MelonLand Forum
Interests Zone => ☺︎ ∙ Chat & General Interests => Topic started by: HayleyMulch on January 08, 2023, 01:43:23 am
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It was inevitable I make a thread about this.
So... who here likes motorsport? Have you got a particular series you're fond of, or enjoy a mix of different series?
I'm primarily a Formula 1 nut. My favourite drivers being Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton. I got to go to the British Grand Prix in Silverstone back in 2019 (I have a photo album of it here! (https://hayleymulch.neocities.org/britishgp2019))
I also love Formula E and I'm very excited because it starts next weekend and it's always free to watch live on YouTube! I love Stoffel Vandoorne and Jake Dennis in particular.
I like watching the Indy 500 too, even though I'm bad keeping up with the actual IndyCar series. Of course I love Romain Grosjean, but also Colton Herta, Pato O'Ward and Takuma Sato.
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Motorsport is part of my life since I can think. As a four-year-old, I remember getting up at 4 o'clock to watch the Australian GP.
Meanwhile, I've moved away from F1, but as it can be seen in your current signature, Hayley, the Mclaren team has a good time these days! My favourite team is long gone: Orange Arrows. But when it was about to go Anti-Ferrari for the win, I was always cheering for Mclaren-Mercedes, Häkkinen, Coulthard, Raikönnen, Hamilton. The one F1 race I attended was Nürburgring 2009.
I've discovered that every different form of motor sport has its own intense soul.
I could listen to all these great names in Motorsport forever... the passion... the difficulties... and how the competitive environment made them push over boundaries. No matter if it's F1 or Autocross on the farmer's field.
Some "niche" racing series:
Completly unregulated, but well organised "Open Road Races" for tuned scooters on public roads in Indonesia. These things wouldn't have happened in Europe since the 60s, when there hay bales as "protection". But the people over there couldn't care less for safety it looks like!
Destruction derbys with combine harvesters... hey, it's scrap already! Let's have some fun with that.
Nascars on Europe's road courses (called EuroNascar), hand shifted raw cars. I'd like to see more hand shifted race cars, because it makes the racing more chaotic, and puts more skill to the driver. One of the things, why the WTCC was so intense around 2008.
H2OGP Powerboat racing on the sea. One blow, the machine flips dramatically... insane racing. But the series has a hard time, being too expensive like most Motorsports.
Japanese kamikaze racing and kamikaze commentators... I've seen some touring car races where the drivers really wanted to crash more than to race. And then there was one English racer (maybe Soper or Reid), driving cleanly, but being rather surprised by the breaking points of the local drivers! It ended in havoc.
Speaking of Japan, Initial D, illegal drifting races in the mountains... whole different world.
My favourite racing series in Germany is called HAIGO, which is racing with single seater cars looking like 80s F1 cars from the German Democratic Repulic (GDR). The machines have lots of simple stock parts, being old and unreliable, making the races interesting. But the top drivers push these cars to the limit! So it's one of the few examples of historic racing done right, like Goodwood, really showing the old machines at the limit. Motor Racing has changed a lot in the past, but it's still all about one thing: Being first at the line...
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Oh wow. I'll be honest, I haven't heard of much of these at all! I knew about the Japanese mountain drifting, but had zero idea of the other series. I know there's Sail GP, but powerboat racing sounds intense! I also had no idea there was a European NASCAR series!
Now there would be some series that I wouldn't be keen to check out on a regular basis, namely MotoGP just cos of the frequent fatalities it can have. Bad enough Anthoine Hubert's crash in Formula 2 really affected me.
HAIGO sounds super cool, I must day. I'd love to see what they can do with old parts and engines.