It’s the worst time for a Formula One fan, the seemingly endless gap between the Hungarian and Belgian Grand Prix is upon us. With a whole 28 days between the two races, for the petrolhead in us it is absolute torture as all of the teams and drivers take a compulsory two weeks factory shutdown and a further two weeks break to develop their cars further. But don’t despair, there is an abundance of motorsport on during that extended gap to keep you all from going insane, including a few title battles which are reaching their climax.
IndyCar, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000
With just two drivers in with a realistic shout at this year’s Formula One title, there are five in this year’s thrilling IndyCar championship. I won’t go into too much detail, as we have other articles on this but with: three-time Indy 500 champion Helio Castroneves (Penske); three-time series runner up Will Power (Penske); 2012 rookie of the year Simon Pagenaud (Schmidt); 2012 champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) and 2000 Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya (Penske) all in with a good chance at winning the series with over 250 points up for grabs and just 105 splitting the five drivers, it should be great to watch. The Mid-Ohio 200 (August 3rd) and the Wisconsin 250 (August 17th) are on during the F1 break. Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and U.S. F2000 support the IndyCar series and are just as hotly contested as the main series is.
DTM, Euro F3 and Auto GP
Moving away from the United States and onto central Europe, the German Touring Car series has proved to already be thrilling this season, with Mercedes taking two victories despite their car being well off of the pace of the BMW and the Audi cars. Half way into the championship, Marco Wittmann (BMW) leads the way ahead of the Audi of Mattias Ekstrom. There are some names which you may recognise from Formula One with drivers such as: Timo Glock; Vitaly Petrov; Paul di Resta and test drivers Robert Wickens; Antonio Felix da Costa; Gary Paffett and Daniel Juncadella all featured in this championship. With 125 points available, and Wittmann on 70, anybody can still win the title this year. The races at the Red Bull Ring (August 3rd) and the Nurburgring (August 17th) are both on during the F1 break.
The support series for DTM include the European F3 series, where Max Verstappen (son of Michael Schumacher’s former team mate Jos Verstappen) has recently taken a remarkable six victories in a row to propel him into a championship bout with Esteban Ocon. The Euro F3 series will be supporting DTM at the Red Bull Ring and at Nurburgring. So to watch some possible Formula One stars of the future, make sure you watch this thrilling duel.
Supporting DTM at Nurburgring also is the Auto GP World Series, where future Formula E driver Michela Cerruti took a race win earlier in the season at Imola. Japanese driver Kimiya Sato (unrelated to Takuma Sato) leads the way despite running this series and GP2 but Tamas Pal Kiss is still in with a chance at the title should Sato hit trouble.
WTCC
The World Touring Car Championship in 2014 has been more intriguing rather than exciting. The season has been dominated by Citroen in the exact same style as Mercedes in their Formula One campaign, winning all bar one race so far. The Race of Argentina takes place on August 3rd and Jose Maria Lopez will be looking to extend his lead at his home round. His team mates Yvan Muller; Ma Qing Hua and former nine-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb will be hoping that doesn’t happen. So far Lopez has taken five wins, Muller four, Loeb two, Ma one and former Ferrari F1 driver Gianni Morbidelli one for Chevrolet.
MotoGP, Moto 2 and Moto 3
As stated previously, Marc Marquez is pretty much walking to the MotoGP title this year but that is no reason to not watch it, as the racing has been thrilling this year. The return to form of Valentino Rossi has been one notable talking point. With the Indianapolis Grand Prix (August 10th) and the Czech Grand Prix (August 17th) on with Moto 2 and Moto 3 supporting at both events, there is plenty of action on if two wheels is more your thing, or if you’re willing to experiment with watching bike racing.
Moto 2 this season has seen the tense bout between Esteve Rabat, Mika Kallio and rookie in this class Maverick Vinales (all Kalex) intensify in recent races. With just one race win separating them, Rabat, who has six poles this year already will be hoping to extend his lead following two races without a podium, while Kallio has picked up a second and a third in the Dutch and German rain.
Pretty much every Moto 3 race this season has been completely bonkers. There is no other way to put it. With how the bikes seem to work, you get this brilliant pack racing for lap after lap including multiple riders, putting bravery and overtaking skill to the test. Despite this, only three riders have taken victories this year: Jack Miller (KTM), Alex Marquez, younger brother of Marc (Honda) and Romano Fenati (KTM) with Efren Vazquez (Honda) taking many podiums, Fenati has dropped back in recent races so he will need a big result at Indy. This series is really one to watch for the exciting racing than anything else.
NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide
The slots for the all-important Chase are slowly beginning to fill up and with NASCAR on every single week between now and the finale in mid-November, fans of stock car racing are in for a treat. The cut-off for The Chase is not until after Formula One returns, but regardless, with some huge motorsport names in this series, it must tempt a lot of people who do not usually watch it to at least give it a go.
Unlike the Sprint Cup, the NASCAR Nationwide series doesn’t feature a Chase at all, and is just a straightforward fight for the championship. With a rookie in Chase Elliott leading the points and three other rookies in the top 10 in the points, it will be up to the more senior drivers to make sure that the title isn’t taken by a rookie. With just 30 points separating the top four drivers, it is very open at this stage, just over the half way mark with 14 races remaining at this stage. To add to the confusion, drivers such as Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski all have strong results, but are all ineligible for drivers’ points.
The Divide Between World and American Motor sports is Fading
WRC
The World Rally scene returns from their summer break at the beginning of next month as they head to the Rally Finland between the first and third of August. This season has so far been dominated by Sebastien Ogier (Volkswagen), with five wins from seven events. However, with the points system being the same as in F1, a fifty point lead over team mate Jari-Matti Latvala may not last much longer should Latvala return to winning ways and Ogier hit trouble. One driver many Formula One fans will recognise in this series is Robert Kubica, who has returned to racing at the highest level full-time after winning the WRC-2 last year. Kubica has had it much tougher in the premier class, especially with three retirements, but the speed is definitely there for the hugely talented Pole.
BTCC
With seven champions and thirty races in this year’s British Touring Car Championship, the action this year has been far from boring. Despite taking six wins already this season, Colin Turkington (eBay motors) has anything but a healthy lead in the championship, as he is just seven points ahead of Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa). Reigning champion Andrew Jordan (Pirtek) is a further 21 points behind and it is as tight in the Teams’ Championship with eBay Motors leading Honda Yuasa and then the oddly-named MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save team. The next round takes place at Snetterton Circuit on August 3rd. It is no doubt that the Great British Summer will play its part before the season ends at Brands Hatch later in the year.
Formula E Testing
With free entry to the testing for the brand new Formula E series at Donington Park on Tuesday August 19th, if you are in that area and have nothing to do that day, there’s no reason to not go to Formula E, with a long list of former Formula One drivers already confirmed and a few others lined up to test before the series begins in September. It is an unusual sound, yes, but it is certainly an intriguing new series with some incredible technology involved as well as some big names in motorsport including Andretti, Prost, Senna, Trulli and Audi.
Other Options
Failing all of those options, there are plenty of racing games out, for you to hone your skills and possibly go from gamer-to-racer like Jann Mardenborough, who won his first GP3 race at Hockenheim. You can always head to your local go-kart track or to a track day to have a crack at some motorsport yourself.
Personally, I plan to watch as much motorsport as I can during the Formula One break, whilst playing the games, before we head back to normality when Formula One reaches my personal favourite circuit, Spa-Francorchamps next month.
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