The Year in Racing 2009

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JohnBM01

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JMarine25
This is my usual thread in which I try to look back on the year in racing. Care to reflect on a number of good and bad incidents in racing this year? Here are a few highlights:

* Peugeot's epic win at Le Mans
* rain-shortened Petit Le Mans
* Corvette joins GT2
* Ben Spies wins WSBK championship, and finishes 7th at MotoGP finale at Valencia
* brand-new Yas Marina circuit
* Brawn GP: from nowhere to champions, now Mercedes
* Helio Castroneves wins the race of his life against tax evasion; wins Indy 500
* Danica Patrick's best Indy finish- 3rd
* J.C. France: "you boys are done here!" when pulled over
...and more!



So let's look back on 2009! I had to choose a prefix, though this is a general thread, by the way.
 
You forgot JJ's 4th title.:eek:
 
Sebastien Loeb wins his sixth World Rally Championship title with the Citroen C4.
 
JohnBM01
This is my usual thread in which I try to look back on the year in racing. Care to reflect on a number of good and bad incidents in racing this year? Here are a few highlights:

* Peugeot's epic win at Le Mans
* rain-shortened Petit Le Mans
* Corvette joins GT2
* Ben Spies wins WSBK championship, and finishes 7th at MotoGP finale at Valencia
* brand-new Yas Marina circuit
* Brawn GP: from nowhere to champions, now Mercedes
* Helio Castroneves wins the race of his life against tax evasion; wins Indy 500
* Danica Patrick's best Indy finish- 3rd
* J.C. France: "you boys are done here!" when pulled over
...and more!



So let's look back on 2009! I had to choose a prefix, though this is a general thread, by the way.
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BMW joined ALMS this season didn't they? Hopefully my memory isn't that shot. I've been watching the Corvette GT2 cars very closely because I love a good 'vette vs. bmw race.
 
zazaza
Sebastien Loeb wins his sixth World Rally Championship title with the Citroen C4.
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Let's not go there either
 
Ian Poole
Let's not go there either
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Why not? Can you explain me why? Is not Rally a Racing motorsport? Maybe I have the "racing" concept wrong, sorry, but i want to know why I'm wrong. I can understand if rally it's not considered racing because it's like time attack and there are no physical overtakes.
 
zazaza
Why not? Can you explain me why? Is not Rally a Racing motorsport? Maybe I have the "racing" concept wrong, sorry, but i want to know why I'm wrong. I can understand if rally it's not considered racing because it's like time attack and there are no physical overtakes.
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I think he is talking more about the 6 consecutive titles thing, not rally racing in particular.
 
Highlights:
I still can't believe Jenson is Formula 1 World Champion, that sounds so good :) Force India's first points and an amazing chase at Spa was a big highlight too. Oh and the revelation of Kamui Kobayashi.

Loeb actually having to fight for a Rally Championship was very entertaining. All round a good year for the WRC.

Le Mans was brilliant, good to see the petrol's slowly dicing it with the diesels and a great victory for AMR in the LMS.

BTCC was great to watch all year too, fantastic victory for Turkington (in a great 3-way finisher!) and good bumper to bumper racing throughout, especially the debut of Herbert and his Rockingham race.
WTCC was also great, nice to see Tarquini return to the top, loved watching Thompson force that Lada where it shouldn't be. Always a pleasure to follow Alex Zanardi's progress.

GP2 and Formula 2 were possibly the worst series to watch this year, ok any other year they would have been quite good action wise, but only really Hulkenburg's victory excited me. Formula 2 was a little dire talent-wise, Soucek ran away with it.

Lowlights:
-FIA/FOTA war
-Hamilton lying.
-Massa's accident
-Henry Surtees' death
-Singapore investigation
-Schumacher's depressing conference apologising for not returning (it really showed how much he regrets retiring in 2006).
-Donington & British GP farce.
 
Justin
I think he is talking more about the 6 consecutive titles thing, not rally racing in particular.
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Yeah, kinda went off rallying after Loeb started to dominate
 
One other highlight for me so far this year... Holden's beat down performance at Bathurst. And I just remembered the horrific loss of Henry Surtees in Formula 2.
 
It seems like 09 is dominated by dominating drivers, JJ wins 4th, Loeb wins 6th, Schatz wins 3rd, all those in a row, what is the racing world coming to.
 
2009 is the most boring year of Motorsport for me. But not in Le Mans or ALMS but boring for F1, WRC, etc... WTCC won by Gabriele Tarquini and BTCC won by Colin Turkington thus they made up my year :D
 
Holden put 9 cars in the top 10 at the Bathurst 1000, filling spots 1-4 before finding a Ford in 5th.:) Holden Racing Team went from pole to victory and were unflappable the entire race.


(I think they said pole to victory had only been done some 5 times in the last 30 years).
 
I don't know how anyone can claim this was a boring year for WRC or F1...WRC saw Loeb actually fight for his title for once and had its fair share of dramas. F1 was drama throughout, both on and off the track.
 
Another thing I can recall this yearwas the retirement of Gil de Ferran. He's always been such a great racer. Hope all goes well for him in his retirement from motorsports.
 
2009 was the year I accepted I don't love F1 anymore. The racing is just indefensibly dull. I'm glad for Jenson, and I was really really impressed with the way that Lewis spearheaded McLaren's awesome return to form. But the interest for me is now almost exclusively off-track, and that must be wrong, mustn't it?

Some really great V8 supercar races, especially at Hidden Valley, Bathurst, Sydney Olympic Park, Phillip Island and Barbagallo.

I think I'm pretty much on top of NASCAR now, and I love its hero/villain interplay. You have your heroes & villains, and I have mine. And they're different, and that's fine. Also, everyone who thinks Ross Brawn is the best tactician in the game needs to watch Chad Knaus in the Chase.

Also, a previous poster stated "Lewis lying" as a low-light of the year. I completely agree, but if you look at the role of F1 Race Control in the affair, it was pathetic. Put simply, had F1 been controlled like NASCAR is, the issue wouldn't have arisen. I was (and I don't use this term often), disgusted at how McLaren were made to be the scapegoat for the governing body's abject failure.

Loved Scottish Hillclimbing this year. Please search YouTube for "ninjabogeyracing" to see what I mean.

I was pleased that Hulkenberg took GP2. I've been predicting he's the next big thing for a while now.
 
GilesGuthrie
everyone who thinks Ross Brawn is the best tactician in the game needs to watch Chad Knaus in the Chase.
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As much as I despise the Johnson/Knaus combo, I have to admit they are possibly the best driver/crew chief tandem in NASCAR history. Sure he breaks rules, but he also has 4 straight championships.
 
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