Thursday, July 7, 2016

What to watch this Weekend (July 7th - July 13th)

  • V8 Supercars. Darwin Triple Crown. Thursday @ 7pm - 8pm (CBSSN(HD)) delayed airing 6/18-6/19
  • Pirelli World Challenge. From Road America. Thursday @ 8pm - 10pm (CBSSN(HD)) delayed airing from 6/23-6/26
  • Formula 1 - British Grand Prix; from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Practice (1). Friday @ 3pm - 4:30pm (NBCSN(HD)) replay
  • Formula 1 - British Grand Prix; from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Qualifying. Saturday @ 8am - 9:30am (NBCSN(HD)) live
  • Formula 1 - British Grand Prix; from Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Race. Sunday @ 7:30am - 10:30am (CNBC(HD)) live; replay @ 2:30pm on NBCSN
  • United Sports Car Championship. Mobil1 Sportscar Grand Prix. From Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Clarington, ON. Sunday @ 11am - 2pm (FS1(HD)) live
  • Chris Harris On Cars. Monday @ 9pm - 9:30pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) new
  • Top Gear (UK). Monday @ 9:30pm - 11pm (BBCAmerica(HD)) replay
  • Motorweek. Tuesday @ 7:30pm - 8pm (VelocityHD)
  • Top Gear America. Tuesday @ 9pm - 10pm (HistoryChannel(HD)) 
  • Chasing Classic Cars. Tuesday @ 10pm - 10:30pm (VelocityHD) new 
  • Wheeler Dealers. Wednesday @ 9pm - 10pm (VelocityHD) new
Top Gear UK Season 23 ends and Chris Evans leaves the show, capping off the swirling rumors of his need for control and Matt LeBlanc not wanting to work with him. After watching the new season and seeing Chris Harris kill it with his short films, I remembered that he could do a show on his own filled with sweet car reviews and wished he would return to the interwebs. Then I saw an advert for Chris Harris On Cars the TV show airing next Monday @ 9pm on BBC America. Glad he's back to giving the people what they want. Back to Top Gear UK, though, it was rough to start, but episode 6 was decent, despite it being a collection of solo-acts until the final presenters showdown. Word is they'll be looking for a more subtle and witty lead Brit for season 24, to bring the ratings back up, but it will take seasons to build the fans back up again. Top Gear was it's presenters, not the production, but I hope it turns around as the world needs more car shows. That said, I'm looking forward to The Grand Tour.

We have F1 races, back to back, twice this month (!) so we're back at em' after that nutty ending in Austria that left the locals booing Hams on the top step for really no reason other than loving their neighbor-ish countryman, German driver Rosberg, despite him going out of his way to wreck Hams rather then be passed on the last lap. Rosberg is officially holding onto his Championship hopes with his fingernails and he'll be passed before long if this is his only tactic. If Toto and Nikki want to enforce team rules because Rosberg likes aggressively defending Hamilton's advances, with less than desirable results, then this will eventually turn into Hamilton getting the team order nod(s) when he more than likely takes over the Driver's Championship points lead in another few weeks. We'll see how this plays out this weekend at Silverstone. To recap; rain made qualifying more than interesting, controversial curbing updates and four cars with broken rear suspension prior to the race. Jenson Button starts 3rd for the first time since 2014 (qualy'd 5th), then finished 6th. Both Toro Rosso's DNF'd, Force India is still fast and Hulkenberg qualified 3rd. Ferrari is still fast, but a tire strategy gamble the team put Vettel on lead to a spectacular shredded right-rear supersoft, ping-pong, DNF. Vettel, much like the last time this happened (@ Spa last Summer), Pirelli was thrown under the bus. Perez had a brake failure on the last lap of the race that put him in the wall, for a gutting DNF, but this lead to Wehrlein getting a single point for Manor; he also put the Manor into Q2 with a strong outing and was generally quick all weekend. Speaking of benefiting off the error of others, Rosberg's destruction of his front wing lead to Verstappen snagging 2nd and Raikkonen 3rd, rounding out the podium. Kimi is supposedly racing for his job (sound familiar?), so he held the Ferrari torch for the weekend; and coincidentally he's now tied with Vettel in the Driver's Championship. Verstappen went on a one stop strategy to leap frog his teammate and used his old softs to hold off Kimi through the checkered flag. Alonso DNF'd due to mechanical failure late, again. Haas is still scoring points and the team now has 28, just behind McLaren Mercedes. With the smoke clear the Driver's Championship standing are as follows: Rosberg, Hamilton (-11), Vettel (-57), Raikkonen (-57), Ricciardo (-65), Verstappen (-81). This weekend in England should be another entertaining race.

Enjoy your weekends.


Video courtesy of CarThrottle.

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