Saturday, March 24, 2018

Need More Racing This Weekend?

NMS Does Miatas


Besides the usual races that everyone else watches (NASCAR, Formula 1, etc), all the cool kids will be checking out some Miata racing this weekend, since there are TWO race series going on today.   Sure, a pack of Miatas racing wheel to wheel on a track aren't going to be as fast as those other guys, but holy smokes, we'll guarantee you that they are very evenly matched and that the racing is a ton of fun to watch!

While the names are familiar, the two Miata series of races are both chock full of competitive drivers going full on to take the win. Here's a brief look at these two sets of races:

First up,  the Spec MX-5 Challenge - Central will be at the $40 million NCM Motorsports Park, across from the National Corvette Museum and Corvette manufacturing in Bowling Green, this weekend (March 24 and 25). We will again have streams from selected cars. You can find these on the Facebook Spec MX-5 page: https://www.facebook.com/SpecMX5Racing/
Race 1 on Saturday, March 24 should be at 1:05 pm CDT (2:05 pm Eastern, 12:05 pm Mountain, 11:05 am Pacific). Note: rain is expected on Saturday, so the start may be delayed.
Race 2 on Sunday, March 25 should be at 10:20 am CDT (11:20 am Eastern, 9:20 am Mountain, 8:20 am Pacific). Again, times are approximate.
Secondly, the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup will be racing from the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin Texas this afternoon at 3:25pm Eastern time too. Here's what Mazda has to say about this race:

     "Fans who tune in to the livestream will be treated to some of the closest sports car racing in North America. The Global MX-5 Cup cars are built identically and place a premium on driving ability, which was borne out by the 12-race 2017 season having a total margin of victory of just under four seconds.

     This weekend, thirty-two of those Global MX-5 Cup cars will take on COTA and battle for            championship prizes that include the $200,000 Mazda Road to 24 scholarship awarded to the season  champion and $75,000 awarded to the Global MX-5 Cup Rookie of the Year."

You can watch the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup race at this link YOUTUBE

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Formula 1 Kicks Off Tonight!

TV Listings From the Haas F1 Team


Well, Race cars don't really "kick-off" like in football you know, it's just a sports term that means "starts." And by "football" I mean good old USA brand Football, not that "soccer" type of football like the rest of the world watches. By "watches" I mean views, not like in a Rolex timepiece that costs a bazillion dollars. And it's not really "Tonight" because it's taking place in Australia where by the time it's tonight for us it will be "Tomorrow" for them, but since I'm in the USA then it's "Tonight." OK, now that we've cleared that up...

Formula 1 comes to your TV or streaming device this Thursday night at 9pm Eastern time. Why 9pm? Because it's from down under mate! The season starts in Australia, so that's really great news if you live in Australia or even New Zealand, but on the other side of the planet, that means that F1 fans will be losing a LOT of sleep this weekend. 

Here's the broadcast schedule (see above) for the US, so I hope you have ESPN this year, because they take over the TV coverage from NBCSN. I also hope you have ESPN 3. And I hope you have ESPN 2. Shoot, I even hope you have ESPNEWS, whatever that is. Maybe some of the later races will also be on ESPN 8, AKA "THE OCHO!" Besides trying to remember which ESPN channel to tune in, the biggest change in all of this is that in the US we will be getting the broadcasters of SKY sports in England, so we probably won't be seeing any of the guys from NBCSN, although Will Buxton might be involved. 

Fine, now we've finally lived through 4 long months of no F1 races, the season is starting, we know where to watch on TV, so who do we root for this year? Here at NMS-North we will be rooting for the Ferrari and Haas teams, cheering for Sauber, Toro Rosso, and McLaren a bit, and hope to see our favorite drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen winning. If by some miracle the McLaren car is actually competitive this year, then our other wish would be for Fernando Alonso to win some races, or even a 3rd title, but that seems a bit out of reach. 

NMS-North SEASON PREDICTIONS

-Constructor's Championship: 1-Ferrari, 2-Mercedes, 3-Red Bull

-Driver's Championship: 1-Sebastian Vettel, 2-Lewis Hamilton, 3-Fernando Alonso


Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Happy Birthday Ayrton Senna



Today marks what would have been Ayrton Senna's 58th birthday. The Brazilian three time world champion in Formula 1 racing unfortunately passed away in a race at Imola Italy in 1994. While there is always a debate in any sport about who is the Greatest Of All Time (now known as GOAT), Ayrton may not have won as many titles as Michael Schumacher and a few other drivers, he's my favorite.

If you're not familiar with the story of Senna's racing career, you might want to check out some video clips from his career. Take your choice of many highlights, such as his record number of wins at Monaco, his years at Lotus and McLaren, or his first year with Toleman and final shortened season in a Williams. One quick highlight would be the 1993 European Grand Prix at Donnington in England, where in a pouring rain, he moved up from 4th on the grid and into 1st place on the first lap!

1993 Donnington

Besides his ability to drive in the wet in this race, let's take a look at WHO he passed. Lined up ahead of Senna were Alain Prost in 1st, a 4 time world champion. In 2nd on the grid, Damon Hill, who would go on to win 1 world championship. Also ahead of Senna was a guy named Michael Schumacher, who would end up with 7 titles. In other words, thanks to both the wet slippery conditions and his outstanding driving skill and determination to always win, Senna was able to pass 12 world championships worth of drivers in a single lap in terrible conditions. That alone makes this lap one of the most famous in racing, but if you dig a little and read about the rest of this one race, it makes a great story too, with the changing track conditions (wet or drying) resulting in as many as 7 pit stops for some of the drivers. I think this was the race where the fastest lap was set by Senna on a lap where he came into the pits! At that time there was no speed limit on pit lane, and after coming in to change tires he had a change of mind and accelerated through without stopping, setting fastest lap along the way!


Friday, March 16, 2018

New York Region Autocross Schedule Released!

"OLD" Virginia License Plate

Spring starts next week, and we've just finished the 3rd N'oreaster in the past few weeks, so let's think about all the snow being gone and that the autocross season will finally start on Long Island! Actually it started last weekend with an event from the Porsche Club of America, but NMS is going to focus on the NY Region Sports Car Club of America events this year. Without any further verbiage, here's the season:

Autocross 1:   April 23 Splish Splash Water Park
Autocross 2:   April 29 Splish Splash Water Park
Autocross 3:   May 20 Splish Splash Water Park
Autocross 4:   June 3 PennySaver Amphitheater
Autocross 5:   July 15 PennySaver Amphitheater
Autocross 6:   August 19 PennySaver Amphitheater
Autocross 7:   September 16 Splish Splash Water Park 
Autocross 8:   October 14 Splish Splash Water Park

Thursday, March 15, 2018

ESPN Announces Formula 1 Schedule

When I win the lottery and have enough money to quit working and fly around the world to watch all the Formula 1 races in person, well, that will be fun! However, back in the real world, it's much more likely that I'll be watching on ESPN to keep up with all the practises, qualifying, and live racing action from now to November. If your cable package gets ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, and ESPN News, then you're in luck too, because the network will be using all those channels for their coverage. I get the feeling that ESPN 3 is a streaming app, so let me just make it clear that my interest is in automobiles and not knowing the names of call 23 Gazillion TV channels, 45 Bazillion Apps, and the 143 different versions of how to watch TV in the year 2018.

Here's the ESPN TV Listings: ESPN

And to provide more quality service to YOU our loyal readers, here's the same information! Times are Eastern, and I hope you moved your clocks ahead an hour last weekend!

ESPN’s F1 TV listing:

Race No.RaceSessionDateStart Time (ET)Network
1Rolex Australian Grand PrixPractice 1Thursday, March 229:00 PMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, March 231:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Friday, March 2310:00 PMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, March 242:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, March 251:00 AMESPN2
2Gulf Bahrain Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, April 67:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, April 611:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, April 78:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, April 711:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, April 811:00 AMESPN2
3Heineken Chinese Grand PrixPractice 1Thursday, April 1210:00 PMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, April 132:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Friday, April 1311:00 PMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, April 142:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, April 152:00 AMESPN2
4Azerbaijan Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, April 275:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, April 279:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, April 286:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, April 289:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, April 298:00 AMESPN2
5Spanish Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, May 115:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, May 119:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, May 126:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, May 129:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, May 139:00 AMESPN2
6Monaco Grand PrixPractice 1Thursday, May 245:00 AMESPN2
Practice 2Thursday, May 249:00 AMESPNEWS
Practice 3Saturday, May 266:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, May 269:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, May 279:00 AMESPN
EncoreSunday, May 273:30 PMABC
7Canadian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, June 810:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, June 82:00 PMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, June 911:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, June 92:00 PMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, June 102:00 PMABC
8French Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, June 226:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, June 2210:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, June 237:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, June 2310:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, June 2410:00 AMESPN2
9Austrian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, June 295:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, June 299:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, June 306:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, June 309:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, July 19:00 AMESPN2
10Rolex British Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, July 65:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, July 69:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, July 76:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, July 79:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, July 89:00 AMESPN
11Emirates German Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, July 205:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, July 209:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, July 216:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, July 219:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, July 229:00 AMESPN2
12Hungarian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, July 275:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, July 279:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, July 286:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, July 289:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, July 299:00 AMESPN2
13Belgian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, August 245:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, August 249:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, August 256:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, August 259:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, August 269:00 AMESPN2
14Heineken Italian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, August 315:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, August 319:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, Sept. 16:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, Sept. 19:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, Sept. 29:00 AMESPN2
15Singapore Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, Sept. 144:30 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, Sept. 148:30 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, Sept. 156:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, Sept. 159:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, Sept. 168:00 AMESPN2
16VTB Russian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, Sept. 284:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, Sept. 288:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, Sept. 295:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, Sept. 298:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, Sept. 307:00 AMESPN2
17Japanese Grand PrixPractice 1Thursday, Oct. 49:00 PMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, Oct. 51:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Friday, Oct. 511:00 PMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, Oct. 62:00 AMESPN2
RaceSunday, Oct. 71:00 AMESPN2
18United States Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, Oct. 1911:00 AMESPNEWS
Practice 2Friday, Oct. 193:00 PMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, Oct. 202:00 PMESPN3
QualifyingSaturday, Oct. 20TBDESPNEWS (delayed)
RaceSunday, Oct. 212:00 PMABC
19Mexican Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, Oct. 2611:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, Oct. 263:00 PMESPNEWS
Practice 3Saturday, Oct. 2711:00 AMESPN3
QualifyingSaturday, Oct. 272:00 PMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, Oct. 283:00 PMABC
20Heineken Brazilian Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, Nov. 99:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, Nov. 912:00 PMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, Nov. 109:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, Nov. 10TBDESPNEWS (delayed)
RaceSunday, Nov. 1112:00 PMABC
21Ethiad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand PrixPractice 1Friday, Nov. 235:00 AMESPN3
Practice 2Friday, Nov. 238:00 AMESPN3
Practice 3Saturday, Nov. 245:00 AMESPNEWS
QualifyingSaturday, Nov. 248:00 AMESPNEWS
RaceSunday, Nov. 258:00 AMESPN2