Race of Champions: How will Schumi do??

[oziengineer]

Schumi, in a rally car, driving against Rally's current champion Loeb, who do you think will win...

[flor]

its not only with rally cars this year

[TSR]

As geat as Schuey is I think that he will struggle at the ROC.

I think tha Seb will take the honours, but it would great if Shuey does win.

[Kicking-back]

There are sections using a Ferrari 550 and others using a buggy as well as the rally cars.

[luke]

I really hope Jeff Gordon wins?

[Mattracer]

I'm sort of surprised MS is doing it. Why?

[Kicking-back]

Why not?

[Mike_Wooshy]

lol he is a champion and the event is called for the race of champions so it just makes sence really, does anyone have a full list of entrys ??? who is entering the event i mean, and will it be televised ???

[gringottsdirect]

Originally posted by Mike_Wooshy
... and will it be televised ???

Highlights BBC2 1.30 19th December.

[Logrence]

Originally posted by Mattracer
I'm sort of surprised MS is doing it. Why?

Maybe for the fun of it?

I think Michael will do quite well - the car control skills and driving instincts he has aren't unique to Formula One cars - and don't forget he's also a road tester for Ferrari, he gets plenty of miles in plenty of cars.

Does anyone know if he has ever tried his hand at piloting a rally car?

[Adam43]

Yes, he had a secret test in the Subaru over last winter.

[Irv the Swerve]

Have they karts in this thing?

If not, then they should.

[Jordi]

Drivers confirmed:
-Germany: Michael Schumacher, Armin Schwarz
-France: Jean Alesi, Sebastien Loeb
-United States: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson
-Great Britain: David Coulthard, Colin McRae,
-Sweden: Kenny Bräck, Mattias Ekstrom
-Finland: Heikki Kovalainen, Marcus Grönholm

Be carful with Ekstrom, he did very well in the Catalunya Rally with a Lancer, he won his category I believe. There should be a Spanish team with Sainz and one of the F1 drivers too. And an Italian one with Rossi.

[Jordi]

Official site: http://www.imp.mc/rocwebsite/index.htm

[Andrew Gunnell]

It is looking like it is going to be a great event. Does any one know who has the inlights package for UK tresitial TV?

[garcon]

So they're using a rally car, a Ferrari 550 and a buggy.

Might be a hint of bias on my part here, but being a championship winning WRC driver who just happens to have had pretty darned successful runs in the Paris-Dakar and Le Mans (in a 550!) this year, I reckon Colin will be rather hard to beat.

[alesi95]

alesi will take all.

[Logrence]

I would hazard to say that Colin McRae is one of the best drivers in the world - it'll be interesting to see how DC manages.

Obviously they're all pretty good drivers to have reached the levels that they reach.

[Gore]

I had a look on the website and it's not clear to me how the rounds are split by car. Am I right in guessing that the race drivers will do their hears in the 550s, rally drivers in the Pugs & Citroens, and the winning race and rally drivers will compete in buggies?

The reason I ask is that it would seem to favour the rally guys if the two sets of drivers compete against each other in WRC cars. Strikes me that there'd be a more specialised technique for these than for the Ferrari and buggy.

[Logrence]

Everyone does everything...that's the idea of trying to level the playing field for certain drivers who are more specialised in certain types of car.

[Glen]

With a circuit that is practiced, unchanging and predictaable with decent grip levels (ie like a regular racing circuit and unlike a rally stage (where the corners are not driven over and over, and where surface condidtions vary to a far greater degree)) the technique for driving any car as fast as possible will be different. The reason for swinging and sliding the rally cars around is partly because that is a more forgiving and adaptable method, so when you know which way the corner goes (intimately, not just approximately) a more conventional circuit racing style might be as fast or faster. To that one must add that the rally cars are of course designed to be driven sideways, but my basic point is that the disadvantage to the circuit drivers might not be as big as you'd might expect.

[FIRE]

Eurosport will do a live coverage of ROC: 4 December 19:00 CET

[Ryo28]

And for the technologically inept (ie me!), BBC are doing a highlights programme on 19th December, 1.30pm, on BBC 2 I guess (though considering the BBC's usual inability to produce a motorsport 'highlights' programme that actually contains any highlights, Im not expecting much...)