Saturday nights & Sunday mornings

The early part of the year always contains two big races to keep the European race fans appetite whetted and, this time they fell on consecutive weekends.

The events in question were of course the Daytona 24hr and Bathurst 12hr, both available on line via the relative websites with excellent commentary from Radio Le Mans. I must admit, these were my reason - along with the Nurburgring and Spa 24 hrs races later this year for purchasing a Smart TV as for too long now have I been huddled over a phone or tablet screen, yes I have tried using a Chromecast stick in the past but with mixed results so I took the plunge. However back on to the topic. These two events for me offered some of the best action up and down the field that I have seen for a while now and, only goes to prove what I said a while ago when I started this blog, Prototype and racing with a roof is where it is at now. take Daytona, ESM Patron racing, an LMP2 machine mixing and beating the more fancied Daytona class prototypes in an epic race that wasn't really decided until the 22nd hour, but behind in the two GT classes there was drama right down to the flag with cars in podium positions with dubious fuel levels a 150mph game of chess started to develop as teams hoped for a full course yellow period to give them a chance of glory. As it turned out the race was green for the final portion and, yes cars did run out of gas right  at the end. 

In the other GT class however there was no danger of cars running out of juice this was all about 1 team. Corvette. Having dealt with the Porsche with around half an hour to go the team mates traveled together battling for overall class victory, and battling hard, no quarter asked or given. It was amazing they didn't take each other out as a result, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall should that had have happened, as it was the pair crossed the line almost side by side, finishing less than a cars length apart after 24 hours of racing a truly epic finish to a fantastic event and one that will be talked about for a long time to come.

Fast forward one week and we're in Australia, Bathurst to be precise for the 12 hour race across the mountain. This event however was all about one team, Mclaren and the Tekno squad featuring V8 Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen, the Aussie putting in a superhuman first stint where he topped the times on all but around 7 or 8 laps in the first two hours, breaking the lap record several times in the process, however it wouldn't be all plain sailing, an electronic issue forcing a lengthy pit stop for team mate and former GP2 racer Alvaro Parente and a penalty for speeding at the beginning of SVG's final stint saw the 2015 winners Nissan in their brand new "Godzilla" GT-R close a 14 second gap to just 1.2 at the flag.

And now, my Saturday evenings feel slightly empty just half baked reality / celebrity vote-a-thons for the next few weeks, still, soon be Sebring and another 12 hour indulgence. The world needs more Prototype and GT racing methinks.