Race of Champions ROC 2011
by The Badger on Dec 3rd, 2011What is it?
This weekend sees the 2011 Race of Champions event, fittingly held in Germany and features loads of well known drivers battling it out on an indoor stadium circuit. It's not technically a race - more of a time trial, but is still pretty exciting with very little room for error.
Who's in it?
Drivers include Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Vitaly Petrov, Timo Glock, Romain Grosjean and David Coulthard from Formula 1 and then a load of other well known drivers too - you can see the full list of entrants here.
When is it?
It's this weekend - the ROC Nations Cup is on Saturday 3rd December, and then the Race of Champions itself is on Sunday 4th. The nations cup will see Jenson Button head to head against Michael Schumacher - tune in for that!
Saturday (times are CET, GMT+1)
- 17:40 Exhibitions
- 19:00-22:00 ROC Nations Cup
Sunday (times are CET, GMT+1)
- 12:30-13:20 ROC Legends Cup
- 13:30-14.00 Exhibitions
- 14:00-17:00 Race Of Champions
How can I watch it?
It's available on MotorsTV in the UK and you can watch is online via the ROC website here. If you want to follow all the live timing for it, you can do that here. Update: For some reason, the feed on the ROC site can be a bit patchy, so as an alternative, use the direct Freecaster.TV feed here.
Let us know what you think of the event in the comments below
Comments and Discussion
I just watched the ROC. I think it looks a lot more fun for the drivers than it does for the fans. It was boring as hell. Given the drivers who were present all doing it for fun and the format of the racing why were there no driver interviews during the coverage? I believe they only spoke to MSC towards the end. Really poor coverage.
Not as exciting as Formula 1, maybe, but still good fun to watch. And considering that the tickets are dirt cheap compared to F1, I'm thinking about going along if it's held on the continent again
Cheap tickets an evening or afternoon of cars on track with stunts in between, formula one guys racing the same car as each other. Where else have you been able to see michael schumacher beat sebastian vettel and travis pastrana vs sebastian ogier this year? This is fast becoming my favourite single event of the year.
I agree that it wasn't as exciting a spectator event as I was hoping for. I watched it via the freecaster link (thanks badger btw) and had it on in the background as I worked. The coverage I saw for the Sunday ROC event did have interviews with the drivers during the event though.
I can't help thinking that some of the cars were the wrong choice for this small track. I suspect they were chosen by sponsors rather than the event organisers. The R8 and that other US style touring V8 seemed far to large to navigate through the course at any entertaining speed. Ironically I think using karts would have been better
In fact it would have been very cool to have all the drivers out at once with those (although slightly unfair for the rally drivers) 
I watched this on the channel Motors TV or what ever it is on Virgin Media. Thos big tank FJV8's, the commentator mentioned were sanctioned by Nascar for a sereis to run over in Europe. Does any one know any more on this? Would like to get tickets if they come to the UK