Global rallycross on espn

[USRallycross]

yes, the team thinks the turbo hose came off of Andi's car on the half lap before the jump. He knew he was down on power so we aren't sure why he still chose to take the jump and not the 30 second penalty for the standard lap

Yes, Twin Peaks was far more like a rallycross track as we know, well except for the warehouse and the jump! It was great to see the cars dirty. Next we are off to Pikes Peak and that will be more like round 1 before we hard to DOWNTOWN LA for the X Games. Just imagine the spectacle of rallycross in the downtown of a city.

See you at the weekend. Just been brushing up on my Russian pronounciations!

Mark

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

Yes, Twin Peaks was far more like a rallycross track as we know, well except for the warehouse and the jump! It was great to see the cars dirty. Next we are off to Pikes Peak and that will be more like round 1 before we hard to DOWNTOWN LA for the X Games. Just imagine the spectacle of rallycross in the downtown of a city

Someone at the GRC really has been playing too much DiRT 2, haven't they?

Joking aside I was wondering what sort of layout they were planning to use at X-Games for the rallycross this year. Will it be completely out of the stadium now?

The X-Games event is sure to be the most watched of all the GRC rounds, so I hope they can learn from last years event and make a good show of it.

[rich_cooper]

The track looked great going inside building and everything. My one worry is the jumps, i just think maybe they are alittle too much. Seems to be alot of damage to cars coming from them

And i look forward to watching round 1 later on espn

[USRallycross]

the jump has seen two big wrecks so far, both of which were avoidable. At the BRC in March Liam destroyed the Citroen without the aid of a 70ft jump. As it says on the ticket "Motor Racing is Dangerous"

X Games track downtown will be akin to Irwindale and Pikes Peak so we won't live out The Fast and the Furious! Although remember Tanner and Rhys are the drivers in most of those films.....

[MiniMadness]

Hi Mark ,

I eventually got round to finish watching the Global Rallycross. I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. A few old names and a few new names to look out for, but overall I enjoyed. Good job.

You were right Mark, it started late and I missed the final The Americans haven't quite grasped that some programs overrun and my cable stopped recording after 2 hours !!

Not to worry I saw the results on Rallycross Online.

[Stephen H]

Has the second event been shown on espn in the UK yet?

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by Stephen H

Has the second event been shown on espn in the UK yet?

If I read the site right its being shown Wednesday this week (18th) at 6:30PM:

http://tv.espn.co.uk/gb/espl/tv-schedule?schId=326143

This is the highlights of Round 2, did anyone happen to record the highlights of Round 1?

[USRallycross]

Yes, the NASCAR racing overruning due to rain screwed the whole schedule. We would have had a great new audience with the original placement but then we were bumped to ESPN2 and followed NHRA again. However, the GRC FB site has lots of new people commenting.

The program was also shortened by 30 minutes because of the change. Missed a couple of good heat races but hopefully you will see those in the UK.

I think Snoqualmie was a great track but a bad location for drawing crowds. The racing however was excellent and I don't think it is a coincidence that OMSE is benefitting from running both the ERC and GRC. The development pace has been doubled!

Glad you enjoyed it.

Mark

[Stephen H]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

If I read the site right its being shown Wednesday this week (18th) at 6:30PM:

http://tv.espn.co.uk/gb/espl/tv-schedule?schId=326143

This is the highlights of Round 2, did anyone happen to record the highlights of Round 1?

Yes its still sitting on my freeview hard disc

[rich_cooper]

it says on my tv that round 2 is on today

[AndyS]

Can I get the coverage anywhere on the net? I don't have ESPN and from what I can gather I can't get it unless I sign up to a full Sky Sports package, please correct me if I'm wrong. If I could pay a little extra I'd consider it for GRC but from what the Sky website is telling me it's extra on top of the standard Sky Sports package. Failing that it's whatevers on You Tube.

[Stephen H]

Originally Posted by AndyS

Can I get the coverage anywhere on the net? I don't have ESPN and from what I can gather I can't get it unless I sign up to a full Sky Sports package, please correct me if I'm wrong. If I could pay a little extra I'd consider it for GRC but from what the Sky website is telling me it's extra on top of the standard Sky Sports package. Failing that it's whatevers on You Tube.

You can get it on a top up tv box, and just subscribe to ESPN, but seriously considering cancelling my subscription, as they seem to change daily when things are shown, the rallyx was due on at 6pm then change till 4pm

And though I have no trouble with any other freeview channel, ESPN often freezes

And unlike satellite you just get one channel

I think there is an Internet channel ESPN 3 has the American Le mans package, but not sure if it is just for US only?

[AndyS]

Thanks. As I'm on Sky and not Freeview looks a non starter and from what you say ESPN sounds a bit duff!

[rich_cooper]

my ESPN and ESPN HD work great on virgin media. There is plenty of website that stream the programmes as they are on tv

[Stephen H]

blimely what happened to the production values of round 3?

No Mark Williams in the commentary box, very bad cuts between cameras angle changes as they ran through the bit called "spectator" alley, and going to an ad break in the middle of a heat. Why? The races are so short, surely they could get through a heat without an ad break.

[tbtstt]

Bugger. Is that the live coverage or the highlights programme?

I was hoping they'd have all the production values sorted out so the live X-Games rally coverage was a bit less incoherent this year.

[wilma]

it was awful footage, real amateurish camera work - like a home movie, and poorly edited as mentioned above. the commentator seemd to know little about the drivers, cars or overall concept of rallycross. I recorded it on sky+ and ended up fast forwarding to the final after 30 minutes, it's not as if the races were exciting enough to keep me gripped despite the bad footage. Also, there hardly seemed to be any spectators there. Is there already a Global Championship planned for next year...?

[NaBUru38]

Yes, there is, wilma. if you saw Dirt 3, you must know that Aspen will come soon. And I copy an official comment from Facebook: "As the tour grows the plan is to have multiple stop across the globe that aligns with X Games Global Expansion. We are just getting started!"

[wilma]

so it'll eventually actually be Global then...

if they're determined enough to carry on until it becomes a better spectacle for US based race fans then fair play to them. maybe i'm mistaken but there didnt seem many people there judging by the crowd seen on the TV footage and the lack of proper effort in ESPN's coverage seemed to sum up that they are not currently taking it seriously.

[chunder]

I guess until Xgames and maybe a better audience, people really dont get it!

There is already rallycross in the US which is a basic sort of trial thing.

These tracks are all on ovals that have loads of soil shipped in, very much like the approach to CORR in the early days and Supercross now.

I am not much of a fan despite wanting to give it a chance, I dont like the jumps and have already witnessed two cars being written off because of them, they add novelty and I guess Yanks love that and maybe need that, but until you put V8's in them I dount they will be happy.

I think they would be better directing the marketing towards the Hispanic areas, they drag race "Compacts" and spend loads of money on them. They all run Japanese motors and tend to veer towards Europoean and Japanese models.

I am sure most Yanks dont know what a Skoda, Fiesta, Saab, Volvo C40 is!!

[USRallycross]

The Pikes Peak event actually had around 5,000 fans and was a great event to be at. We took Marcus' and Tanners' cars to the the huge Fort Carson (30k personnel at home right now) and had a lot of military personnel come out.

The TV production was a whole different issue. I was never going to be able to do the voice over because I was committed to commentate at the Mt. Washington Hill Climb - awesome event btw where Diggins smashed the hill record. However, GRC parted ways with their regular production company (TV2GO) ust a few days before the event. Much of the resulting footage was shot with Go Pro cameras who were sponsoring the Best Buy car. TV2GO were planning on having editors start work on Saturday while at the event and were still worried they may not 'have it in the can' by ESPN's deadline of Thursday. The new production team were always facing a race against time and one which sadly they didn't appear to win.

It will all come together at X Games in a few weeks. The sport does have momentum but also has a few wrinkles. Nothing I didn't expect to see happen in the US. The next few weeks/Summer months will be the determining factor in its long-term success.

Hope that helps?! On a different note if you can get ESPN3.com live in the UK, I will be working for them at X Games (so cool) and normal service will be resumed.......

Mark

[Stephen H]

Originally Posted by USRallycross

The Pikes Peak event actually had around 5,000 fans and was a great event to be at. We took Marcus' and Tanners' cars to the the huge Fort Carson (30k personnel at home right now) and had a lot of military personnel come out.

The TV production was a whole different issue. I was never going to be able to do the voice over because I was committed to commentate at the Mt. Washington Hill Climb - awesome event btw where Diggins smashed the hill record. However, GRC parted ways with their regular production company (TV2GO) ust a few days before the event. Much of the resulting footage was shot with Go Pro cameras who were sponsoring the Best Buy car. TV2GO were planning on having editors start work on Saturday while at the event and were still worried they may not 'have it in the can' by ESPN's deadline of Thursday. The new production team were always facing a race against time and one which sadly they didn't appear to win.

It will all come together at X Games in a few weeks. The sport does have momentum but also has a few wrinkles. Nothing I didn't expect to see happen in the US. The next few weeks/Summer months will be the determining factor in its long-term success.

Hope that helps?! On a different note if you can get ESPN3.com live in the UK, I will be working for them at X Games (so cool) and normal service will be resumed.......

Mark

thanks for the explaination, just shows how much work is need to make something look good, and that we all take for granted

[ScotsBrutesFan]

Just seen the laps few laps of the final

Who designed that track with the re-join from the Joker lap?? ... they should be made to pay the costs of rebuilding the two cars.

[USRallycross]

Why? All the X Games courses have the cars coming together like that.

But using your principle I assume that Liam sent KHM the check for the destroyed C4 because he desiged the reprofiled Chesson's and let the mini-culvert in place.....

And without bringing up the whole European style Joker Lap controversy there are accidents waiting to happen there too. Liam ad Timur in Portugal?

As I have said before the US tracks will never appeal to the purist because of the jump and course merges, etc. However, US fans want action and the course design most definitely gives that.

And finally (!) Tanner's car suffered more damage in the A Final in France than it did dropping off the wall in America. Go figure......

Mark

[NaBUru38]

US rallycross tracks are great.