Here’s How to Fix the All-Women’s W Series Racing

Where the W Series can improve, plus Car Week kicks off in Monterey.

Aug 14, 2019

A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575m

Happy Race Day, especially to the President of Turkmenistan who drifted a racing truck around a flaming gas crater in response to rumors that he had died. I wish I was making this up.

BUM CHILLUPS @edsbs

A rumor said the president of Turkmenistan was dead and he responded by...releasing a video of him tearing ass in a rally truck around the Gates of Hell

As noted in the last Race Day, I’ll be selling and signing books at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca this Saturday and Sunday. If you’re in town for Car Week, stop by and say hello!

As always, if you want to preorder an eBook (out this Monday) you can reserve a copy here. Paperback copies are available in limited quantities as well — email me at ryan@carrarabooks.com to put your name down.

Want to know more about Slow Car Fast? Listen to my podcast appearances on The Smoking Tire, The 562.org and NoBraking!

In totally unrelated news: I saw Paganis yesterday! They are… not subtle.

Culture

ForzaRC, the eSports arm of the video game giant Forza Motorsports, announced this week its next season will be open to pre-selected teams only—not individuals who race their way in.

Why does this matter? Racing games are starting to tighten up and form teams either to A) lure manufacturers and their marketing dollars or to B) vet participants ahead of time to ensure they’re not a liability.

ForzaRC @ForzaRC

This season of ForzaRC will be a team-based invitational series. Teams consist of 3 drivers and a coach, and all eligible teams that will compete this season were pre-selected, and have already been notified.

Predictably, fans didn’t like the announcement:

🔞 HOOT 🔞 @HOOTwheelz

@ForzaRC If anybody wants to compete in Forza esports without dealing with this weird shit, hit up @Official_ESDA. All you gotta do is earn a license and you can start drifting in the biggest Forza drifting competition there is.

Drifting eSports, you say? Hmm…

Road & Track is getting in on the events game: the magazine will host a rally later this year. Rallies are on the rise as enthusiasts want to get out and have experiences with their cars more than ever. And frankly, publications need to explore outside revenue streams sooner than later. Interested to see where this goes.

Video Reel

They’re not the most polished bunch, but Daily Driven Exotics just posted a serious road trip video blasting through sand dunes and the Pacific coast. The drone shots here are simply epic.

Excitement around the new Toyota Supra is at a fever pitch. And yet there’s a fair bit of mystery still surrounding the new sports car. Drifter and YouTuber Stephan Papadakis got his hands on one and did a full teardown of the B58 inline-six engine, explaining the interesting bits in a fully approachable and welcoming way—not always an easy thing to do in the complex world of auto machinery. A fun watch even if you aren’t mechanically inclined.

TLDR: Papadakis estimates the stock crankshaft will hold at least 1,000 horsepower!

More Supra stuff: YouTuber Jackie Ding took delivery of his and immediately set to modding and racing it.

Attention: Vintage boat-trailer racing!

German sports car series DTM took time to highlight some of the women engineers that make the series tick. Would love to see more of this.

Remember that student-built E30 M3 with a modern engine swap we posted last week? Matt Farah drove the wheels off it. “Second thing I notice: smells an awful lot like gasoline in here.” It gets more interesting from there:

Photographer Larry Chen has become a household name in his own right to a lot of folks. In this video you get to know Chen, but he also displays a wealth of knowledge about the fascinating growth of professional drifting.

For those unfamiliar with the impact of racing worldwide, here’s a video following the Polish fans who support hometown driver Robert Kubica. As one fan puts it, Kubica makes them feel that “ the impossible does not exist.”

Race Results

Congrats to Jamie Chadwick, who became the first-ever champion of the all-women’s W Series over the weekend.

Chadwick put a hell of a show on display all season and deserved the title as well as the opportunities that will come with it. She’s made no secret of her desire to be the first woman in F1 in decades.

The problem is the W Series can do more to help. Its visibility was hampered by hard-to-find footage, videos available only on Facebook and poor highlight packaging. It’s impossible to get a feel for driver style or the intensity of the series if you can’t follow the action. The W Series really has something here—talented drivers who will inspire others to compete for lucrative spots. Here’s hoping it can figure out a better strategy to actually show it off.

Hazel Southwell @HSouthwellFE

Sad this is the last W Series race of the year - although looking forward to next season. It's been like slipping through a looking glass where it's not just not all men, not just one or two women on their own but a whole, highly competitive field driving in anger.

The winner of the season finale, Alice Powell, finished third on the season and has some big news of her own. Powell will make her debut in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this weekend at Virginia International Raceway.

Vicious racing action from DTM over the weekend. If you like sports cars, just sit back and enjoy. Highlights: Race 1 and Race 2.

I know I already posted about this race last week, but this new highlight video from WRC Finland is worth watching over and over.

McLaren will enter IndyCar next season for the first time in 40 years.

Ask A Millennial! Oryna Bulatova, 21

Oryna Bulatova is a 21-year-old marketing manager quickly making a name for herself in the car world. I reached out to learn more about her social strategy and obsession with Cadillac V performance cars. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation:

I love the V’s because they’re unique. The cars are gorgeous, fast, and shocking. People aren’t used to seeing them. I don’t like cars that everyone has, going to a car show or a meet and seeing 15 other cars just like yours isn’t appealing to me.
It’s important to post high quality content with an enticing caption. Something that gets people to answer a question or comment their opinion. If I create a personal connection with my following it keeps engagement up, and once you let engagement drop it will be almost twice as hard to build it back up.
My perfect day of driving is cruising the canyons or hitting up PCH. It’s hard to beat beautiful California scenery and music. I feel free, nothing matters besides the car and the road. All of the other stresses and problems go away.
People want to see more women getting involved in cars, although there is some criticism of women in the car world. People tend to assume they don’t really know what they’re talking about or that they’re in the industry for the wrong reasons, that it’s not really for their passion in cars. However the percentage of people that are critical right off the bat is very low. For the most part women have had more and more opportunities in the industry and that will just continue to keep growing.