Race Of Champions 2006 (including GT4 Opera Paris and George V Paris walkabouts)

[Roo]

Opera Paris GT4 circuit walkabout (post 8)
George V Paris (post 11)
Touristy bits and road cars (post 12)
Race of Champions: read on...

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2006 Race Of Champions, Stade de France, Paris, 16th December. Weather: cold and wet.

A 1.2km (3/4 mile) track, built in the Stade de France. The Stade has a hole in the roof, which let the rain in on the track but not on the crowd. Brilliant! Less brilliant was the sides, which let the freezing wind in, which I wasn't expecting - so I spent the 6 hours of the show shivering. Still, never mind, I'd got there, so I wasn't complaining. It's not like anyone could understand me anyway

The photos are by no means brilliant, but they were the best I could do. One of the conditions of entry is no "professional or semi-professional camera equipment", so I had a little Samsung 6-megapixal jobby, but the results were better than I expected.

Found my seat, on the end of a row, so lots of legroom. Yay! This was the view:



At 4, the show started with a driver's parade. After that, it was time for the racing!

First event of the evening was the Nations Cup. 2 drivers from each competing nation (1 circuit racer and 1 rally driver) race against each other in a best-of-3 heat. So in each heat there were 2 or 3 races: the circuit race driver from, say, Finland, vs the circuit racer from e.g. Scotland, raced in Porsche 911 GT3s. Race 2 pitted the rally drivers from each country against each other in Aston Martin V8 Vantages. If one nation had won both races, they won the heat. If it was one win each, a third race was run, with the winners of race 1 vs the winner of race 2, in ROC buggys. Simple, huh?

The list of drivers (circuit drver, rally driver) and countries, in no particular order:

France 1: Sebastian Bourdais, Sebastian Loeb (2 treble champions. The crowd favourite, naturally.)
France 2: Yvan Muller, Stephane Peterhansel
Scotland: David Coulthard, Colin McRae
Finland: Heikki Kovalainen, Marcus Gronholm
Scandinavia: Tom Kristensen (Denmark), Mattias Ekstrom (Sweden)
Germany: Bernd Schneider, Armin Schwarz
England: James Thompson (replacing Jenson Button, who broke 2 ribs in a karting accident the previous week), Andy Priaulx
Spain: Joan "Nani" Roma, Dani Sordo
USA: Travis Pastrana, by himself. His original teammate, Jimmie Johnson, and Jimmie's replacement Scott Speed both had to withdraw following injuries.

So, to the first race of the evening. As there were 9 teams, there was a preliminary round: France 1 vs France 2. Race 1: Bourdais vs Muller. It was the first race, so I took plenty of pictures:




Bourdais won that race, and Loeb beat Peterhansel in the Astons, so France 1 went on to the next round.

It took about 10 minutes before I completely lost track of which country was racing, which had moved to the next round, who beat who etc. In such a situation, all you can really do is relax, watch each race individually, and shiver in the cold. So I did.

A few more shots of the Porsches, in the 1/8 finals - Scotland vs England, Race 1, Coulthard vs Thompson:



Race 2, McRae vs Priaulx, in the Aston Martins...



... and McRae drifting the Aston on the way back to the circuit exit:



Race 3. Drivers? No idea. But this is the most in-focus shot of any of the moving cars I got all evening. It also, annoyingly, includes someone's hair. Bother. I would crop it, but I haven't got round to it yet.



Scotland went on to win. Grrrr

A few more pictures of the Astons (Mattias Ekstrom vs Marcus Gronholm in the first, Sebastian Loeb in the second and third)...



... and the ROC buggies. Bernd Schneider vs Travis Pastrana in the quarter finals in the first 2 pictures (Pastrana won), and Heikki Kovalainen vs Tom Kristensen in the quater finals (Kovalainen won after Kristensen clouted a wall):



And so to the semi-finals. The Porsches and Astons were given a rest, and were replaced by the Renault Megane Trophy and Citroen Xsara WRC cars; the ROC buggies still used in the case of a tie after the first 2 races of each heat. I did some more shivering.

The first semi was Team Scotland vs Team Pastrana. The first race - Coulthard driving for Scotland - started well, but the rain got the better of Travis, who spun after the bridge when he put the power down too early:



Semi 1, Race 2: McRae vs Pastrana in the rally cars. In a stadium. Shades of the X Games, it seemed...



... and history repeated itself, Pastrana beating McRae. He went on to beat Coulthard in the ROC buggies to single-handedly steer the USA into the final.

The second semi-final had France 1 vs Finland. Race 1: Bourdais vs Kovalainen:



Bourdais binned it and grounded himself - the gravel trap is about 6 inches below the asphalt - allowing Kovalainen to take an easy win.

Semi 2, Race 2: Loeb vs Gronholm. The 2 drivers who had been battling in the WRC for the whole of 2006 had their final race of the year against each other, and it summed up their WRC season - Loeb beating Gronholm fairly easily.



Race 3, Kovalainen vs Loeb, resulted in a Finnish victory. France 1 were out, on home soil.

The final, Finland vs USA. It was best of 5 for the final - a race in the Renaults, then the Citroens, then the Renaults again. If necessary, the Citroens and the ROC buggies were ready for races 4 and 5. I'm not sure which photos apply to which races - I was a bit lost by this stage - so here's the photos from the final.

Pastrana vs Kovalainen in the Renaults. Travis made his second mistake of the evening, ending up nose-first towards the wall, handing the win to Kovalainen.



Travis Pastrana's teammate, Travis Pastrana, raced Gronholm in the Citroens:



In the end, the combined forces of Kovalainen and Gronholm were too much for Pastrana, and Finland won the Nations Cup for 2006! Gronholm wasn't on best form - Kovalainen won every duel he raced in, but before the final, Gronholm hadn't won a single race!

By the end of the Nations Cup, I was finding that a 1GB SD card doesn't go as far as it used too, so I only took photos of any incidents that took place. That's the reason for there being very few pictures from the second half of the evening.

After the Nations Cup - and a bit of a break - the Race Of Champions driver's event began. Now it was every driver for himself. As I don't have many photos and can't remember much about who won what, here's the highlights:-

McRae drifting the Porsche:



A spun Renault:



Not sure why I took this, but it came out all right, so I posted it anyway:



The closest finish I've ever seen anywhere ever. Mattias Ekstrom beat 2004 ROC champion Heikki Kovalainen by 0.0002 of a second - 2 ten-thousanths of a second. It looks like more because the cars have just crossed the line, but the outside lane gets a quicker exit off the final corner than the tighter inside line does.



Armin Schwarz messing about:



Sebastian Bourdais outbraked himself at the end of the long back straight and lunched the car into the tyre barrier, and then the wall. Here's the damage:



In a practice race - counting for nought - the rally driver took the race car, and vice versa. So Loeb had the Megane Trophy, and Ekstrom had the Xsara WRC. Ekstrom won.



I think this was the final race of the final heat of the Race Of Champions. Mattias Ekstrom beat Sebastian Loeb - in Sebastian's own car, no less - to win and be crowned champion of champions!



Sorry the ROC wasn't covered as well as the Nations Cup - an expected lack of megabytes and batteries caused that. I'll be better prepared for next year.

In between some of the races, there were a variety of demo runs by various types of cars. So, in no particular order:

Some loony French bloke on a bike. No idea who he was, but it looked good.



Nani Roma's Dakar Mitsubishi:



Terry Grant had a slot to show off his wheel changing skills: changing the left front wheel whilst the car is doing donuts. I tried to video it, but the battery died halfway through and it munched my memory card. Then I lost the video in the depths of the card, and couldn't find it to delete it. Still, it looked good.



Heikki Kovalainen in the Renault R26. The last picture is the closest we got to a burnout on the wet asphalt:



Citroen teammates Loeb and Dani Sordo demoed the 2007 C4 WRC car:



The F1 car and the C4 rally car came out twice. The second time, Kovalainen drove the R26 around the outside oval, whilst Sordo drove the C4 WRC car around the rest of the track, haipinning round at the beginning of the bridge - you can see what I mean in the second photo.



Aside from the racing, these were my favourite cars: 2 dragsters drove at walking pace around the oval, lighting their afterburners and making vast quantities of noise. Ever been to a drag strip? Imagine that noise inside a room with you. They were brilliant



After the racing had finished, the drivers had been congratulated, and the spectators had started to leave, there was one last show: two more loony French blokes on bikes:



Unfortunately, the motocross show ended badly when one of the bikers tried to do the stunt in the second photo whilst doing a backflip. He got halfway round, but was unable to get the bike back and landed flat on his front on top of the ramp. He got up, staggared round a bit, and eventually collapsed. They started packing up, so I took one last look, wished the motocrosser good luck, and left the Stade.

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And that was my trip to the 2006 Race Of Champions. Next year it's being held in the new Wembley Stadium, so if there's anyone else who lives around London and fancies going, it'll be Sunday 16th December 2007. I'll start a thread nearer the time.

For proper photos and, eventually, the results, have a look at http://www.raceofchampions.com/.
For all the above photos in one handy place (plus the GT4 circuit pictures mentioned below) go to my Photobucket album.

If there's any wonky links in this or any of the following posts, reply and let me know please! And, of course, if you liked the report, then feel free to let me know via the mighty red tick. Thanks!

 

[daan]

Great stuff, Nathan.

So, Team Scotland got beaten by an American motorcycle trials rider? Oh the shame.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

+Rep

I read about this in a report elsewhere, but reading a member of the publics own personal report is so much better, so cheers for taking the time and effort to do this, Roo.

 

[ExigeEvan]

An Awesome little track they had there. Put the Millenium stadium's rally track to shame!

Good report.


[Welsh smugness]

Next year it's being held in the new Wemberley Stadium,

Yeah, sure it will....
[/Welsh smugness]

 

[ND4SPD]

How did Johnson and Speed get injured?

 

[Small_Fryz]

No MS?

hehe

Great write up. Go pastrana!

 

[Leonidae]

+ rep. 👍

 

[Roo]

Opera Paris

The morning after the ROC before, I did a bit of sight seeing. Being the GT4 fan that I am, I planned to walk the Opera Paris and George V Paris circuits, then do laps in Photomode and try to replicate my real life photos. Most of the time, it worked remarkably well - but not always.

Caught the train to Notre Dame (more on that later) and then moved on to the Place de la Concorde. That's where the start line is for the Opera Paris GT4 circuit. It's also where the French were so enthusiastic about using the guillotine in the 1790s - King Louis XVI was just one of thousands who were guillotined there.

An overview of the circuit:



The view down to the first corner, where some sort of saloon race appears to be happening:



The Hôtel de Crillon, seen on the track selection screen:

The second and third corners, complete with obscene (but entertaining) cambers that flick the car around in GT4:



The view back from the outside of Turn 2. The Obelisk seems to have shrunk in the game:



The third corner. One thing I hadn't thought of when in Paris was just how far out the rumble strips and walls are from the side of the road. This proved problematic later on; not only can the car not escape the circuit walls, neither can the Photomode camera:



The exit of Turn 3:



The view down to Turn 4. It's not the last time an advertising hoarding would get in the way:



Turn 4:



One of the troubles with putting a racetrack in Paris is that there's a lot of very solid traffic islands in the middle of the roads, like this one, smack on the apex of Turn 4. PD's solution? Ignore them entirely. So every time you cross a painted oval on the race track, it's where a traffic island ought to be:



A few shots of the view down the Rue de Castiglione to the Place Vendôme:





The Place Vendôme chicane (turns 5, 6, 7 and 8). When I got there, I wasn't too sure where the track went - there's a lot of chunky foot-high pillers to stop cars driving anywhere in the Place apart from where the tyre marks are on the Google image - but it all became clear when I got back and looked on GT4:









The view down the Rue de la Paix to the Place de l'Opéra:



The Place de l'Opéra complex (Turns 9, 10, 11 and 12). On the Google image, we come in from the south west, drive round 3 1/2 sides of the rectangle and exit down the Boulevard des Capucines, the tree lined road going west:









Turn 12, looking down the Boulevard des Capucines:



The next 2 pictures are an illustration of how tricky it is sometimes to match Photomode with real life. In the first one, I took the picture from the left pavement; however, in the game, you can't get that far as the wall is in the way:



This one is the most confusing of all. It'll make more sense looking at this:

I stood on the red dot, with the arrow showing in which direction I took the photograph. The blue dot is where the Photomode shot was taken from. Basically, the triangular pedestrian traffic island is missing - just a white outline remains, like a murder victim.



Turn 13, the left hander in the long back straight. Taken from the outside of the corner, looking down the Rue Royale:



If you've every crashed into the red and white barrier on the outside in GT4 - and lets face it, you have done at some point. Everyone does - and had tried it in real life, then Gucci and A. Testoni would be unhappy with you. It's their shop windows you would've demolished:





Back to the Place de la Condorde, and Turn 14. Again, the GT4 wall got in the way - I took the photo from roughly where the shadow hits the kerb in the centre pic. It's just about possible to make to the bump on the zebra crossing that destabilises the car when braking for Turn 14:



Taken from the outside of Turn 14. Watch out for the bollards - they've got grass growing around them - clearly not been moved for some time:



Turn 15:



A slightly out of focus picture of Turns 16 and 17. Getting the breaks in the traffic was getting harder as it got busier, which ment rushing to get the shot:



Turns 17 and 18, the final corner:



Turn 18:





The start/finish straight:



The view from the gantry, looking back to the final corner...



...and the view from the pit wall, again looking back:



And finally, because it was there, the Obelisk:



That's a lap of Opera Paris! Distance: 1.8 miles. Fastest lap: a little over an hour and a half, including stoppage time to take pictures.

Hope you've enjoyed it! I've got a similair but less detailed lap of George V Paris still to come, plus the touristy bits. And, of course, you know where that wee red tick is

 

[Roo]

Thanks for all the kind comments guys! It's much appreciated.

How did Johnson and Speed get injured?

I'm not sure. I haven't found any more info other than that. Johnson said he could be there, but not drive. Something might've been mentioned in the commentary, but that was in French - what with being in Paris and everything - so I had no idea what was being said.

No MS?

He was there in 2004, beaten by Kovalainen in the semi finals of the Race of Champions itself. Germany (Schumacher and Schwarz) were beaten by Brazil (Massa and Kanaan) in the 1/8 finals of the Nations Cup. Interestingly, he beat Massa in the 1/8 finals, but lost to Massa in the Nations Cup. He also raced Loeb in a one-off World Champions Challenge event, as both the F1 and WRC champions were together for the 2004 ROC, and won.

2004 results are here.

 

[daan]

Great stuff again. I cannae give you the red tick again yet though...

It just makes you realise how much work, and attention to detail, that PD put into GT.

 

[Roo]

George V Paris

After wandering around Opera Paris, I had space for about 28 photos, hence the lack here. I took a stroll down the Champs-Élysées, towards the startline of the George V Paris circuit, about a mile from the Opera startline.

Startline of George V Paris circuit, somewhere around here.

Exactly where the startline is I never quite worked out, so I took a shot down the Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe:

After making the Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde tiny, the Arc de Triomphe in game is huge - about twice as wide for the same height as the real thing.

Turning around and looking back down the way I had just come gives an idea of just how close the 2 circuits are - you can see the locations of both startlines in one shot:



In real life, it looks downhill towards the Place de la Concorde. Is it just me, or does the in-game shot look like it's going uphill?

Anyhoo, to the first corner, at the Place de l'Étoile (officially called Place Charles de Gaulle, but most people call it by its original name):



The track goes all the way round the Arc de Triomphe - in the Google link above, imagine the most northly-pointing, er, point is at 12 o'clock. We come in at 4 and leave at 5 - but I didn't walk all the way round as I didn't have many photos left and didn't want to die. I got a quick shot from the base of the Arc itself:



In on the left, around the back and out on the right. No chance of getting the Photomode camera anywhere near, but I tried anyway. It didn't work.

I started walking down the Rue Marceau, walked straight past Turn 4 and got to a junction. Sat down, looked at where I was, checked my map and circuit diagram, and realised I was at Turns 7 and 8! A quick bit of back-tracking brought me back on track, as it were - back to Turn 4 (and 5) (Rue Marceau -> Rue de Presbourg):



Turn 5 (Rue de Presbourg -> Avenue d'Iena):



Turn 6 (Avenue d'Iena -> Rue Newton):



Now I'd started getting into the back streets, the road noise was muffled, the weather was cold but sunny, and everything was nice, I realised that prehaps Paris isn't as much like London as I first thought.

Up to Turns 7 and 8 (Rue Newton -> Rue Galilée) (coming in from the west and out the north-east) in an unnamed junction. It was covered in roadworks, which made finding the apexs a bit tricky. Here it's just to the right of the right traffic light in the left picture (got that?):





Looking back towards Turn 6 - there's less tarmac there than the game would have you believe:



Turn 9 (Rue Galilée -> Rue Vernet):



Turns 10 and 11 (Rue Vernet -> Rue de Bassano):



Turn 11 (Rue de Bassano -> Rue Magellan), complete with a normal Parisian attitude to parking - literally millimetres from the car behind and half blocking the zebra crossing:



Turn 12 (Rue Magellan -> Rue Christophe Colomb) (and, on that link, turn 15 - but we'll get to that):



Turn 13 (Rue Christophe Colomb -> Avenue Marceau):



Turn 14 (Avenue Marceau -> Rue Quentin Bauchart):



Looking back at Turn 12 from the straight between Turns 14 and 15:



Turn 15 (Rue Quentin Bauchart -> Avenue George V) (I'm not sure quite where I stood for this shot, but it's vaguely near Turn 15):



Back to the last corner, Turn 16 (Avenue George V -> Champs-Élysées):



And that's the end of the lap, 1.5 miles or so. Not much to say about it, apart from it's quite a nice stroll through the back streets of Paris. Hope you liked it!

 

[Roo]

Touristy bits

Between the racing and the GT4 circuits, I had a brief poke around 3 of Paris' biggest tourist attractions: Notre Dame, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. I didn't go into any of them - I simply didn't have the time - but I had a look nevertheless. Here are the pictures...

Notre Dame

The first thing I did after leaving the hotel: hopped on a train to Notre Dame. Took a few photos and then left for Opera Paris. I had a spare hour at the end of the day though, so I popped back over and took a few more pictures.



Arc de Triomphe (including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier)



Eiffel Tower. A 45 minute queue ensured I wouldn't be going up - my train home left an hour and a half later, which ment I'd get to the top, say "Nice view!" and have to leave again.



Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation



A memorial to the 200,000 French who were deported by the Nazis to the concentration camps during World War 2. In the last picture, there's a light bulb for each deportee who never returned.

Cars

If you follow the "Have You Seen Anything Good Today?" thread, you'll have seen these already.

Whilst taking pictures in the Place de la Concorde, these turned up:



And whilst walking around the Opera Paris circuit, I saw my first Mini of the weekend. This pleased me. Note where the roof comes up to on the M class behind...



Walking down the Champs-Élysées, in the Toyota shrowroom:



At the final corner of the George V Paris circuit: a Brabus CL.




At the end of it all, knackered from walking around all day, a welcome sight: a chance to sit down for nearly 3 hours. Heaven!



And that's all: my entire visit to Paris. It's taken more than twice as long to post all this as I was actually there for, so I hope you liked it. Thanks for looking!

 

[ND4SPD]

Awesome pics Roo! Nice to see comparison pics between real life and GT4.

 

[MarinaDiamandis]

Brilliant Roo! Wish I could give you +Rep, Best thread I've seen for a little while, nice to see someone putting in this sort of effort, so again, thank you!

 

[Sting]

Oh how I envy you. I +rep'd this, great info and lots of pics.

Thanks also for helping me find online.

 

[stllmn8j]

Great stuff, Nathan.

So, Team Scotland got beaten by an American motorcycle trials rider? Oh the shame.

Actually Pastrana is a top U.S. Rally Driver, Freestyle Moto-X Champ,and a champion Motocross racer. I don't belive he has any Trial experience.

How did Johnson and Speed get injured?

I'm not sure about Scott Speed, but Johnson broke his wrist while attempting to ride on the roof of a golf cart during a charity golf tournament. Kurt Busch, a former NASCAR champion,was on standby to fly to the event at the last minute,but his flight would not have made it to the event in time.