage and it's one of the most difficult tarmac stages
i've ever seen the tunnel is cool sure but that you missed the point with is the gammy's tunnel
it's so so difficult particularly when you throw in the fact that it rained overnight so the patchiness
of the road and the grip levels changing all the time really put the drivers through their
this was the stage where elvin evans got his grip on rally japan for 2026 and in the very first
pass of that stage stage two of the rally elvin evans cleaned everyone out of the way seven and
a half quicker than solberg 16 quicker than ogee and 22 quicker than newville that is how dominant
he was through that stage and with a similar performance in the second pass he led the way
after day one by 15.7 from solberg 17 from ogee 41 from sammy pyre in fourth 58 from terry newville
in the leading Hyundai and over a minute from takimoto katsuta who had a disastrous day on the
stages um no no real issues per se just really really struggle throughout the day but day two
it was a chance to wipe the slate clean and six stages and two super specials to finish
off the day and all morning oliver solberg managed to trim the gap piece by piece and
managed to get the gap down to 10.6 seconds to elvin evans meaning that it was game on in the
afternoon sabastian ogee struggling on the hard handcooked tire and dropping to over 20 seconds
behind evans so in the afternoon it was down to solberg to see if he could catch elvin evans or
indeed to manage the pace and try and get some points on the board he chose the former and
unfortunately on the first stage after lunch went off the road and his chance of a rally japan win
or indeed big points at all was gone meanwhile elvin evans steadied the ship all afternoon
to lead into the final day by 17.8 seconds from sabastian ogee 44.4 from the ever-consistent
sami pairi and a minute and 11 seconds from takimoto katsuta who had a much better day on saturday
the first of the hyundays adrian formo over two minutes behind that is the level of domination
that toyota have enjoyed recently particularly on a tarmac surface so the final day elvin evans
looked to be in a good position to win the rally but of course in the world rally championship
you have the super sunday points which are handed out for the best drivers on sunday alone and the
wolf power stage which hands out points for the final stage of the rally oliver solberg restarted
first on the road knowing that the best he could get out of his weekend was to score maximum
points in super sunday and from the wolf power stage and that is exactly what he did with some
really impressive stage time but elvin evans the now highly experienced wrc driver still
seeking that first world title he drove like a world champion on sunday managing the gap beautifully
to become the most successful driver in the history of this wonderful event his third rally
japan win and he leads by 20 points in the world standings ahead of takimoto katsuta
sabasti noji did not have his best weekend by his own admission really struggled to make the tire work
for him and yet he was still second place imagine having a terrible weekend and finishing second
that's what you're up against with someone like sabasti noji and sammy pyre a fifth podium from
seven rallies again double rubber stamping why to to gazi racing world rally team have trusted
that young fin and he's just delivering in spades i'm sure his first win is not far around the
corner because it wasn't just a you know watching other people fall off the road he won several
stages to earn that podium it was quite remarkable but what was even more remarkable was actually
the support category wrc too using the same cars that we see in the european championship at the
top level wrc too all weekend long we saw a head-to-head battle between the lancia of nicole
greizen and the toyota of alejandro kachon two very different characters but two superb drivers both
in their element on tarmac and they both kept switching the lead back and forth and back and
forth all weekend long in the end it came down to a last stage shootout with greizen
coming out on top to get lancia's first ever win in the wrc in japan so so cool to see it's a great
time to be a rally fan and the summer is only just getting started and we'll have all of the
new
uh hello hello there's a film
yeah which is premiering on uh friday yeah uh on prime video this weekend this
weekend or last friday all right yeah yeah uh-huh uh you can see the premiere on prime video
and this is uh called race the base yes okay
it's uh features uh people like conor zillich really yes chase briscoe lion blaney and chris bell
is is that um
is that on prime video in the the uk though because the last few things we've had from the
states hasn't haven't come over like them at that whole master thing that used our commentary
we never got in the uk it doesn't say it's uh geoblock so um so what's it about then
uh so this stock car isn't this is about nascar drivers being called to a navy base in san diego
right uh but when they arrive uh they're met by a squadron of elite hot shop pilots who aren't
thrilled about their runway being transformed into a racetrack to earn the pilot's respect and
ensure the event can move forward the drivers and sailors go head to head in a series of intense
and entertaining challenges what follows is a cinematic and entertaining high energy and
unexpectedly authentic journey as drivers immerse themselves in navy life from building the track
contesting equipment to trading skills rivalries and the hard earned camaraderie along the way
worlds collide in ways as intense humorous and undeniably powerful
right what's an interesting concept yes and uh obviously there is uh nascar cup series on the
in the us prime will be showing that race line oh right that that all makes perfect sense which is
why they get the family after this documentary which has been made by concept 80 films oh my
favorite of all the concepts i didn't like concept 79 very much but the concept 80 photos
there you go uh what else you got for us tim that's the only film i've got for you okay
good so we lose the music yes yeah um worldwide technology makes way at the weekend for indy
cars we mentioned in the first we did do we have a uh answers not scott digson for that
i will see okay so what else do you want to still know can i say yeah the driver i was
trying to think of earlier was michael barthels yeah all right uh michael
barthels a maserati driver of some repute yes and that's that's the car i was thinking of the uh one
that dominated the f a a g t championship from that wasn't orange though it wasn't no it was in
the vice phone colors well there was a there was one invited a phone there was one in vodafone
and there was one in red bull yeah but the vice phone one was the one that won the title every year
that they've only built 12 race cars and we had three of them at the at the spa classic you would
have been in your element as a fan of the tribe jewell mccarrie has had one there he's he's the
vodafone is the red bull i think is the red bull one the story about that of course was that um
uh that maserati built 25 of them to homologate them for f i a competition and then the regulations
changed by the time they'd done that and there were 190 millimeters too long so they had to build
another 25 so there's actually 50 road cars and 12 race cars they only ever built 62 mc 12s
um one of nick's favorite racing cars indeed um well do you want to go next tim
uh that's a good question uh what do we want to do we have the bikes yet shall we do a
bike run through bikes bikes yes okay yeah um nick hadn't realized that aragon world
seat the bike was on at the weekends it will busy it will um it will yeah but it misses you like
well let me let me guess first place in all three races uh was nikola beliga
and second place in all three races like a lakona well pretty much yes and uh there was a bit more
scrapping than usual uh but it was aragon which i love aragon as a circuit um in fact the two
motorcycle circuits at the weekend the two of my favorite circuits one i've been in one i haven't
so beliga is now one does he want 21 in a row some yeah yeah um so yes he's my by the way he's
my tip for the championship is he yeah he um he had to work a bit harder but he is just the class
in the field um there was a bit more uh competition for him um
with ikula kona nibble and his heels and actually got ahead of him a couple of times as well
we've had more orange race cars coming in um they tend to be all the jagermeister cars i'd
forgotten the alpha 155 uh dtm car um but johannes hasn't um but that was a bar tells car um that
jagermeister car so that sort of fills two ticks two boxes there johannes now at mugello um for
mortal gp it was the return of mark mark as he was cleared to race um absolutely packed
steaming hot track temperatures over 50 celsius on the sunday the sprint race was pretty good
the main race was incredible the first half of the main race in particular the battle for
the lead was incredible the second half for all the race the battle for the miners was incredible
just extraordinary and it was meant to be du catties 100th mortal gp victory and they had
centenary um liveries on the bike and blah blah blah it's the 100th year of course uh is that what
it was the 100th year it's their 100th year yeah 100 years old because i'm i'm quite up with the
du cattie and pr at the moment i get a lot of emails from them well i like the liver i like
delivery that they run at the way games um however um prilla were party poopers um and yeah and
beseki was outstanding absolutely on another planet not as quick in a straight line uh his
aprilla as the uh as the du catties but oh man not as not as a handicapped as the uh ktm but
yeah it wasn't quite even the ktms had good races there was a lot of good racing but they were a
lot slower yeah i mean it was um it was beseki obviously and martin um dominated the main race
they uh martin was also up there um in the sprint which was won by ralph ananda of course for that
was a great brilliant again again yeah so the the net effect of the weekend was that beseki gained
two points further ahead of martin um but yeah it was i think it was a a track where people thought
du cattie would come back again um you know how much of is it is it that the they are missing
their tires from rider and how much is it that the bike isn't quite good enough and it's hard to tell
um mark has had a very decent comeback from quite a severe bit of injury in quite a severe recovery
um he you know it's interesting that you know he faded as you would expect in the main race yeah
in the main race but he was battling as hard as ever um during the other two races yeah he just
he's just a bit off the battle between him and Pedro Acosta and then did he join you uh not announced
yet but everybody knows nothing to announce because there isn't a championship next year
yes i keep saying oh yes that's right my two riders of the weekend Tommy Bridewell did a great
job in world superbike um out of the british championship um and i think probably just for
ease tenacity it might have to be mark marques in more yeah i mean i think marques agree but i mean
interestingly apparently um they weren't talking about martin but still it was quite a bit beaten
up from his testing accident in in the past though but comparison how beaten up he's been before but
but second he's getting a reasonable lead that you still feel that um you know martin has the
chance to catch that gap up it's only one fall off and 11 went missing again yeah that's what
you've got to think about um so it's it's a case really where it you know the ultimate potential
of hogging martin is is higher than marco bosecchi but whether that's enough in this particular season
with him i'd like to see uh bosecchi win the championship i would
well it's really interesting because if martin does win the championship um he'll be leaving the
team he's won it for again as just he's ecstatic yes exactly uh new uh new straight line speed
record set at the weekend again 1000000 miles an hour wasn't it 229 miles an hour point something
i know um gotta hang on it that's it's gotta hang on in the wind but it's about strength
hang on a hundred hanging on 170 is hard enough god knows what's like hanging on 220 i i can't
even begin so what's the fastest you've done on yours on a tractor uh 168 and what's that and
i have you but gotta be tucked right underneath at that point and everything for dear life hanging
on for dear life i can tell you literally where was that uh ended the straight at esterel oh what
just over the top of the brow on the down oh no esterel esterel yeah esterel because you've got
that long corner she gets you hit the straight really quick yeah so you actually you know
tractor tractor michel or next nick it's very expensive oh is it it's horrendously expensive
and they then charge you set with the garages oh really because you you know you can do it there's
three or four chances you go and do it it's a very i mean i don't want to go that long straight
but the other thing about mark marques's um performance he's he's lost a lot of muscle
from his right arm again with the hat to open him up apparently they couldn't do it as micro
surgery because they had to pull bits of screw and float and board and screw out yeah it sounds
lovely look yuck um um it's a physical circuit there's a lot of yeah there's a lot of left
right changes yeah um i've driven around it in a car but never on a motorcycle and i think i've
driven around a car with you i think we actually i've been i've been in cabs i've
driven around that circuit with joe and i've driven around that circuit with you um the
the perimeter road that's just on the outside of the track they're like a rally stage it's like
i was going to say it's like a single stage rally stage it's fantastic that bit where you come
yellow yeah the one that goes right around the circuit at michel or you can drive all the way
around the circuit it's got massive gradients in it something like uh via jack wheel nerve or
something oh it might be you might be right there's a bit santanart is the first right hand corner
and actually either way you do it but if you're going in the wrong direction to race traffic you
come over the top of the brow and there's a right left flicked and right in the middle
of the right left flick and the apex of of the flick is a huge tree and it's like you come over
the top hey oops understay it understay it no no no and we were on winter tires i say
many a heart i think many a heart can't have an instant with it yeah i think i think you probably
right one of my favorite place to go it was packed uh the italians went bonkers for it
it was brilliant can i just say after we were talking about tv coverage of various things at the
weekend um and last weekend mortal gp for me is gold standard on how they cover the racing
how they use the graphics how they use the insets um the well they certainly like
how they do the virtual advertising for stuff that's not actually there on the track
none of it moves not like some other series um at lamona i noticed they're completely
on one side of the new good year bridge was all dhl that wasn't there in real life um they had a
monster energy um um sign over the top of the track that that isn't there um and it's solid
it's absolutely solid i'm very very impressed with what they do and the mix of of onboards that
move with the bike and those that are gyroscopically stabilized so that the bike moves around them
i just think it's great what they do and and actually they taught them on the left hand side
the way they use that to put in picture in picture the gaps between people all that sort of stuff
that's actually all you need to commentate because they've even got the graphics the same
color as the bikes it's absolutely brilliant the fact it's open by limited media now perhaps
i'm not able to filter through possibly possibly um i can't remember where the next two races are
it's baritone ring this weekend oh it's ease oh dma yes yes sublime to ridiculous
literally and that's for more the gp what yeah i don't know okay it's not back for a little while
no so um yes so you've got ike lakona's replacing him correct rather than belayga which is interesting
but then lakona's got more recent uh motor gp experience and uh nicole's not going alone more
a lot with a bike that's 150 cc bigger with error and the wrong tires so i think they're trying to
confuse you more too please do all the testing for the kate 850 of course uh don't forget to
stay tuned after us tonight for historic racing news tomorrow at six o'clock it'll be the first
johnny and i will be in the forward racing global broadcast center for the first of our
laman previews and we'll be joined by brian sheen as well uh with some travel tips and things to
see and do at laman this year and there have been some changes so we'll get brian to update us
can i correct myself oh yes you may it is mizano that has a dirt track around the
edge of it that is named uh vr gilville nerve not so shankville nerve well that's even tighter
because i've been around that one as well and that is bonkers tight there's places where you can
barely get a car through um between the grandstand and the the back of the arm cool so that is
ridiculously tight that one and that one again goes all the way around you get all the way around
yeah it's not called the gilville nerve all the way around just on the what side is that the southern
side uh this is uh the gilville nerve and we've got a couple of minutes left before paul and the
team where do you want to take us to finish well you know i'd like to take you uh to do uh the
answer not scott dixon we're actually going to do is
i've got tib just cleared the bed out of it i've got one of our listeners was catching up
on the shore and going through town um i think it was yesterday it might have been the day before
so i'll not be able to find it now so i've really apologized to who sent this in but it made me laugh
out loud listening to us going on windows down beautiful weather pulls up at a set of traffic
lights listening into the shore and all of a sudden the pointless theme blares out of his car
and everybody looked at him as if he was a complete what not and he said i just had to go with it so
so i'm very sorry about that i'm sorry i can't remember your name either but it was it made me
laugh out loud so um we're going to have to give a warning i think before we play the pointless
thing again right is this f1 drives again um as uh on the mid-range sport yeah what's that group has
been saying uh rally report is the best tv sports theme of all time that's opened up a bit of a
debate with uh lots of people suggesting some others um this week on pointless yeah switzerland
it's not monaco that would be a short list all right there's two of them isn't
well potentially three but we'll come back to that in the future
yeah well i can think of two who's the third one
well which two are you thinking of charlotte luce you're on and charlotte clare yeah
yeah you're camping here on as uh okay was he not i mean you've missed Olivier Barretta
Barretta race and formula one as well um uh Robert Dornbus had dutch nationality
that's what he has had on the gas can nationality really even though he was half dutch dutch yes
and now he's neither is he does right who's starting this week i think it's john's turn to
start this week well i've got one that i know of this one because i was just talked about this the
other day i didn't realize that this was going to come up i reckon jaundani delatraz jaundani
tell delatraz started three formula one grand prix yeah and it's got no points
this is a great start for me i'll just think bloody dutch don't i could think of some swiss
drives but the reason i know of them is it's cool points uh um
um
come on i know the score but mark surer i know mark surer score barry good surer yes it went
away swiss so that's good that was that's the key point is the issue here and the number of points
he scored was 17 what's a bad it's not bad um
was andrea kiezer swiss andrea kiezer was swiss he ended right andrea kiezer then
won grand prix and uh only started three of them uh and scored zero points yes
yes nick i'm plundering the 90s at the minute
did um this is probably bollocks um
the guy who did those i'm sure i've read this somewhere the swiss
they don't swish sports cars from the 70s and yes those really big um
he's gone we've lost no i'm trying to think i'm thinking uh monteverdi monteverdi i'm sure
he did sports cars or f1 but again i know it was swiss because the car is a weird thing
there's a racing driver from swiss and who built these really hyper expensive special cars
they're based on they're based off oudies on mercs and they're just the monteverdy high i remember
that sort of thing oh that's right that's just given me monteverdi
peter monteverdi did he race in f1 at all i have no idea he was born in binningham in the northern
swiss canton of basel land shaft right he built the first swiss forwarder one car as you mentioned
the monteverdi basel motor and and he made a single for one appearance in the 1961 season
well and i've got i've got german grand prix and he didn't score any points so he is a pointless
answer i don't think he actually started yes he did but that did he yeah okay he did two laps
oh okay no well however nick has led me on somebody really that i think i've lost
i think might be a winner for me because there was in the 1990 i'm plundering me 1990s here
there was a monteverdi on onyx formula one yes that was the same man right well grego foitec
drove for him and i think he was swiss i think he drove for brabham and probably url brunn as well
in the late 80s and i don't think i think he drove in formula one i don't think he got very
many if any points wasn't grego foitec the other driver involved in uh
johnny herbert's crash where we introduced his foot in formula 3000 what year was that was that
98 or 87 something like that yeah right excellent uh grego foitec then
did go on to formula one in 89 and 90 he entered 22 formula one grand prix but only qualified
and started seven of them did he win three he won none of them he finished on the podium in none of
them he scored points in none of them grego foitec is a pointless answer get in you give me that mid
you give me that so i've lost no not necessarily because if how long have we got if johnny's
fourth answer gets uh yeah gets a bad answer i really i am left the problem is the only i could
think of two more swiss drivers who i know have scored points no and there were so many more
i can't think of anyone well yes i haven't got i'm not bloody bruce jones um i mean so this is your
last one of these names no this is his penultimate one all right come on we're running over time
now uh all right i'm going to obviously have scored points it's bastion boy me oh yeah bastion
boy me it's got quite a lot of points i'd have thought the one not to go for i would reckon
would have been ragged zoni yeah i'm not going for that no uh we have for
play me no wins he never had a win he never had a win 29 he was it
i doesn't surprise me because he was with toro rossa when they were really quite poor yeah but he
could also i think he was when i think he was there before the 20th i think he was there before the
25 point i think he was there with the 10 points rather than 25 but anyway still that's that's still
rubbish someone's got 46 that's not what you get not very good 46 46 so i've got to be fewer than
46 yeah then i have to find something else oh yeah the other one i have also scored points
oh
i'm going to go for a sports car driver okay that that i think raced um
he actually died in a sports car crash if i remember rightly in a lawler
um did he raise formula one sylvia on moza m o s e r moza i think that's how you spell it
might be m m unload me as a moza he was a racing driver he was definitely from switzerland
he was definitely born in zewick so he was sweet you can't be more swiss than that
well he bought in geneva i suppose but he he did score points in formula one oh 46
point 47 points no because he only he only started 12 races he scored three points
so uh okay well i should go with my only other nith going the only other swiss drive i'm going
joe sifert well he won grand prix he i know that but i i don't know any other swiss drivers
i could say you know i could say brian togblorow or trevor swiss watch you know it's doing any good
trevor tag trevor tag you get 68 brian togblorow gary alps how many did he get for joe sifert
you would have got zero if you'd picked franco farini or laurice pesto farini
i've heard laurice kesel yes you should have heard kesel farari yes of course yes
um
kesel um other than foitec um i don't know and kiezer uh but behind kiezer and foitec
kesel is the startingest drive startingest pointless swiss driver there is he yeah you could
also have had john claude rudas albert scherrer i could have i knew he was
rudolf scherrer max deterrer otterino voluntarily uh uh heiney valter michael may
doesn't sound very swiss does he doesn't ring a bell um he uh wasn't born in switzerland either
he was born in stuttgart i reckon i reckon bruce would just ace these i think next week at limon
we need to make sure we have bruce playing he's not there on wednesday he won't get him till friday
next time we have bruce on wednesday we'll have to we need we need bruce versus we'll have bruce
versus uh mario oh that's brilliant the champion of champions i can see coming off on a tangent though
well that's part of the joy i'm never going to the launch of that car uh very good launch fabulous
you do know that they didn't race in switzerland but occasionally i used to race do you know
that they've repealed that law by the way in switzerland no i didn't know that at all it was
about a month ago maybe a little bit they've got their tracks at the moment you've got lots of money
right we're running into hrn uh so very quick reminder of what's going on at the
weekends um it's saturday and sunday for the imsa event which the feature for
is the michelin pilot challenge four hours but we've got wilan uh master wilan mx5 and uh
we've also got on friday saturday and sunday at creventic michelin uh 24 hour series which is
actually 12 hour race at ricard and mariotti and brace jones will be at d john um for the
race of gold the golden race the golden age of racing uh in uh the peter auto laman classic
and of course at laman itself on sunday we have six hours of testing and before that
we'll have a couple of scrutiny programs and our laman week starts tomorrow night six o'clock
me and johnny in the ford racing global broadcast centre talking about one of the three grids and
tim is going to tell us which one beforehand but for right now it's a surprise to all of us keep
filling for now i'm just trying to find the jingle to end the show hang on okay that's fine
uh i will also have brian just saying who will pop up with his tips and tricks about how to get
the best out of your rundown and stay at the mond thank you very much to luke puland and
particularly to erin from master for setting that up for us peter mckay with an excellent
double bumper edition shouldn't that be front and rear splitter edition of rally report and
also to nick david and tim gray for joining us tonight no time to explain the lama is getting
ready for france this program is a radio show limited production for more subscribe to midweek
motorsports wherever you get your podcasts
About this episode
Midweek Motorsport s21 e21 runs through a packed motorsport week, with France and Le Mans building in the background—plus Monaco logistics and the usual debate about its passing and pace. The hosts preview endurance and rally coverage, including a gravel-heavy Royal Rally of Scandinavia recap and WRC Japan’s tricky tunnel stage. F1 discussion swings from overtaking-zone talk and adjustable aero to driver comfort and livery trivia. The show also lands in Mazda MX-5 Cup, where sequential gearboxes, slicks, and real prize money shape the path to racing.
