MSport Talk: Frank Motorsport Opinions & Debate

Now, this little rant for the want of a better term has come off of the back of the horrendous accident that Billy Monger suffered on Easter Sunday. As you follow and read my musings you are no doubt already familiar with the incident and, the fantastic showing of unity of the "Motorsport Family", raising over (at current time of posing) £700,000 for the young guys future. However, it's got me thinking. "Without incidents like this, would Billy Monger or F4 be in the headlines?" Now, I'm not trying to detract from the incident, quite the opposite in fact but, that Sunday night, while searching online for updates in conditions etc I was faced with lazily thrown together article after article from the major press all reporting the incident as "news" yet nothing on the WEC race that had happened the same day at Silverstone, nothing of the rest of the BTCC rosta, nothing about Aiden Moffat taking his first BTCC victory, little on anything un  -F1...

OK, something a little different but sort of motorsport relevant. Yes, I purchased a Lego Porsche, at 40 years old I am still building Lego thanks in part to my children reaching that age and becoming re acquainted with the Danish brick and, partly because in the last few years some truly awesome motorsports themed sets have become available featuring F1, Le Mans and GT machinery. The Porsche on the other hand is a different beast all together. Weighing in at over 2700 pieces and with over 800 steps in an instruction book that also depicts Lego and Porsche's involvement with the project this 1/8th scale offering is as big in size as it is in fun to build. It took me a week of evenings to put the set together and now, it sits atop my bookcase next to another of my larger technic creations! Anyway, back to the Porsche, yes at £200 it is an expensive luxury for something you will probably only build once, especially as there appears to be no alternative model to build from...

Historically many drivers have competed in more than one race series in a single season, Le Mans, Daytona and the Indy 500 being the big events attracting drivers worldwide from various disciplines, however more recently once a driver had secured an F1 seat it was very unlikely that we would see him driving in any other series save for promotional reasons due mainly to sponsorship and manufacturer conflictions, yes we may have seen Lotterer take a short race stint at Spa for Caterham in one of his many Le Mans winning years and, of course Hulkenberg becoming a Le Mans winner while doing a full F1 season but. This is a little different. On the 12th of April 2017 it was announced that two time F1 champion and current Mclaren Honda driver, Fernando Alonso would be racing in the Indy 500 instead of the Monaco Grand Prix. Now, this is the difference. A lot of people are seeing this as a good thing, teams giving their drivers the chance to experience a different car or championship but...

I want to use this part of my blog to bring to attention those who didn't quite but should have or would have made it to the top of the motorsports ladder. The history books will always mention the likes of Ratzenburger, De Angelis, Villeneuve, Paletti and those associated with F1 who succumbed at the wheel of a race car but, what of those who were still on the way up? Unless you were a fan in the day or follow the series involved a lot of these drivers become just another statistic. Yes, Clarke, Bellof, Winklehock, Pironi and Alboreto lost their lives in non F1 machinery but, due to their own F1 involvement were more publicised. Young Austrian, Markus Höttinger was one of those drivers, he should have been more of a name in the world of Motosports in the 80's, maybe if things were different we would have seen both him and Bellof fighting for Group C or F1 victories. Unfortunately we will never know. Markus Höttinger made an early name for himself in sports and touring cars...

The BTCC returned this weekend just gone and, subject to "news" broken on this very blog did not race anti clockwise - who knew! What we did witness however was two of the sports more elder statesmen involved in two separate start line incidents, now, without wanting to cause too much controversy I am beginning to wonder: Is It Time For The "Old Guard" To Call It A Day? Don't get me wrong, Neal and Plato have been fantastic ambassadors to the sport and to Touring Car racing in general but, two, fairly similar, start line incidents while all those around them - many young enough to be their sons get through a weekend relatively unscathed one wonder if it is time for the two of them to take a back seat and let the younger blood through.  Neither driver has won a title since 2011, and while both have gone into the final weekend with an outside chance of glory on most occasions since one would argue that plenty of other drivers would have too. To ...

Rumors began circulating last night that, the BTCC opener, happening this weekend *may* see the cars take to the Indy loop at Brands Hatch in the opposite direction to normal. Initial leaks suggest that 32 cars all jostling for position on the series shortest laps creates too many incidents in the early part of the lap.  By reversing the lap it would give te drivers a better chance to settle down before taking the - now right hand turn into Graham Hill Bend before the short uphill dash to the Druids hairpin and t he downhill towards Paddock Hill Bend and the end of the lap. Msporttalk belive that the day's opening practice session *may* see the cars run in the opposite direction to normal before race direction make a decision on the race direction.  I'd like to thank my mole within the series who gets me these stories and snippets as they break. She is always number one with the news and, to protect her identity I call her April The First! Thank-you.