Last night I was watching Michelin race of champions, and they had a bunch of NASCAR drivers racing.

Jeff Gordon was awesome, needless to say, I now have a little more respect for NASCAR drivers.

Just kind of shocked to see Gordon driving an EVO

 

Im not, hes an evil man driving an evo. siner

 

sounds interesting, what was the race like? who was in it? what were they driving (just evo's?)

you mean sinner?

 

They had 3 or 4 different kinds of cars, all euro or JDM spec I think, they had EVO6's, some kind of weird looking car built for rallying, and ROC cars, which kind of look like Imprezas.

I can't remember who else was there, i don't watch NASCAR, and the only name I recognized was Gordon.

Later on in the program, they had WRX's, EVO8's, and the little weird car again.

 

Litte overview of the race. Michelle Mouton, Audi rally driver, first started this race mainly for fun on the Canary Islands. It consists of a dual loop track that has been copied many times since in Super Special Spectators stages at many rallies since.

Anyways, each country that participates sends three people to race; generally a track driver, a dirt-course/rally/loose surface driver and a motorcycle rider. I think the US generally sends two NASCAR drivers and a motorcyle rider (this year they sent Travis Pastrana who has since decided he wants to get into rallying and is competing in ProRally this year).

Each year has slightly different cars, but most often they are Group A or WRC spec cars. Evos, Seat Corbodas, Imprezas, Toyota Yaris', Peugeot 206s, plus one specially designed car, the ROC Car. I don't remember the specific specs on the current ROC Car, but this year it was built with a Honda ~1000cc motorcycle motor (previously it was built by Yamaha).

There are a few different championships that take place during the weekend. There is The Nations Cup (a group effort), the Race of Champions (individual, not group effort) and the ROC Juniors. Also, this year there was a Toyota F1 cup (the only competitors being the two F1 drivers present for this years event) and the ROC America (for American drivers).

This year was they added a new team to compete along side each counties team, it was an All Star team, which not supprisingly, won the Nations Cup.

More info: www.raceofchampions.com

 

Thank for the overview, Mr. nKoan. Was this televised on Speed? Sounds like it would've been fun to watch.

--
0==WW==0
"…axles of evil…" - george w. bush

 

travis pastrana did very well. he kept up w/ gronholm!..until he flipped the evo though...

 

Yeah, I think it was just on Speed. I would like to watch it but I'm a little disappointed as this happened months ago, so I've already moved on.

 

The one I just saw televised was the 2002 race. Marcus Gronholm won the whole thing. Harri Rovanpera was the 2001 reigning champion.
__________________
Best Car Insurance | Auto Protection Today | FREE Trade-In Quote

 

There are a handful of NASCAR drivers who are truly 'good drivers.' Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson (who got to NASCAR via Baja and SCORR racing), Mark Martin... a few others who I can't recall as I haven't watched much NASCAR over the last couple years. Most of the rest are just really good circle track drivers.

 

A lot of NASCAR drivers are good 'ol boys, so they had plenty of dirt roads to practice driving on.

Its just that NASCAR is more ubiquitous, and makes more money in the states. For the most part, thats the only reason some of these kids race NASCAR.

 

Can't forget Tony Stewart. He grew up with sprints and then IRL cars. He usually does well when NASCAR goes to the road tracks along with a few other fellas. I'd like to see Tony run in the ROC sometime. I'm sure his dirt experience would be very helpful.

Along the lines of NASCAR drivers who are talented drivers in general there are quite a few. Dale Earnhart Jr, Robby Gordon, Tony Stewart and a few other NASCAR guys were all running Daytona Prototypes at the 24 hours of Daytona this year and were all running at the top of the order over a bunch of big names in road racing.