The BTCC made a bit of a thing recently of tickets for all this season’s meetings now being on sale.

That got me wondering about how much motorsport tickets vary in price. As is my wont at such times, research and a little visualisation followed. Not every venue has every event on sale yet – for example British F3 & GT meetings aren’t all available yet – so I’ve stuck to the main events: BTCC, British Superbikes, and international championships.

There’s a surprising conclusion, that I really wasn’t expecting: Silverstone is the UK’s bargain motorsport venue.

BTCC & BSB

There’s not a lot of variation in the big two domestic championships. All the MotorSport Vision venues – Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park, Snetterton – are £25 a pop for race day general admission, as are Donington Park, Knockhill and Thruxton.

The only ones below that are Croft at £24, and Silverstone with an early bird price of £23.20. Do Silverstone’s haul of big international events create economies of scale that enable them to undercut the competition?

Rockingham is the only venue at over £25, though in fairness their £26 includes a grandstand seat as standard. Mainly because there’s virtually nowhere else to watch from.

International

Inevitably Formula Two is the cheapest international event, and again Silverstone comes out on top at £9 compared to £17 at Brands Hatch. You could argue that the Brands Hatch event is co-headlined by the International GT Open, and that Silverstone’s support line-up of Radicals and Minis is not comparable. But having been to F2 at Brands Hatch last year, I can assure you that it’s not worth the asking price, relative to other events.

Next up at £29 is DTM, which doesn’t really work on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. Moving on, then.

The Superbike World Championship is another where Silverstone wins: £32 compared to £40 at Donington Park.

Silverstone is also the most expensive venue though – but then, hosting the two premier class championships, that’s not much of a surprise. There are still early bird discounts to be had on MotoGP, starting at £52, but no such luck with Formula 1, which is quite the leap up at £135 or more. Perhaps there’s something to the argument that F1 is subsidising everything else at Silverstone.

The festivities are over for another year, everyone’s back at work, it’s wet and windy, the news is unremittingly bleak – it’s easy to get down. So, in an effort to keep SAD at bay, here are some reasons to be blindly optimistic.

• It may be months until the new motorsport year gets into full flow, but until then there’s testing and, more importantly and immediately, the Dakar to keep us occupied. Unfortunately Australian broadcaster SBS seems to be finally using geolocation on its website, but with the likes of JMLatvalaFan around on YouTube, even that’s no reason to be down if you’ve not got Eurosport.
• It’s true that the first couple of Formula 1 races won’t be live on the BBC – but don’t dispair, non-Sky types! I for one look forward to having no temptation to get up ludicrously early. I like F1, but I also like a lie-in.
• I also like Ben Edwards, the BBC’s new F1 commentator. His excitable enthusiasm made ITV’s BTCC coverage what it is, and he’ll be a tough act to follow there. But I can’t wait to hear him getting excited about F1 on a regular basis.
• The new CRT entries in MotoGP may not bother the aliens for podium places, but they’ll add much needed bikes to the grid. And in the same way as the new F1 teams a couple of years ago, the battle to be the least bad of them will be something else to keep an eye on. They have to be welcomed.
• It’s not great in the WRC at the moment – just ask North One Sport or Kris Meeke. But it’s not all bad: we can look forward to Loeb versus Hirvonen at Citroen, Petter Solberg in a factory Ford, and Citroens for new faces Nasser Al-Attiyah and Thierry Neuville. We just need the commercial side sorting in the next fortnight, to avoid the Monte’s return to the WRC being less than the triumph it ought to be.
• With Evo regulations as standard this year, there’s every reason to hope that British Superbikes will be even more competitive than 2011. The entry list is filling up nicely, too.
• There’s never much known about the BTCC at this time of year, and 2012 is no different. But with most other grids broadly known quantities already, it’s nice to have a big reveal to look forward to – and that’s what the BTCC Media Day, a couple of weeks before the season starts, usually is.

Photo Credit
Houston Marsh – Flickr – Some rights reserved

Which nation is best at motorsport? Well, I thought I’d try to find out. To do so, I threw the final standings of an entirely arbitrary selection of world championships – Formula 1, WRC, WTCC, MotoGP and Superbike World Championship – at a spreadsheet, normalised the points to a total of 100 per championship, and totalled them up by nation. Then I made a pretty pie chart.

It’s impossible to make this fair, the most obvious issue being three car championships and only two bike. But given the extent to which Spain and Italy dominate on two-wheels, it doesn’t seem too unreasonable. Plus, this way, the UK comes out on top. Which is the most important thing.

The UK and Spain – second overall – are the only nations to score in every one of the five championships – albeit the UK not very well in WRC and MotoGP, and Spain in WRC and WTCC. They’re followed by Italy, overwhelmingly thanks to lots of riders doing quite well – without winning championships – in MotoGP and SBK. Though to be fair, no championships were brought back to the UK either.

France is fourth, thanks to a couple of championships – Yvan Muller in WTCC, Sebastien Loeb in WRC – and Loeb’s new favourite rival Sebastien Ogier. Almost all of fifth place Germany’s points came from F1, and two-thirds of those from Sebastian Vettel.

Outside the top five, we finally leave Europe, and find Australia, represented almost exclusively by Casey Stoner and Mark Webber. Finland, in seventh, inevitably gets all its points from the WRC, chiefly Mikko Hirvonen and Jari Matti-Latvala.

The USA in eighth is pretty much the MotoGP lads, since most American drivers tend to stay in America. Ninth is Norway, courtesy of Mads Ostberg and the Solbergs in WRC. Alain Menu’s WTCC third place near single-handedly takes tenth for Switzerland.

The whole table follows for your delectation:

(more…)

Officially, it’s perfectly clear: it’s the FIM Superbike World Championship. The problem is, no-one really calls it that. World Superbikes is probably the most common way of referring to the series, which is then abbreviated to WSB. But SBK is the chosen abbreviation of series promoters Infront Sports & Media.

Good news, then, that the series is being rebranded. But they’re sticking with SBK, which seems like a missed opportunity.

It’s a mess out there. You have MCN, Visordown, Suzuki and Yamaha all using WSB. Honda and Ducati go with SBK. Kawasaki and Eurosport seem to like WSBK.

It’s a tiny issue, obviously, but branding-wise it’s huge. People searching for any one of the terms – World Superbikes, WSB, Superbike World Championship, SBK, WSBK – are only going to get some of the results.

With the series going by so many names, the promoter, teams and media all have to work extra hard just to be found. It’s totally avoidable if everyone could agreement on what to use.

But the promoters aren’t going to budge, presumably because SBK looks better than WSB. Which is true especially since, according to Infront’s Paolo Flammini:

“We have chosen to further develop the chevron, a familiar icon from the roads worldwide, as a key visual element for the new SBK brand family and bring it to life wherever we can.”

Which is another slightly curious choice: chevrons are associated with ‘keep your distance’, which is I’m sure is not the message the promoters are trying to get across.

Ah, the wildcard entry. There’s little better than seeing a rider or driver on an unfamiliar grid, beating the regulars. Unless you’re one of the regulars, of course.

Formula 1

Formula 1 doesn’t do wildcards. It’s a shame, but I can’t see how it could work.

Ferrari – famously keen on the idea of running a three-car team – would probably enter a wildcard at every race. Probably the same driver, if they could get away with it.

Instead, one driver getting a chance in F1 means another losing out. Karun Chandhok is the lucky one this weekend in Germany, taking the place of Jarno Trulli at Team Lotus. No bad thing.

MotoGP

Maybe it’s because there’s not as much spare cash sloshing around the sport, but there are no such restrictions on wildcards in MotoGP. And they can provide some real highlights.

Troy Bayliss, for example, winning the final race of the 2006 season at Valencia, on a wildcard entry for Ducati, having already won the World Superbike title for them. That was in place of the injured Sete Gibernau though, so perhaps not the purest example of a wildcard.

There’s a proper wildcard entry for AMA rider Ben Bostrom this weekend at Laguna Seca. He’ll double the number of riders at LCR Honda, persumably as a bit of a kick up the arse for Toni Elias. It’ll be fascinating to see how he gets on.

Hopper

The man LCR Honda really wanted was apparently John Hopkins – who suddenly finds himself in demand this season, after a couple of troubled years.

His performance in British Superbikes has been one of the highlights of the year so far. To so quickly return to winning ways, on the unfamiliar and – shall we say – idiosyncratic, circuits of the British Isles is hugely impressive. Hands up who wouldn’t love to see him win the championship? If your hand’s up, shame on you.

He’s already been rewarded by Suzuki with one MotoGP race – standing in for an injured Alvaro Bautista at Jerez – and he’s got a wildcard entry on a second Suzuki at Brno next month. Not only that, but he – along with his BSB team-mate – has a wildcard entry for the World Superbike round at Silverstone.

You can’t blame him for passing on LCR Honda, and not risking his clearly very good relationship with Suzuki. Already I can’t wait to see what he’ll be doing next season.

Superbikes

He’s by no means the only superbike rider to get about.

Tom Sykes had a wildcard entry for the Brands Hatch GP round of British Superbikes last year, with the Kawasaki World Superbike team, and won two of the three races. He’s doing the same again this year.

And before he made his MotoGP debut proper in 2010, Ben Spies had a clutch of wildcard entries: three in 2008 for Suzuki, when he was riding for them in AMA; and one in 2009 for Yamaha, when he won the World Superbike title with them. He scored points in every one of them.

Four wheels

Unless I’m being an idiot – quite possible – wildcards on four wheels don’t tend to be quite so high profile.

There’s a bit of it in touring cars – Colin Turkington at the Donington Park round of the WTCC last weekend, for example. But that didn’t go terribly well.

Rallying too. Volkswagen, for example, preparing for the debut of the Polo R WRC in 2013, by running Skoda Fabia S2000s for various young drivers this season.

But most enticing is The $5,000,000 Challenge in IndyCar – which will see five non-regulars race at the finale in Las Vegas. The lure is a $5 million payout if they win the race. How great an idea is that? Very great.

If only Formula 1 had an appetite for that sort of thing…

Apologies in advance for the length of this post. It’s the equivalent of the ’90s Saturday lunchtime ITV multimedia extravaganza Movies, Games and Videos – by which I mean it’s incoherent – but with less Steve Priestley. Sadly.

Senna

Senna is already the third highest grossing documentary ever at the UK box office (excluding concerts) – and deservingly so.

Top of that list is Farenheit 9/11, with what looks like an unassailable £6.5 million. Second place looks distinctly more achievable – March of the Penguins with £3.1 million (I think, though that disagrees with the figure quoted elsewhere).

As of last weekend, Senna was just shy of the £3 million barrier, which it should pass this week. Give it a couple of weeks, and I reckon it’ll take the number two spot. It should do, if you look at the trend.

TT3D: Closer To The Edge

There’s good reason to think that Senna will hang around in cinemas for a while yet, in the form of the also excellent TT3D: Closer To The Edge. After 12 weeks on release, it’s still taking money, albeit at only six sites last week. It’s grossed over £1.2 million to date.

Which means the DVD and Blu-ray release, which I am keenly awaiting, is still yet to be dated. The good news is that plans seems to be well advanced though, as there’s an extensive listing on Duke Video now.

More Guy Martin

But if you can’t wait for more Guy Martin, then this entry to the Relentless Energy Drink Short Stories film competition, entitled Isle of Man Tourist Trophy, is worth a watch. It’s a bit like TT3D, but about 100 minutes shorter.

The other Short Stories entries aren’t terribly easy to find on the Relentless webste, but a search on YouTube does the trick. They’re an interesting bunch.

In other Guy Martin news, he revealed in passing this week that he’s got another TV project in the works. And in ACTUAL RACING NEWS, also this week he won the Senior Race at the Southern 100. Which is good.

Games

Lastly, a game! Or perhaps more accurately, a promotional tool for Red Bull Speed Jam, which takes place in Cardiff on 3rd September. Amongst the attractions will be Red Bull Racing, aerial acrobatics from the Red Bull Matadors, and the finals of the Red Bull Kart Fight karting competition.

Red Bull Kart Fight is also the name of the game, which comes in iPhone and browser variants. Buy Red Bull – if you can stand the stuff – enter the code thereon, and you can win tickets to Speed Jam through playing the game.

The iPhone version is little more than glorified Scalextric: accelerate and brake are the only meaningful inputs; tilting only adds drift and modifies the racing line which you automatically follow. Not good. Still, better than the TT3D promotional iPhone game.

Thankfully there are proper controls in the browser version, which isn’t a bad litle “nod to Micro Machines” – to quote the company behind the game.

On paper, Ian Hutchinson should have been the star of TT3D: Closer To The Edge. In 2010, he became the first rider ever to win all five races in a year at the Isle of Man TT. It was an incredible achievement. But Ian Hutchinson is a softly spoken humanoid automaton – albeit endearingly so – and gets the screen time his personality demands.

So does Guy Martin. The difference is that Guy Martin’s personality is that of an excitable Jibba Jabber. In short: he’s good value.

It’s not all ‘likeable idiot’ stuff though. There’s plenty of that early on – when Hutchinson, John McGuinness and Michael Dunlop are also profiled, providing an enjoyable juxtaposition. But at the TT, we get to see the meticulous, uncompromising, petulant side of Guy Martin’s personality. And, perhaps less welcome, his love of wanking.

It all adds up to a compelling portrait of Guy Martin. But entertaining though he is – and there’s no doubt that the force of his personality drives a lot of the film – it’s not him I came away thinking about.

The film doesn’t shy away from the issue of death. It’s extensively talked about by the riders, families, officials – everyone, in short. To an extent, the film is trying to understand the fascination with the TT, when it’s so objectively dangerous.

New Zealand rider Paul Dobbs died in the 2010 TT. Footage of his funeral procession on the island with dozens of bikers following is one of the most poignant moments; the interview with his widow, Bridget, is one of the most inspiring.

Another moment imprinted on my mind is seeing Conor Cummins tumbling down the mountain like a ragdoll. It’s absolutely staggering. That he’s back on a bike now is incredible.

I’ve not mentioned the races a great deal, but the film’s not really about the races – it’s about the people. Don’t get me wrong: on-board footage on a huge cinema screen is a treat to see. But it’s not what makes the film what it is: a proper documentary, with laughs, gasps, shivers, tears, and food for thought.

So here’s hoping for a DVD release – as TT2D, if you like. The 3D added nothing, anyway.

These must be interesting times for Guy Martin: having signed for Relentless Suzuki, things look rosy for the road racing season ahead; his prime time BBC One series has just finished; and his move up from the small screen to the big screen is imminent. Blimey.

The Boat That Guy Built

Did you watch The Boat That Guy Built? It was a curious beast: by turns fascinating and tedious, amusing and annoying, over long yet running at a breakneck pace. Like Guy Martin himself, you might say.

His role was curious too. It felt to me like perhaps he didn’t quite work out as hoped in front of the camera, and in the edit became more the subject of the documentary than the presenter. Certainly his pieces to camera that did make the cut were a touch more rapid-fire and rambling than a 7.30pm BBC One audience might be used to. It would also explain the Liza Tarbuck voiceover, delivered very much in the tone of a despairing mother.

I stuck with it though – despite the unending calls of “chief” and “boss”. It’s always good to see Industrial Revolution era engineering, and Guy Martin’s enthusiasm and willingness to have a go was a reasonably effective medium.

It’s available on the BBC iPlayer for a few weeks yet.

TT3D: Closer To The Edge

I can’t decide which is more unexpected to see Guy Martin in: a prime time TV series, or a documentary film with a wide cinematic release. TT3D: Closer To The Edge is about the Isle of Man TT as a whole, but the trailer suggests that Guy Martin will be one of the main focal points.

Like I, Superbiker, the majority of the screenings will be on one night: Wednesday 20th April 2011. They’re being labelled preview screenings, but far fewer cinemas will be showing the film on its official release on Friday 22nd April.

But unlike I, Superbiker, I think TT3D might be genuinely good. The trailer certainly looks a lot more professional, and gives the impression of being a proper documentary. It’s also telling, perhaps, that the pre-release plaudits have come from the like of Empire and Total Film, rather than The Sun and MCN.

Fingers crossed, then. I’ll pop along to one of the preview screenings, and shove my opinions right up this website shortly afterwards.

TT3D Game

But, whatever you do, don’t download the TT3D Game for the iPhone. It is literally the worst thing I’ve played in years. It looks awful, the course is completely flat, the bike is virtually uncontrollable – I shan’t go on. Just don’t go near it.

I was very keen to see I, Superbiker, out of sheer curiosity. To make a documentary film around British Superbikes is intriguing enough, but to secure screenings at dozens of cinemas nationwide – all on the evening of Monday 14th March 2011 – is hugely impressive.

So I popped along to my local screening, not really knowing what to expect – either in terms of the film, or the turnout.

Unlike some of the screenings with a celebrity guest, it certainly wasn’t sold out. But there was a bit of a queue forming to get in when I arrived, and there was a decent crowd when the lights went out. I assume that it’s been a commercially successful endeavour, and I’m glad about that.

The film follows Tommy Hill, Josh Brookes, James Ellison and Gary Mason throughout the 2010 British Superbikes season. It paints them as modern day gladiators, which is obviously a bit daft – as is the opening sequence, complete with tacky Roman lettering and cheap graphic effects.

It gets better from there though, and belts along at quite a pace. It has to, to fit in highlights from every race, interviews, behind the scenes footage, and segments following the riders at home between meetings.

Gary Mason and James Ellison come across especially well. They’re memorably honest about money, and where they are in their careers: in Mason’s case, being paid only for results; in Ellison’s, doing what he loves, albeit for not a lot of money.

There’s an interesting contribution from James Whitham on the same subject – at the controls of a light aircraft, naturally – suggesting that teams have become the most important aspect, rather than riders.

The pain and frustration that Ellison went through after his huge accident is clear to see: the fear that his career could be slipping away, and the resulting pressure he put on himself deliver results. His win at the final meeting is a satisfying conclusion to his story.

The same can’t be said about Mason, who slowly fades into the background of the film as the final stages of the season unfold.

The impression of Tommy Hill is a little one-dimensional: he’s either winning or wanting to win, then he doesn’t win. There is nothing about his return to British Superbikes after a fairly torrid time in World Superbikes, which might have added some context to his campaign.

Josh Brookes, meanwhile, is just plain anonymous. Presumably because Britain isn’t his home, there are no contributions from other people in his world, and little is seen of his life away from the track.

So it isn’t quite a film about the four riders, due to the restriction to the 2010 season. But neither is it a film about the 2010 season, most obviously because Ryuichi Kiyonari – the eventual champion – is largely glossed over.

That’s presumably because he isn’t hugely expressive in English, but that seems like a missed opportunity. We don’t really know Kiyonari very well – thanks to the language barrier – but judicious use of a translator could have provided some genuinely new insight into his character. He would, perhaps, have been a more deserving subject of the film. As would Michael Rutter, if you ask me.

But it’s mainly about Hill towards the end, so him losing the championship is the film’s abrupt conclusion, which isn’t terribly satisfying.

Enough about what the film isn’t, though. There’s no question that it’s absolutely stuffed to the gills: the race edits work well, despite their focus on the four riders; and there’s some good stuff around those edits. As a result the film doesn’t fail to engage.

As a piece of motorsport entertainment, it’s a decent achievement. But with more context, and slightly more probing interviews, it could have been more than that.

This week, YouTube celebrated five years since its official launch. Actually, it didn’t really seem to mark the occasion at all, but Aleks Krotoski went on Radio 4′s Today programme to talk about it. Which is all the excuse I need to upload another largely pointless video to YouTube.

How about something from earlier this year? The Brands Hatch GP round of British Superbikes in August, perhaps? Yes. Here’s BSB Evo rider Pauli Pekkanen doing a burnout, taken from inside Druids:

What I particularly like about this is that Pekkanen had finished 18th overall in the race, and 4th in the Evo class. The probable explanation of why he felt the need for a burnout is simple: he’s Finnish, and therefore brilliant.