JGTC becomes SUPER GT

[MR22ZZ]

Just to point out that while we were all enjoying a great long weekend, the 1st round of the newly re-named, SUPER GT championship has been run and won, with Toyota's taking out the first 2 spots on the podium in the GT500 division.

Manabu Orido and Dominik Schwager (GER) 1st

Takeshi Tsuchiya and James Courtney (AUS) 2nd

Congrats to James and the Dynacity TOM'S Supra team, the 2nd car came in a credable 6th also.

All info can be found at the championships new web home of http://supergt.net/en/

[MR22ZZ]

Round 2 is this coming Tuesday and Wednesday from the newly redesigned (as seen in GT4) and now reopened Fuji International Speedway

Good Luck JC!!! :D

Edited April 29, 2005 by Blue_Stivo

[CAP]

And what do we get on TV... V8 supercars, Even our WRC coverage is cr@p !

[MR22ZZ]

Don't get me started...

International Series' with Aussies involved that don't get the required FREE TO AIR coverage

- Superbikes - about 8 riders this year - Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Chris Vermuellin (Honda) currently 1,2 in the Championship I think - and replays are on channel 10, 2 weeks after the event, and with back to back rounds such as Valencia last week following Philip Island we need to wait a whole 3 weeks to see well out of date footage of OUR OWN ROUND!!!

- WRC - Chris Atkinson - Subaru WRC - Foxtel has same day rights with a 1 hour show for each day, or 1 hour for days 1 and 2 and 1 hour for days 2 and 3, plus a wrap up 1 hour covering the whole event the following day, but stage format racing is difficult to give good coverage of anyway, the WRC website is the best way to view but requires subscription for live timing and telemetry (similar to the V8 supercar site) but stage results are free and fairly prompt (within about a minute of the car crossing the timing line), Channel 10 shows the 1 hour wrap show that is identical to the final FOXTEL broadcast wrap.

- CHAMPcars - Team Australia (2 cars) - Marcus Marshell - Shown on Channel 10 at 11:30 the next night following them spilling the beans on the result in Sports Tonight anyway, they could always show it live at 4 in the morning so ppl can tape to watch at their leisure.

- IRL - Ryan Briscoe - TARGET Chip Ganassi Racing - Shown on ESPN but is you subscribe to the standard Foxtel package you still do not get this, requires additional subscription and no coverage on free to air other then the usual Motor Sport News sources, Toyota World Sports (SBS), Sports Tonight and RPM (both Ch10).

- Formula 1 - Mark Webber - BMW Williams - Not too bad other then the Malaysian round this year being at 11 at night when they could have shown it live (or at least close to) at 6pm following the Sports Tonight evening show and the Dubai round being a 2 hour delay. They Europe rounds if the programming stays to schedual should be ~ 1/2 hour delay at 10:30pm broadcast time to AEST. Now just to get rid of the CRAP James Allen and Martin Brundle pro Jenson commentary and it'll be much better :P

- SUPER GT - James Courtney - TOM's Supra - Nothin'... maybe on TOYOTA World Sport (SBS) but I've never seen it covered.

Also things like GP2, British Formula 3, British Formula Ford that have a few Aussies and occasionally are on SpeedWeek but not much as far as promotion even in news papers, in fact news papers are poor on for Motorsport coverage in general and argue that dedicated magazines are better but most are published monthly at best and so do not have up to date information...

Oh well, that's my spill of the situation, if NEWS Ltd would like to employ a Motor sports writer well, I'd put my hand up, *** knows I've done the research and know where to find the info... I just don't have the experience.

Edited May 3, 2005 by Blue_Stivo

[shaohaok]

- Formula 1 - Mark Webber - BMW Williams - Not too bad other then the Malaysian round this year being at 11 at night when they could have shown it live (or at least close to) at 6pm following the Sports Tonight evening show and the Dubai round being a 2 hour delay. They Europe rounds if the programming stays to schedual should be ~ 1/2 hour delay at 10:30pm broadcast time to AEST. Now just to get rid of the CRAP James Allen and Martin Brundle pro Jenson commentary and it'll be much better :P

←

at least they don't pretend to be there and tell u wat u can see on the screen or what u already know, like the local "commentary".

[MR22ZZ]

True, I really like the Guys that do the MotoGP on FOXTEL, they definately know what they are talking about and keep you entertained even during the boring patches. Daz and Rusty just don't match up for my taste either...

I did forget though above

-World Motorcycle Championships -

- MotoGP - Troy Bayless - Camel Pons HONDA -

- 250cc - Casey Stoner - Aprillia - Anthony West - KTM (from round 4 maybe) -

-Delayed coverage usually at 11:30 after sports tonight and the 250 race where most of the Aussie interest is with Casey being a real title contender. Plus crappy commentary from Daz and Rusty 'Live' from the Channel 10 Studio. However all races are shown live on FOXTEL with 125 usually around 5, 250's at 7, and the MotoGP's around 9, Makes for a great Sunday evening. There was even a round last year where the MotoGP and Superbikes were on the same day do they showed the Superbike race 1 live and then all World Motorcycle Champioship races live and the Superbike World Championship race 2 with a 1 hour delay and World Supersport replayed after (while Vermeullen and Muggers where racing in that series so heald interest for Aussies) now THAT is service cheers FOXTEL!!!!

[CAP]

We've also got a great GT-P series here in Australia that should get far greater coverage.

[MR22ZZ]

I did say it was for 'international series' but true, it does get coverage on SpeedWeek but usually 3 weeks after the event and the races are editted.

Back on the topic on Super GT though can I also point out that there has been an Australian representative driving in that series ever since Wayne Gardner (Mr 100%) went over there in the late 90's to race with mixed success and we STILL have no coverage of this series ANYWHERE!!!

Edited May 4, 2005 by Blue_Stivo

[MR22ZZ]

James and Takeshi came in 3rd in round 3 from Malaysia 2 weekends ago making the DYNACITY TOM'S SUPRA (see my avatar pic) the first Toyota Supra home. They are now ranked 2nd in the championship 3 points back from the leaders; Satoshi Motoyama and

Richard Lyons driving a XANAVI NISMO Z

Next round Sugo in 2 weeks time... :D

I love the sugo track, it was great when the Superbikes used to go there, not really a car track though, too twisty.

Edited July 12, 2005 by Blue_Stivo

[SuperDave]

- Formula 1 - Mark Webber - BMW Williams - Not too bad other then the Malaysian round this year being at 11 at night when they could have shown it live (or at least close to) at 6pm following the Sports Tonight evening show and the Dubai round being a 2 hour delay. They Europe rounds if the programming stays to schedual should be ~ 1/2 hour delay at 10:30pm broadcast time to AEST. Now just to get rid of the CRAP James Allen and Martin Brundle pro Jenson commentary and it'll be much better :P

←

I just wish channel 10 would say the starting time for the F1 is 10:50 or what ever, at least they wouldn't be lying. Also, if they get rid of James Allen and Martin Brundle they better not be replaced by their commentators. They are so annoying, I have trouble watching the V8 supercars cos of them. Their coverage of the Gold Coast Indy (or what ever its called now) is pathetic, they talk about the same stuff each year leading up to the race.

At least you get a laugh out of them wearing 'race suits' to make them look like they know stuff about racing.

[MR22ZZ]

WOOOO HOOOOO

Supra's come home 1,2,3 and 4...

Dynacity TOM's team came in 1 and 3 with Tatsuya Kataoka and Sakon Yamamoto 1st and Takeshi Tsuchiya and James Courtney 3rd

The DENSO SARD SUPRA came in 2nd with Andre Couto and Ronnie Quintarelli

4th was the ESSO Ultraflo Supra with Juichi Wakisaka and Akira Iida

Takeshi Tsuchiya and James Courtney are now the series points leaders and storming away...

:D Come on James, keep it up :D

Edited July 25, 2005 by Blue_Stivo

[evo]

wouldn't mind him getting back into open wheelers... maybe via F Nippon to a top team tester/midfield runner or even GP2.

[MR22ZZ]

wouldn't mind him getting back into open wheelers... maybe via F Nippon to a top team tester/midfield runner or even GP2.

←

Why??? He gets treated like a king in Super-GT and now has no interest in returning to F1 due to the politics and in fighting. He earns far more in Super-GT then he could ever hope to get in F-NIPPON or GP2 which are mostly fund-your-self drives...

[xoom]

ok im gona have to plan to watch a race .... Dylan is this aired on free to air TV ?

[MR22ZZ]

I wish... I just get updates off the net...

I don't know of anywhere that airs this in Australia... even on Cable. If you get one of those big a55 satalite dishes you could get if from Asia though ;)

[evo]

did i say f1? :)

nah actually i had in my mind f1, but being in super GT could pave the way to a US open wheeler series ala IRL.

[MR22ZZ]

you said GP2 so I was assuming you were thinking of it as a stepping stone back to F1 :P

I actually tip James to do a little bit of open wheeler driving as one of the drivers the Australian entry into A1GP will use (hopefully at Eastern Creek) but it depends on when the Super-GT season finishes. Alan Jones would be crazy to pass up having a driver of James quality and experience behind the wheel. But most likely he will use his son (Christian Jones) but why??? What has he achieved other then being the son of a former World Champion???

Edited July 26, 2005 by Blue_Stivo

[evo]

i really don't know.. but from what i read before, i think christian jones has the seat.

i wonder what christian murchison is doing.. last i heard he was doing some instructor thing over east. can't find anything on the net either.

did i mention he's a schoolmate? haha.