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The 20th
edition of the annual Race of Champions started off with blue
skies but a distinct chill in the air of the imperious
new Wembley stadium, with the first of the expected
40,000 visitors starting to trickle in soon after 10am,
and with the proceedings set to get underway with the ROC
Nations Cup at 2pm.
And with an
estimated 200 million viewers worldwide the Race of
Champions, on its first visit to London, would perfectly
showcase the Grande Punto Abarth S2000, the cars complete
with the famous red and white stripes and distinctive
Scorpion badge that have enjoyed so much competition success
over the half
century since Carlo Abarth set up the eponymous tuning
firm.
Already an
accomplished winner on both asphalt and gravel, the agile
character of the Punto Abarth was well suited to the tight
and twisty twisty sealed surface Wembley track. With
back-to-back Italian titles as well as the Intercontinental
Rally Challenge and FIA European Rally Championship already
to its name, the 2.0-litre four wheel drive car is busily making a
name for itself, punching about its weight. Despite being in
with more powerful cars in the Wembley showcase the Italian
machine would be in very good company, joining the Ford
Focus WRC07, Aston Martin V8 Vantage N24, Solution F Astra
and the traditional ROC ‘Buggy’ as a mount for the sixteen
drivers taking part.
The Nations Cup
would pit two representations from each of the eight nations
(France, Norway, Finland, Scandinavia, Scotland, England,
USA and Germany) present against each other. The teams all
had a heady mix of motorsports’ leading stars: Team Finland would
see retiring former double World Rally Champion Marcus Grönholm
paired together with new McLaren-Mercedes F1 signing Heikki
Kovalainen; France would have four times Champ Car World
Series champion Sébastien Bourdais alongside multiple
touring car champion Yvan Muller
Meanwhile Team England had
Honda F1 winner Jenson Button lining up with triple FIA
World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx. “The Solution F is
probably the closest to what I drive,” said Button. “It’s a
fun car but there’s so little grip out there. It’s fun; I
enjoyed it. With all the cars here you get very little grip
so you get a lot of sideways action! I’ve been very close to
the wall, but if you’re pushing, you’re almost touching the
barriers here anyway!”
Michael
Schumacher would lead out Team Germany in an all F1 line-up:
he was joined by relative newcomer Sebastian Vettel. “The
Solution F is a bit big for this track I think,” commented
the seven times F1 world champion after the Saturday
practice runs, “but it’s the same for everyone. I prefer the
buggy; it’s like a go kart in the rain! There is absolutely
no grip!” His team mate was also looking forward to the
action: “It was very narrow,” said Vettel, speaking of the
parallel race track constructed at Wembley Stadium
especially for The Race of Champions using 1,800 tonnes of
tarmac. “Maybe it looks easy from outside but there is no
space for mistakes. There is one line that is very grippy
but if you are off-line, it’s very dusty. I’m really
enjoying it though; it’s a lot of fun.”
They would be up
against Team USA in the first round, while England would
face Scotland; Scandinavia was lined up against Finland;
while Norway took on France. First drivers out in the
Abarths were Jenson Button (England) and Red Bull F1 driver David Coulthard
(Scotland) with the former edging it (2:02.99). Next up in
the Abarths was Schumacher (Germany) against reigning NASCAR
champion Jimmy Johnson
(USA) and that one was decided in the German driver’s favour
(2:01.66). The Abarth featured in the first semi-final
Kovalainen (Finland) versus five times Norwegian Rally
Champion Henning Solberg (2:02.43), the
latter getting the nod with a time of 2:01.01.
Despite the huge
enthusiasm of the partisan crowd Team England missed out on
the final which was to be a best-of-three slog between
Germany and Finland. First car up was the Grande Punto
Abarth and the Super2000 machine was to provide unexpected
extra excitement for the crowd as Schumacher stalled on the
line. His challenger in the inside lane, Kovalainen,
completed a full lap of the track while the German, who had
got the Punto restarted, dawdled on the line waiting for the
Finn who was tucked up right up behind the former Ferrari
driver as he finally powered away. In true Schumacher style
his car became too wide for the speeding Finn to squeeze
past and a crowd-entertaining real-nose-to tail battle took
place. With the crowd on their feet Kovalainen eventually
squeezed past Schumacher as the two indulged in some
no-holds-barred showmanship.
Despite going
down 1-0 after that first run Team Germany bounced back to win
2-1 thanks to two highly impressive drives by Vettel in the
Ford Focus WRC07 and ROC Buggy. “In the first heat of the
final I just stalled the car and that was it,” said
Schumacher. “Then I was waiting for Heikki to come back round
so at least we could have some fun. I knew I could rely of
Sebastian! Actually it turned out really good; the two young
ones could fight whilst the two retired drivers could
relax.” This was also Germany’s first win in the ROC Nations
Cup.
by Edd
Ellison at Wembley
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