COVID-19 Rocks the Motorsport World
How racing is rapidly changing in the face of a global crisis.
Happy Race Day, especially to the person who turned a 1997 Continental R into a modern day Bentley Blower. If you knew about this and didn’t tell me — how dare you.
The spread of the dangerous COVID-19 Coronavirus has quickly affected the daily lives of millions of people around the world, and motorsports is no exception.
While racing series were initially slow to respond, and attempted to mitigate their reactions, on Wednesday things reached a fever pitch.
Formula E, after first postponing a few races, has instead pushed the entire season back two months. GT Word Challenge Europe cancelled its Italy race. NASCAR released a list of changes ahead of its race in Atlanta. The 12 Hours of Sebring is still scheduled to go on, though the World Endurance Challenge canceled its involvement and several drivers expressed concern:
Part of the concern is so many different races are planned back-to-back-to-back with one another in very dense locations. IndyCar insists its races in St. Petersburg and our hometown of Long Beach will continue as planned for now.
And just days ahead of its 2020 season opener in Australia, Formula One has insisted the race will go on. But the series is restricting media access, and one McLaren team member and four Haas team employees have self-quarantined. F1 will run without fans in Bahrain and the Vietnam GP is reportedly hanging by a thread.
Elsewhere, the Geneva Motor Show was canceled and the New York Auto Show was postponed to August. Manufacturers are scaling back or shuttering overseas factories. Several episodes of The Grand Tour have been postponed as well.
We have very likely not seen the extent of the repercussions yet. Please be safe.
Culture
When your car is nicknamed “clown shoe” and you drive it in the snow, there’s really only one license plate you can put on it.
The official media shots of Formula One drivers bear a striking resemblance to something instantly familiar to ‘90s kids:
The growing power of Radwood is being used to sell everything from six-figure sports cars to ratty Maserati limos.
Speaking of Radwood, the Millennial-aimed show held its latest event in Austin last weekend. The meet produced some incredible pictures like this one, and these.
The owner of a Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport VR revealed he had never brought the car to an official show before because there weren’t any that would appreciate it. He won Raddest Domestic.
Auto journalist Stef Schrader posted an excellent Radwood Austin write-up with sweet photos at The Drive.
Friend of the newsletter Tony Scott recently sold their Mark III Supra (boo!) and got a freaking Honda Aerodeck (whoo-hoo!).
Don’t forget:
The Safari trend continues with the new RUF Rodeo but I have to agree with the naysayers. This appears to be less of a true rally car and more a snazzy cosmetic concept timed to a trend, which is disappointing from a legendary tuner.
From the “Don’t Be Tools” file: The hosts of the Discovery Channel show ‘Diesel Brothers’ were hit with an $850,000 fine for doing what made them famous in the first place — stripping air quality equipment out of trucks and then selling the grossly-polluting vehicles to the public.
Great show from Guntherwerks, one of the most high-profile shops to arise in the air-cooled Porsche craze with meticulous craftsmanship and batty power.
Really enjoyed this piece on Joey Seely, who you’ll recognize from a starring role in Slow Car Fast, and the off-road Porsche Cayennes he’s building that are attracting a lot of attention from the adventure world.
Video Reel
“What’s so cool about ‘80s rally racing anyway?” Well, this:
“What’s so cool about early ‘90s Group C racing anyway?” Well, this:
Motorsports needs to get more accessible if we want to bring in new fans. This breakdown of Formula E technology is a great example.
I grew up watching Tiff Needell tell me about awesome cars. Digging up this old video only proves 12-year old me had good taste.
Gaming Zone
Grand Theft Auto isn’t a racing game, per se, but it’s undoubtedly the most popular driving game ever made. Now it’s added open-wheel racing.
Forza Motorsport asked for fans to submit designs to run in the virtual 12 Hours of Sebring. They got interesting graphics that included Pepe Le Pew.
The official Ford eSports team is going to design a ground-up racecar based on fan voting that starts today. Let’s see what wild contraption they come up with!
A video game for managing a Formula One team is coming in 2022.
Race Results
We’ve covered the effects of climate change on motorsports before and will again. Now, it’s brought an end to a 56-year old ice race.
Motorsports coverage at Racer.com hit an all-time high in February. Readers aged 18-24 were up 234 percent and women readers doubled. Don’t give up on the youth.
Alfa Romeo Racing posted a tribute to team members on International Women’s Day — test drivers, engineers and strategists, among other things. More of this!
The all-women’s W Series made a similar video that’s definitely worth a watch:
I just found out about an organization called Shift Up Now, which develops and advocates for talented women drivers across series and experience levels. It seems super cool and I’m excited to see what’s next.
The St. Petersburg Grand Prix plans to host an “Influencer Grand Prix” that includes no women, and no one from the car world. The idea was properly roasted on Twitter.
A racing driver hopped into a performance-modified Tesla Model 3 and broke the lap record set by a McLaren F1 on his first try. This feels like a milestone.
The fantastic automotive newsletter No More Nice Cars highlights the Hyundai Excel Racing Association, which is as great as it sounds.
Ask A Millennial! Alex Sadowski, 23
Writing a book has truly been a gift. For one thing, I get to meet amazing new people out of the blue. Alex is one of them. He messaged me recently to say he read Slow Car Fast, and upon learning about The CarLab auto consultants in one chapter, quit his job to move across the country and intern there. I can’t believe that’s a real story, but it is. I’m so thrilled to know Alex. Here is an edited version of our conversation:
Car culture is evolving and that's a good thing. We might be seeing a lack of growth in more traditional forms of automotive culture, but we are also seeing a rise in other ways: festivals; cars & coffee; and events like Radwood. Millennials are making it their own, which is a great sign that car culture is alive and well.
We’re seeing cars celebrated that would be typically considered on the fringe, like the Volvo 240, Mercedes 500E and Buick Roadmaster. I think that's great. Even better, once excitement builds around these cars, more people get drawn in and culture continues to evolve and grow.
My perfect day of driving starts just before the sun on a Saturday, so I can beat the sunrise by the time I get to the Angeles Forest. I love when there's still some fog lingering and the air is dense. Currently, I'd be in the canyons in my Fiesta ST, a great car for tight corners. My car has a COBB cat-back exhaust, and that's the only sound I want to hear bouncing off the rocks. If I'm lucky, I will see practically no one except the occasional Miata or Elise making their way back down.
I still really enjoy print magazines such as Road & Track and Motor Trend, not so much for the immediacy of the information, but the detailed stories and photos; I've started getting into large quarterly magazines like RoadRat, which has amazing photos and great deep-dive stories. I typically get most of my current news from Car Throttle, Autoblog, Jalopnik, and I check Bring A Trailer at least once a day — there is always something new there that surprises me. I also really enjoy NetCarShow, a site full of press photos and a great way to see a new car once it's announced, often before there is a written piece on it. On YouTube, I love watching Doug Demuro, Hoovie, Tavarish and Engineering Explained. I've been a longtime listener of The Smoking Tire podcast. I really admire Matt Farah, especially because he's from the east coast like me and moved out to California to chase his dream. I have a great deal of respect for that and he's very insightful, honest, and entertaining.
Auction Block
Someone save this McLaren-edition 1987 Mercury Capri that missed its eBay reserve. And then let me drive it.
The annual Amelia Island weekend showcase featured tons of high-dollar cars changing hands. But in keeping with the rise of Millennial tastes, a 1990 widebody Mercedes that went for a staggering $390,000 was the talk of the show.
This Weekend
Here in L.A., car culture hangout spot The Motoring Club is partnering with the white-hot wheels and accessories company Rotiform for a Donuts N’ Drivers event that should be a ton of fun this Sunday. If, err, ya know.
And Finally…
Here’s what iconic F1 designs would look like on the modern cars. They should be adopted immediately.
Drive hard and be safe.
Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.
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