Monday Pit-stop #2
Take a deep breath. This was the last relatively quiet weekend of international motorsport – especially with the planned Formula E race in Hyderabad, India being cancelled – before everything really kicks off between now and the end of the year.
The World Rally Championship crews are already heading to Sweden for round two of the series this weekend, which will also be the first WRC event for reigning champion Kalle Rovanpera, who is undertaking a part-time rally programme this year.
A couple of days ago, he revealed what else he would be doing, with a partial programme in the Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux.
The 23-year-old Finn will drive a 911 GT3 Cup car for four of the six rounds and the car will be serviced by Red Ant Racing, which is managed by former racer Marc Goosens.
Rovanpera, a lifelong Porsche fan who also drives a GT3 RS on the road, said: “With a partial season I have a bit more time and I've been thinking a lot about doing more circuit racing.”
The Finn also visited the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year and indicated that he would be keen to try out a Formula 1 car too. Watch this space.
By contrast, the same Yas Marina track hosted UAE Formula 4 and Formula Regional over the weekend: designed as a way for promising young drivers to transition from karts to cars, as a stepping stone to Formula 3. Still in the Middle East, Yazeed Al Rahji won the first round of the FIA World Baja Cup in Saudi Arabia, driving a Toyota Hilux.
And that was about it internationally, but there's always motorsport going on at a grass roots level all over the world. And it doesn't get more basic than banger racing, with the Banger World Series also getting underway in England over the weekend. It's hard to tell who won, because the cars are unrecognisable by the finish and the rules seem pretty fluid.
In most forms of motorsport, the objective is to avoid crashing, but here it's actually encouraged: destruction is the order of the day.
Formula 1 has the technology and sophistication, rallying has the adventure and spectacle, but when it comes to man versus machine, it doesn't get much more gladiatorial or elemental than banger racing.
