COVID sucks! But one of the few benefits of this killer virus is increased and improved TV motorsports coverage. With the usual TV sports shutdown last year, suddenly a lot more auto and motorcycle racing popped up on free TV, which made the isolation a lot more bearable. To top that off, in car video have gotten cheap enough that it’s almost mandatory in pro motorsports- Ford’s in car cameras in four cars at LeMans last year was so good I didn’t bother buying paid coverage.

Comes 2021 and COVID has refused to leave as planned and looks like Ford is forgeting LeMans for another half century. GM is doing their best to fill the gap in American effort with their Corvette Racing team in IMSA and the LeMans GT Pro class. IMSA’s streaming video package for their series was a bargain so I binge watched the 24 hours of Daytona and 12 hours of Sebring. Nascar and the Indy Car series aren’t as exciting ‘cept for their rare visits to road courses, but they’ve mostly been free so I don’t complain much.

So comes August 2021 and a delayed LeMans 24 hour race, but with Ford shrinking from world class racing and otherwise, I had to pay up for Motor Trend on Demand’s excellent coverage. The feed comes from the Eurosport network, and the quality was excellent- informative and unsensational commentary with more high quality video than you can imagine. from multiple cameras around the course, drones, roving reporters, and even a Goodyear blimp! I confess to falling asleep for a couple hours…

The balance of power has indeed shifted, as Toyota dominated the Prototype Pro class with a Renault backed Alpine entry laps behind. Following them was a 2nd “spec racer” class of over a dozen “amateur” prototypes that backed by million dollar budgets put on a spirited race. In GT Pro Corvette Racing did their best, placing their top car 2nd and their other car a few laps back due to a 70 minute clutch replacement. A Ferrari took 1st and a Porsche 3rd, not surprising with the fleets of race cars Ferrari and Porsche brought to Corvette Racing’s two. There’s an undercard “Pro-Am” GT class too, and thanks to Aston-Martin’s, Ferrari’s, and Porsche’s upfront and backdoor sponsorship they dominated. Despite several manufacturers being unrepresented the racing was competitive and entertaining in every class, with several cars on the same lap after 24 hours of racing.

Re-addicted to racing and with a national championship Rally but 200 miles away, I was planning on watching the action live. Life intervened the first day of the rally as I had to play utility locator for my town’s water system, but I caught a few streaming videos from the rally between planting blue flags all over town. Tried to make it in person the second day, but crappy weather intervened so I followed the action on the screen again. Wasn’t the cost no object coverage provided for LeMans, but not bad for a low budget operation fighting for bandwidth in rural northern Minnesota. Results have been sketchy, but Travis Pastrana managed to beat Ken Block in the event and win the American Rally Champions, both of course in Subarus. The Suburu parade was interrupted by 3rd place Ryan Booth in a Skoda Fabia 5R (think mucho modded Golf R). Thanks to Suburu’s generous sponsorships and contingency money fully half the 60 driver field were in Suburus, that company knows what they’re doing. Ford’s vestigial Ford Performance division didn’t get the memo that cars are dead and still offers contingency money, so almost a quarter of the field was in Fiestas, the odd Focus, and even a couple of surprisingly competitive classic rear drive Escorts. Thanks to an LS repowered RX7, a ratty but competent 80s S10 pickup, a Hyundai, and a few other freaks of rallydom we had relief from the Suburu parade.

Hate missing a couple nice days in front of the screen, but a whole winter of racing is coming…