It’s not really surprising that the BBC spends so much time and money on F1 as it is truly a global sport that attracts millions of viewers every time the cars are on track.

What is surprising is that the Beeb is about to air a new documentary series called ‘Gears and Tears’ that is based on, wait for it… BriSCA Formula 1 Stock Car Racing. The first part will be aired on BBC1 on Monday August 2 at 10.35pm and, if the premise is anything to go by, it’ll make for some great viewing. (‘Movie trailer voice’ optional here…)

“It’s an obsession that’s divided two rival families for 40 years,” the release states, “two racing dynasties who, every weekend, fight fiery gladiatorial showdowns in thundering purpose-built chariots designed to push the opposition off the track.”

Of course at Motor Sport we should really be talking about the 850bhp machines that feature in the stock car series rather than the feuding families behind them, but suffice to say that they are truly spectacular.

The release continues, and I couldn’t resist including this, “over a nine month season the film makers enjoyed unprecedented access to this world of everyday heroes from all walks of life. Gears and Tears celebrates values often forgotten in contemporary British society where enthusiasm, improvisation and home grown engineering skills are still king. It’s the stuff of legends”. Well I’m not sure about that but I know where I’ll be on Monday night at 10.35pm.

While Juan drove his wrecked car into Gasoline Alley his Earnhardt-Ganassi team-mate Jamie McMurray came through to win, just as he did in February’s Daytona 500. Heartbreak for Montoya resulted in celebration for the team as Chip Ganassi became the first team owner to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 in the same year. “My heart goes out to Juan,” said Ganassi. “He had a great day. But this is a big, big day for Jamie, our sponsors and our team. It’s incredible. I need oxygen. I don’t know what to say.”

At one stage near the end of the race, before the final pitstops, Montoya and McMurray were running one-two. “Juan obviously had the dominant car and it’s horrible the luck that he’s having,” said McMurray. “I’m a big believer in fate, and when Juan was leading and I was second I thought, ‘This is just the way it’s meant to be. I won the Daytona 500, Dario won the Indy 500 and Juan’s going to win this race.’ I really thought it was his day.”

McMurray and Ganassi’s joy aside, the big story at Indianapolis was the many empty grandstand seats. Ticket sales for the Brickyard 400 have been in decline for many years, but this year witnessed a sharp drop, with between 80,000-100,000 of the Speedway’s 257,000 seats remaining empty on a hot, humid race day.

The decline in attendance is not unique to Indianapolis, of course. Most NASCAR races have suffered a steady fall in ticket sales over the past four or five years. NASCAR peaked in 2005 with more than 4.6 million spectators for all 36 races. Three years later NASCAR’s annual draw totalled 4.2 million, followed by a more precipitous fall last year to 3,892,000. Based on this year’s first 19 races a further decline of 300,000 is projected, down almost 30 per cent from 2005. TV ratings are down in equal proportions. TV viewership has been in decline for three or four years, and has lost another 10 per cent of the audience this year.

Responding to feedback from a 12,000-member fan council NASCAR has made a series of rule changes over the past 18 months. They’ve thrown out the little rear wing in favour of a more traditional spoiler, introduced double-file restarts and the guarantee of green-white-checker finishes rather than ending races under a yellow. The move has produced plenty of wild finishes and multi-car wrecks, as has NASCAR’s recently-minted ‘Have at it boys’ philosophy.

Some tracks have begun to cut ticket prices this year, yet the decline in attendance and TV ratings continues. Everyone is wondering what’s it all about. Is it the economy, or the bland, spec car-like ‘Car of Tomorrow’? Or is it the poor performance in recent years of Dale Earnhardt Jr, by far NASCAR’s most popular driver?

Everyone is searching for a silver bullet to recapture NASCAR’s magic formula. In fact, NASCAR’s third-generation boss Brian France says he’s prepared to try almost anything, including knock-out eliminations with a final, one-race play-off for the championship. Would that the solution was so simple.

2009 Auction Results

2008 Auction Results

As usual, please do ask us anything (within reason) you like by clicking here. With no team principals to distract us we’ll make sure we answer as many of them as possible.

We love recording these as more often than not they descend into ‘Roebuck anecdotes’ that, whether they are about Keke or Kimi, keep us amused for hours. However, these are recorded for you so do let us know what you think and what you’d like changed, if anything.

‘See’ you on July 27…

Growing up through the 1970s and ’80s in a household with a father and brother that followed motor racing avidly, I either had to take an interest or opt out! My father worked in the tobacco industry and his employers were active sponsors of Formula 1 and other racing formulae, so we had many opportunities to attend races and visit circuits.

Most weekends in the late ’70s and early ’80s were spent at Donington Park, but until last weekend my only experience of a Grand Prix had been the 1987 British GP at Silverstone, where I saw Nigel Mansell overtake Nelson Piquet to win the race and then have to hitch a lift on a policeman’s motorbike on the slowing-down lap. A British win at a British circuit raised many emotions and a swell of support in the crowds saw us all clambering out of our seats, across the barriers and running behind Mansell back to the pits.

Fast-forward a frightening 23 years to my second trip to Silverstone, and last Friday I was invited by Virgin Racing to join the team in the paddock for practice – and what a fantastic day I had.

My first jaw-dropping moment came as I walked with my host through the gathering crowds at the entrance of the F1 paddock and turned right into an ‘avenue’ of team motorhomes – something akin to a Manhattan skyline, each block towering above me, shiny and bright, all perfectly aligned. How different from my previous GP visit when team trailers were literally that – Winnebago-style with picket fences to mark the boundaries, patio tables and chairs defining team territory.

On arrival at Virgin Racing’s motorhome, I met some key members of the team and their two drivers, Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi. All were very welcoming, putting me at ease straight away. This was to set the tone for the rest of the day.

I was given a tour of the garage, a visit to the pitwall and a review of the new GPS systems, and was shown the new nosecones that the team were to use in practise. As 10am drew nearer the tension in the garage rose – the swarm of mechanics dressed in black and red busied themselves around their respective cars, waiting for the OK to get them started.

I was given a pair of ear defenders and permitted to stay in the garage throughout the practice session – and I was rooted to the spot. It turned out that the ear defenders were linked to the team radios, providing a fabulous first-hand opportunity to witness the team dialogues and dynamics. I stood, watched and listened as two crews worked in synch on all aspects of preparing the cars and drivers for practice. When Glock’s car encountered problems and had to be stripped right back and seemingly re-built before he could sample the new-look Silverstone circuit the mechanics all worked together, keeping their cool, to ensure they maximised the time Glock had left in the first session. After lunch, I returned to the garage to watch the team at work – the relationships between chief mechanic, chief engineer, driver and the pitwall – an enlightening experience. Even the levels of cleanliness, the constant polishing of the garage floor and sweeping each time the cars were out was interesting to see – a new sponsorship opportunity for Mr Sheen maybe?

After a day out I often ask my daughter ‘which was your favourite bit?’ and she often replies ‘it was all so good, no bit was better than any other!’ Well, I will borrow her sentiments – it was a fantastic day. Thank you to Virgin Racing for their invitation and a wonderful opportunity to view the behind-the-scenes work of an F1 team.

Dafina Keys, Motor Sport’s publisher and very good tea maker

Most drivers want more power, certainly on road and street circuits, and a car much like the old CART or Champ Cars that produced most of their downforce from the underwing. They would prefer a car with small external wings that could run more closely to the car in front, allowing more passing – aided by the boost from the new turbocharged engines agreed to last month.

“They’ve got to have 750 horsepower-plus,” says championship leader Will Power. “That’ll make the racing better because it’ll be harder to drive and the cars will look more spectacular. It also mean the tyres will go off [sooner].”

Scott Dixon believes a substantially bigger push-to-pass power boost will be available with a turbocharged engine. “I think the idea is to have a push-to-pass with the turbo that actually gives you a large amount of power, kinda like Champ Car did,” says Dixon. “So that could make for more passing. For me, the car needs to be a ton lighter. The current car is a bit of a heavy thing. Being a lot lighter will make it safer too because you won’t hit the wall as hard.”

Dixon also wants to see more freedom in the aero rules. “Adjustability is the key,” he says. “All this specifying of the wing angle is just wrong. There needs to be room in the rules for adjustability so different drivers and teams are able to run different strategies.”

Everyone agrees on this point, Dario Franchitti included: “You’ve got to have room for adjustment, so if you want to put downforce on you can or if you want to run lighter downforce you can. We’ll be able to do that if we have more power as we’re supposed to.”

Will Power remains a fan of the Panoz DP01 he raced in 2007, Champ Car’s last year. The DP01 produced most of its downforce from the underwing and had much smaller external wings than the current Dallara. “We had pretty good racing with the Panoz,” says Power. “To me, they need to develop a lot more downforce from the floor and have smaller wings like the Panoz. The most turbulent air comes from the wings, and the bigger the wings, the more turbulent the air.”

Franchitti emphasized that it’s difficult to create a package that works well on Indycar’s wide range of tracks. “It’s tough to make a car that works on road and street courses, and on the one-and-a-half-mile tracks and short ovals and at Indianapolis too. You’ve got all these different combinations which have different requirements. It’s not an easy decision. I suppose it depends as well on is it going to be just one chassis or are they going to open it up? If they open it up to multiple chassis that will change things.”

On Wednesday, the concept of the Indycar of the future will be revealed. Next comes the devilish detail, determining the car’s specifics and writing a workable, equitable rulebook. Wednesday’s announcement is the next step in Randy Bernard’s giant mission to recreate and rebuild Indycar racing.

It wasn’t until I was travelling up to the stage at the top of Goodwood’s hill that I was informed my driver would be reigning IRC champion Kris Meeke! I don’t know if it was the thought of travelling through the trees at high speed or having to sign a consent form that scared me most. But I did realise what a great opportunity I’d been given.

I met Kris, who was very charming and relaxed, and we talked about the last IRC round in Ypres, Belgium where he was disappointed to have rolled the Peugeot (a thought that did nothing to steady my nerves). However, Kris was adamant that the Kronos team is doing all it can to improve the car against the rival works Skodas, and he vowed to “drive like hell” for the rest of the season in order to defend his title.

One thing I’ve learned is never tell a driver not to go too fast – they always do the opposite – so this time I kept quiet and witnessed an expert at work. I watched the countdown at the start of the stage, gripping my seat harness, thinking how lucky I was as fans cheered Kris on, and suddenly we were off…

We flew along the tree-lined, dusty stage, approaching the corners side-on and getting airborne over the crests. It was fantastic, although I was glad the onboard camera was focused on Kris and not me.

It was a thrilling experience, and afterwards I was on such a high that as I thanked Kris and went to give him a peck on the cheek I ended up head-butting him with my race helmet – I forgot I was wearing that! I hope I didn’t do any damage ahead of the next rally in the Acores, Portugal – and I wish him the best of luck.

“This is a beautiful track,” Bernard said at the Glen. “The weather’s perfect and there’s quite a lot of fans out there – a lot of campers. I’d like to find a way to continue to race here. But I’m held accountable for my bottom line and I want to make sure each facility is held accountable with plenty of butts in the seats. I don’t want to go anywhere where we don’t have the full support to make the event successful.”

Bernard said he’s still talking to Watkins Glen about next year. “We have to have an answer within six weeks and it might happen sooner than that,” he said. “We need to make sure we give our team owners and sponsors plenty of opportunity to be able to plan for next year. The key is to get 18 promoters behind us who really want to make the series grow to reignite open-wheel racing. That’s one of my primary goals.”

“We love this event, ” said Watkins Glen president Michael Printup. “These guys and girls race the hell out of this track, so I’m personally pushing very hard. We have a fantastic camping crowd this weekend and I’m pretty excited about that, especially in this economy. We did take a bit of a risk and put a lot of advertising dollars up in Toronto and Niagara Falls. I’m not sure that paid off. I really thought we could bring a lot of those people down here, but I don’t know if that’s working.”

As delightful a place to visit as Watkins Glen is, the crowds for the six Indycar races run at the track since 2005 have been disappointingly poor. Back in the Glen’s heyday it used to draw huge crowds not only for the United States Grand Prix in the fall, but also for July’s Can-Am, Formula 5000 and Six-Hour World Championship sports car races. The village of Watkins Glen was full of crowds all weekend and traffic jams filled the road up to the track.

But the only race that pulls a serious crowd to the Glen these days is August’s NASCAR Sprint Cup event, first run in 1986. As NASCAR took over as the dominant force in American racing the Glen has struggled to find a healthy sports car or open-wheel alternative. Everyone hoped the Indycar race would be successful but it looks like last weekend’s event was the end of the road, and possibly the end of any major form of racing at the track save NASCAR.

“It’s like Spa, ” said Power after his victory. “It’s the nicest track we race on. You can pass here – it’s a flowing track with fast, banked corners. It’s a real dream to drive, especially when the car is working. I’d be really disappointed if we don’t come back here.”

Road racing in America started in 1948 on an open road circuit through and around the village of Watkins Glen. But 60 years later the great tradition of mid-summer road races at the Glen appear to have come to an unhappy end, leaving NASCAR in command of the track that was once known as the ‘home of American road racing’.

Motor Sport Magazine is back this year and although we won’t have our usual stand next to the cricket pitch we will have a presence on the BMW stand (see map below).

Do come and say hello over the weekend as we’ll be equipped with tea, coffee and of course, the latest subscription offers. Also you may end up bumping in to the likes of Tiff Needell, Jake Humphrey, Murray Walker and Steve Soper who are all going to be visiting the BMW stand over the weekend.

Click here to see a map of Goodwood.

See you there!

The all-asphalt stages are spread across the Fields of Flanders, scene of so much death and destruction in World War I and at the centre of which is Ypres, or ‘Wipers’ as the Tommies called it during those dark days.

Now these fields are bursting with life, the rally cars blasting between rows of vegetables. Cabbages, potatoes, beetroot and corn as far as the eye can see. Speeds are high, there’s barely a hill worth its name, and the challenges come from long, fast straights leading to right-angle corners. The surface varies, the asphalt offering dramatically differing levels of grip.

The winner will need experience, local knowledge and lightning reflexes if he is to avoid the rocks that lurk in the apexes as well as the dust and gravel off-line. Enter Freddy Loix, local hero and five times an Ypres winner. Now 39 years old, he’s back from retirement and strapped into the potent Skoda Fabia. This charming man attacked and attacked again, until his younger and more flamboyant rivals slipped or rolled into the fields and ditches. First it was championship leader Juho Hänninen, stuck in a ditch, then reigning champion Kris Meeke, rolling across a field, allowing Loix to lift off just a touch and come home to a rapturous reception in the shadow of Ypres Cathedral on a hot summer night in Belgium. With him on the podium were Skoda works driver Jan Kopecky and a delighted Thierry Neuville, who salvaged some honour for the defeated Peugeot team.

And thereby hangs a tale. The Skoda IRC team is a fully supported works effort, the Czechs fielding two new Super 2000 Fabias for Hanninen and Kopecky as well as a Skoda UK car for Guy Wilks, who missed Ypres after being injured in a crash on the Sardinia rally. And, of course, the car for Belgian favourite Loix.

All this does not please Peugeot, champions for the last three years, and still entered semi-independently by the Kronos team. The French outfit is pleading ‘poverty’ in the face of the mighty Skodas, claiming that the IRC should not be permitting factory outfits. But this does not concern the organisers themselves, who respond to cries of foul by pointing out that the championship changes organically all the time and is not closed to manufacturer teams.

“If we complain, people will say we are bad losers,” says Marc van Dalen of Kronos. “But that is not the case. We simply don’t have the resources or the budget to fight a full works team in the IRC.” Series promoter Jean-Pierre Nicolas, a former WRC team boss at Peugeot, denies there is a problem. “It is not unfair to have a works team in the IRC,” he says. “The IRC is strong, we have hundreds of independent entries, and sometimes we will have an era when a factory team wants to come in and compete. There is a good battle between Peugeot and Skoda, it’s exciting and good for the series which grows in stature.”

Whatever the ins and outs of this, the huge crowd that gathered in Ypres on Saturday night cared only for one thing. Their man Freddy was back, and back on the top step for a sixth victory. And Monsieur Loix will be out in his Skoda this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Give him a cheer. This is how comebacks can be done.