Or: scraps & left overs.
Five broadcasts a lot of motorsport in the middle of the night. I’m working though it.
Motorsport Mundial first, the most recent edition of which featured highlights of the first round of the British Rally Championship, which took place really quite a long time ago. Still, it’s always nice to hear Robbie Head commentating – he’s awful at pretending to be surprised, but he knows his rallying.
Apart from a short feature on Darren Gass, and the Pirelli Star Driver competition he won last year, it was a pretty basic highlights package. But with familiar drivers like Guy Wilks and Mark Higgens, the BRC is a championship worth covering.
The next Motorsport Mundial – whenever that might be – will feature V8 Supercars. So it really is a bag of odds and sods. Which is no bad thing.
I don’t know whether the BRC regularly features in Race and Rally UK or not, but the last edition had highlights of the Ford Saloon Car Championship. What else?
Very short highlights, mind, because – like Motorsport Mundial – the first half of so of the programme was cut to extend Five’s NBA coverage. So both programmes started mid-way through, with no sort of opening sequence or introduction. Very strange, but how many people noticed? Possibly just me.
Ford Saloons, then. Quite good fun! Close racing, and a huge variety of cars, from modern Fiesta back to very old Sierra. But I’m not sure why the coverage is so elaborate – there are on-board cameras, inset with driver and rear-view cameras – or indeed why it’s on TV in the first place. Not that I mind, you understand. It’s just a bit surprising.
Commentary from Ian Sowman and Jonny Palmer was utterly servicable. Though just to be clear, that’s not Dr Jonathan Palmer, former Formula 1 driver and commentator, Formula Two champion, Formula Palmer Audi man, and owner of about half the circuits in Britain through his MotorSport Vision company. Not that one. Obscure motorsport commentator Jonny Palmer. Quite different.
Record it? Yes, but Christ knows what you’ll end up with.
