WTCC (World Touring Car Championship)

[Les / Vipers Rule]

Surfing the t.v. today and I came upon a Eurosport programme (on Velocity) where they sort of hi-lite and add some drama stuff (meh I could do without the edited drama stuff) for WTCC racing. Unfortunately it's only 1/2 hr. programme but it is interesting enough to have me search and find the official FIA WTTC web page. I found it interesting.

I have been a loyal F1 fan since the mid 80's. When Speedvision was on air I also began to follow various other racing such as BTTC, German Touring Car, ALMS, WTC Rally, Aussi Touring Cars, Speedvision Touring Cars. It all coincidence with the first and then second gen Gran Tourismo Racing games on Playstation. Lots of fun learning about, watching these races an then playing similar on Playstation. But with the demise of Speedvision and later Speed, I lost following these racing series. Well seeing WTCC hi-lites on Velocity really perked my curiosity. LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF FUN RACING! In many ways much more fun and better wheel to wheel racing than in the Top Dog F1. for 2015 there are 12 races, 19 drivers, 4 manufactures ( Citroen, Honda, Lada and Chevrolet who sanctions there cars) Cars based on real cars but of course are still different then the ones we could buy. All are 1.6L direct injection turbos. These cars all look cool.

Eurosport follows the racing but we don't get Eurosport here. Discovery Velocity does do these 1/2hr dramaesque hi-lite shows but dammit I'd love to see full races on air, even if tape delayed. For GAWD sake we have enough sports channels now up here and added we have Velocity and all too much drivel on it, surely somebody could buy the rights to broadcast this very interesting racing series.

[Pennzoil GT-R]

I've been to a few WTCC races and to be honest, they're kind of boring. They're just too slow to stand out from any other series of generic touring/sports car racing.

[Les / Vipers Rule]

I can only go by the 1/2 hr. Eurosport package here on Velocity. The cars look interesting, relatively high tech and they have a bit of the argy bargy bumping going on during the races. F1 its not but F1 is not the perfect motor sport either. It has too many circus like gimmicks, even though I still faithfully watch it. I'd like to see real WTCC races on tv here in Canada.

[Turbojett]

I'm still wishing for something like how Trans Am was back in the day. If we had a modern-day version of that (and it was regularly televised) I would be sooooo happy. Grand Am is close, but no cigar...and it's still owned by ASSCAR, so they'll fuck it up eventually.

[thewalrus]

[Les / Vipers Rule]

Motor sports like all too many other sports have gotten too gimmicky and too much side show stuff. Froo Froo Frills and shite that only takes away from the sports. Any pro sport has been fucked up and no longer is about THE SPORT but too much about money, hype, and gimmicks.

[thewalrus]

[Les / Vipers Rule]

[ryguy79]

Totally with wally on this. I don't watch much motorsport anymore. If I watch racing, I watch world cup downhill mtb races on pinkbike and recaps of mtb enduro races that I can find on youtube. And I like the rally america recap episodes that follow the Subaru team on youtube, Launch Control. Auto racing, with the exception of rally and Pikes Peak, doesn't really do much for me anymore.

I think in my case its a combination of two things -
1. I'd rather be out doing than watching and when I am watching sport I prefer to watch what I can directly relate to my own activities.
B. Kids. What little free time I have is precious and better spent in ways other than watching a race for hours.

I really hardly watch any team sports. Even baseball, but I do listen to Tigers radio broadcasts since T-Mobile does free MLB at Bat subscriptions. Nice thing about that is I can be doing other things at the same time.

[Swerve]

My favourite sport is Australian Rules football but F1 is a close second. I find any motorsport series goes through peaks and troughs. WRC in the mid to late 90s was spectacular. The homologation rules meant you got to see Subarus on the road that cost $40,000 AUD but outperformed a $400,000 Ferrari 355. It was an amazing time to be a teenager.
Now rallying seems irrelevant. And although I loved the last couple of F1 seasons despite the criticism from most fans, 2015 is a bit less enjoyable. Red Bull are partly to blame - spitting the dummy as soon as they become uncompetitive.
at least there's still football. My team won a classic today, coming from miles behind to scrape home. I could go on but won't...

[Pennzoil GT-R]

http://www.footytube.com/video/athletic ... y30-356116

There's always football/soccer. There's the benefit of probably the greatest player in the history of the sport playing in his prime right now.

[thewalrus]