The Year in Racing: 2012

[JohnBM01]

Traditionally here on GTPlanet, I like doing a thread that looks back on the year in racing. With most races and racing series already wrapped up, this is a thread where we look back on the year in racing. So what is this about? Simple:

* The Good: memorable races, sensational performances, record-breaking performances, big wins, great performances under pressure, etc.

* The Bad: pathetic races, bonehead moves, disappointing finishes, lackluster performances, bad drivers, poor officiating, etc.

* Indifferent/Others: uncertain moments, injuries and deaths in motor racing, etc.

So how will you look back on 2012? Here are some moments I want to touch up on...


THE GOOD:
* What I called "Monday Night NASCAR" as the Daytona 500 was under the lights on Monday after a rainout on Sunday. That race was WILD!

* I think this was a great season for Nelson Piquet Jr. in NASCAR. I'm proud for the fellow. He's going to be a real threat if he keeps up his solid performance and builds upon his 2012 performance.

* Formula 1 racing at Circuit of the Americas. I was very impressed at how everything turned out. COTA was purely fabulous.

* I also liked (to an extent) the F1 European Grand Prix on the streets of beautiful Valencia, Spain. Lot of insane moments in that one.

* No matter what you think about it, I am VERY proud of the Deltawing team. Their resolve and determination to get this car out on the track and racing. Even finishing at Petit Le Mans makes me happy for the Deltawing team. I hope they can build upon their successes and make Deltawing even better.

* I was pretty okay watching the IndyCar action with the new DW12 Indy cars. I kind of missed the nice sound of the previous Honda cars, but I think these newer Indy cars are nice. Not beautiful, though. I reserve that adjective for the old Panoz DP01 of the former Champ Car World Series.


THE BAD:
* What more can I say... the Busch brothers were pretty Bush League (Busch League?) as usual. I'm not even sure if they have too much more shelf life in NASCAR considering how both have performed this season on and off the track.

* I love Jeff Gordon, but I was pretty stumped about the hit he put on Clint Bowyer at Phoenix during the Chase.



INDIFFERENT/OTHERS:
* Biggest loss in motor racing, to me, is one of my fellow Texans- Carroll Shelby. Who knew a duck farmer from Waco would end up becoming an icon? The one thing I will remember most about him is this stat- he won Le Mans as a racer, as an owner, and as a manufacturer. This man cannot be replaced.

* Spare a thought also for the loss of Chris Economaki. I never followed his commentary much, but I am very much saddened we lost him this year.

* I'm not going to take shots at my girl Danica Patrick, but I do agree that she needs at least maybe one or two more seasons in NASCAR Nationwide before stepping up to Cup. Danica is basically going to have to adjust on the fly and quickly to even stand a chance on the Cup level. I am not saying Danica will fail to adjust, but I think she will have a tough time trying to become that sort of star on the Cup level. I am giving her a chance unlike many others who think she's the NASCAR equivalent of Milka Duno in her IndyCar career.



That gets things started. How about your look back at 2012?

 

[Furinkazen]

THE GOOD:
* Brad Keselowski, Sprint Cup champion. Great to have a new face and in Dodge's last season as well. Penske as well!

* Indycar having a safe and competitive season with the DW12.

*An action packed Le Mans 24 Hours.

*The Brazilian GP was one of the best Grand Prix's in recent years by far.

* Deltawing proving its not a joke at Le Mans.

* BTCC with big grids and a lot of competition this season, and a likeable champion in form of Gorden Shedden.

*BMW wiping the floor with DTM opposition in their first season back.


THE BAD:
*Kurt Busch. An idiot in every respect... as is Furniture Row Racing for wanting him in place of Regan Smith.

*ACO still don't understand the laws of physics will beat their "Big Honking Le Mans fins" - just ask Antony Davidson and Toyota at Le Mans.

*Toyota with little support. They have enough money, but a single car assault on the WEC and just two for Le Mans against FOUR Audi's would never work. Full credit to them for taking a couple wins though.

*Lotus and their lack of support. Out of their F1 campaign, what did they do? Screw up some Indycar teams, give a promising Evora GTE car no support, and just adorn their black and gold over things. There's support and just branding exercises.

*WRC on way down again - Ford's loss will be felt, and shame about Mini.

*NASCAR as a whole had a poor season. Not sure why, but there was little in the way of actual good quality racing all season on the ovals. Superspeedways became a 200mph follow my leader and dodge wreck show, and precious else little happened a lot of the time. Hoping the 2013 cars can change that.






More will follow probably from me...

 

[SagarisGTB]

Races of the year (for me):
1. Autopolis - Super GT
2. Interlagos - Formula 1
3. Shanghai - Formula 1

Honourable mention (from what I recall):
Sepang, Montreal, Valencia, Spa, Suzuka, Abu Dhabi, Austin - Formula 1
Zandvoort - DTM
Okayama - Super GT
Interlagos, Fuji - WEC
Brno - MotoGP
Aragon - Moto2

Really good year in motorsports, especially in F1. Much welcomed return of a global sports-car championship in WEC as well. Hopefully 2013 will continue to bring excellent racing.

 

[MatskiMonk]

The Good

BMW stuffing it to Audi and Mercedes by taking all three DTM titles at the finale..



... as for the rest ... m'eh!

 

[hawkeye122]

Good:
(DTM)BMW coming back to the DTM in style, Granted, thats not hard when you buy all the best drivers.

(WEC/Le Mans)Audi keeping their Le Mans dynasty growing, while actually facing stiff competition against the Oreca boys.

(ALMS) Conquest Endurance, running their first full-season, and doing a stunning job in the process. Managed to best Scott Tucker on more than 1 occasion.
BMW RLL- Great fight with cars that were a year old. Keep it up next season!

(Indy)Great First time out for Rubens. Keep up the good work!

(NASCAR) Happy to see Marcos Ambrose get better and better, hoping for more of the same next year!

(F1) Kimi is back, and is now my favorite driver. A bit more car development, and I think next year he's a title contender.

The Bad

(F1) McLaren, Pull your heads out of your arses. You threw away a perfectly good Championship.
Lewis- You're an idiot. Leaving McLaren is not the best move you ever made.

(WEC) I'm a bit tired of GTE being a Ferrari 1-make class. (Ok, there were a couple Porsches. But still.) Manufacturers, get back out there!
Corvette- Give factory support to the Labre guys, get them on top!
BMW- You just owned the DTM in one season. Come back to sports cars please.


(ALMS)
Rob Dyson- Pack up and go home, seriously. You had a frankly pathetic year. Conquest was keeping up with you, and they're a class lower.
Aston Martin- 2 races? REALLY? You did pretty well in both those, why not keep a car here for a full season?
Lotus/AJR- Really Lotus? Come on. You have a decent car, lets put some work into it! Don't become another Jaguar...

Indy- Sato, you sir, are an idiot. You had a potential podium TWICE. What the hell.

 

[cgr-10]

The main thing i'm happy about is the quality and excitement that F1 has provided this year. Sure, there have been lulls, mainly in the Asian segment of the calendar, but after two years of complete Vettel dominance, it was nice to see a more interesting season.

There were so many exceptional races this season that although I was rooting for Alonso to oust Vettel at the end, I really didn't care much because it's been such a brilliant year of racing to watch. Today's GP was possibly the best I've ever watched (I'm 15 by the way); poor Martin Brundle couldn't catch a breath there was so much going on.

The only downer for me is how poor a season McLaren have had. Although I've never cared too much for Hamilton, I'm gutted that a fellow Brit has basically had the title robbed from him due to a series of mechanical failures. It's made worse by the fact that I really can't see him getting anywhere near the silverware anytime soon at Mercedes.

As a massive JB fan, it was great to see him pick up the win at Interlagos earlier. I hope it puts a bookend on his poor year so he can come back next season as the #1 at McLaren and make a genuine run for the title once again.

 

[RVDNuT374]

The Good:

-Brad Keselowski beating Jimmie Johnson for the Sprint Cup championship. 👍
-One of the best F1 seasons in recent memory.
-The Indy 500 was excellent from start to finish.
-Sebastian Vettel taking another step towards becoming an F1 god.
-Fernando Alonso's incredible driving prowess to extract the full potential of the "underperforming" F2012.
-No drivers died at the plate races this year despite the ridiculous rules package.

The Bad:

-About the worst NASCAR season of all time. 👎 At least Jimmie Johnson didn't become champion.....
-SPEED Channel taking more steps toward complete idiocy.
-The Busch brothers proving once again a 6 month old baby has more mental capacity.
-Losing one of the greatest motorsports journalists ever, Chris Economaki, along with Carroll Shelby and Sid Watkins.
-The announcement "Crashica" Patrick will be in Sprint Cup full time starting next year.

 

[Anathema]

The Good:

~BMW coming back to take the DTM titles
~Brad Keselowski finally gives Roger Penske his first Cup title - and a good way for Dodge to exit NASCAR for now.
~The Indy 500. Although it's not the same without Dan Wheldon... God, that was an emotional win for Franchitti. Two great races in a row, and another choke...
~F1. Somehow, the season was a good one... And Adrian Nuey has proved yet again that he is one of the best in the business (alongside Mr. Penske.)
~Kimi Raikkonen winning - Yay for him and for Lotus.
~LeMans - Excellent 24Hrs, plus the DeltaWing... kinda answered all my concerns I had voiced about the design making it understeer...

The Bad:
~NASCAR - The Busch brothers, Jeff Gordon getting his high horse up, and the existence of Danica Patrick as a full-time driver... At least repaint the car. Green is bad luck for everyone but Falken and British manufacturers.
~SPEED Channel - Uhh, no. If we're talking about the drug, that seems to be what the heads of the network are on.
~Carroll Shelby and Chris Economaki's passings - We'll miss you both. Great men, and sad to see them head to the giant racing track in the sky...

 

[Mac K]

Good:

-The entire American Le Mans series season (especially GT) fantastic once again
-The entire Grand-Am/Continental Tire Season, again fantastic
-The Rolex 24 at Daytona
-Le Mans, no explanation needed
- Conquest Endurance's debut season, epic
-Viper back in ALMS racing
-Toyota taking the fight to Audi
-GT Academy runner up Sean Johnston winning the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup
-Indy Car's new chassis and season proved to be exciting
-The Indy 500, exciting from start to finish
-Nascar at the Glen, fantastic race
-Bathrust 1000, again excellent
-Great season in F1, lots of drama and excitement
-Great season in all of Nascars top 3 divisions for the most part
-Daytona 500, so crazy it was good
-Kyle Busch not making the chase
-The Nurburgring 24
-Deltawing!

The Bad:

-Indy Car letting Randy Bernard go
-Jeff Gordon having a relatively poor season in Nascar
-Not enough GT cars in the WEC
-Corvette Racing with a poor result at Le Mans
-Will Power losing the Indy Car championship
-Lewis Hamilton leaving Mclaren
-The Busch Brothers, Kryle and Hurt
-Danica Patrick, sorry fellas, can't stand her
-Death of Carroll Shelby, Chris Economaki, and many others.

 

[JohnBM01]

You know, I want to make another positive note. I thought that ALMS finish at Road America was classic between Mazda and Muscle Milk. Maybe it wasn't that epic GT2 finish at Sebring in 2007, but it was a great prototype battle for the win. Maybe the biggest news from 2012 was the merger between the ALMS and Grand-Am. This can either save and preserve sportscar racing in North America... or possibly run it into the ground and into insignificance. I can only hope this will strengthen and make sportscar racing better here.

 

[Mac K]

How'd I forget that?

 

[hawkeye122]

In fairness, it was only that close because the HPD spent so much time in the pits. Thats the story of any success by Dyson this year...

 

[Dustone]

Good:

-Whincup V8 Champion (4th title and only 29)
-Bathurst 1000, great race
-F1 2012 season
-F1 Brazil Finale, reminiscent of 2008
-DTM as a whole (my first time following this series)
-Moto GP Australia, Casey Stoners final win
-Ricciardos first full F1 season
-No more Hamilton V8 street race/back to Pukekohe

Bad:

-Stoner retiring
-Hamilton off to Mercedes
-Van Gisbergen leaving V8s
-Hamiltons multiple retirements from good positions

Indifferent:

-V8 Supercar season. Only two teams have won every single race this year but we have had some great close ones.

 

[JohnBM01]

I would be remiss if I didn't mention two other tragic passings in motorsport this year. One death involved World Challenge racer (and champion) Paul Brown, who died from skin cancer back in October.

The other death that really stunned me was that of Tom Hnatiw. You may know of Tom from shows like "Dream Car Garage," "Sports Car Revolution," and a handful of coverage of SCCA race coverage. He was a great guy.


Lot of memories, both good and bad of 2012.

 

[Mac K]

He died? Man he was so awesome, I loved dream car garage

 

[RX-7_FD3S]

Umm no one mentionned Loeb ? I'm quite surprise since he's probably one of the best driver of all time. 9th world rally championship. I dont know if anyone won more world title than him in motorsport history. Yet no one even mention his name here. I'm quite surprised.

 

[gorsad]

This year was great for me, from a racing perspective obviously.

1) Managed to watch every single F1 race live (not all the qualys though), my first season doing that and boy am I glad I did.

2) The Indy 500, and the IndyCar season in general was brilliant this year. Gutted for Power though, hopefully he'll get the championship next year.

3) NASCAR, while I didn't follow it religiously, I did watch a few races and generally keep up with things. Looked like a great season

4) The 24H of Le Mans. Sure, Toyota got taken out 10 hours into the race, but everything else was fascinating. And it's the 24 Hours, how can you not like it.

5) Grand-Am and ALMS, both delivered some great racing.

 

[SKIDMARX]

Good
-IndyCar having a safe yet close season.
-Competition in the Grand Am was close.
-The new Corvette DP surpassed expectations. (Grand Am)
-Formula 1's best season in a long time (IMO) and Vettel's drives in Abu Dhabi and Sao Paulo deserved a title. (IMO!!!)
-News that Valentino Rossi returns to Yamaha next season, also Casey Stoner will be out of the way.
-Formula D had the rookie of the year also winning the 2012 title. (Daigo Saito)
-The correct factory Honda driver in the BTCC won the title. (Gordon Shedden)

Bad
-Sad to see Schumacher leave ........ again.
-Montoya getting in trouble again in the Grand Am race at Indianopolis.
-Not seeing Dario Franchitti get the results he deserved, especially after his good qualifying positions. (Only 1 win)
-Prof. Sid Watkins passing away after changing the face of Formula 1 and many of the lower Formula's.

Overall, this was one of the best years of racing in my opinion. Hope it will be just as close in 2013.

 

[hawkeye122]

Umm no one mentionned Loeb ? I'm quite surprise since he's probably one of the best driver of all time. 9th world rally championship. I dont know if anyone won more world title than him in motorsport history. Yet no one even mention his name here. I'm quite surprised.

Because he's won 9 straight. Everyone already knows he's the best...

 

[Ardius]

Good:
-Amazing Indy 500
-Decent F1 season
-Perez, Kobayashi, Grosjean, Maldonado - getting podiums or wins.
-Kimi Raikkonen's comeback year.
-Decent BTCC season
-Gordon Shedden crowned BTCC champion
-Paul O'Neill at Knockhill in the BTCC.

In between:
-Williams season - so much potential in car and team thrown away by 2 sub-par drivers.
-Toyota at Le Mans - promising fight but didn't last. Hopefully turns a bit more epic next year.

Bad:
-Utterly predictable and very boring WTCC season
-Dire GP2 field
-Loeb dominating WRC yet again with no equal (though I admire him for it)
-Andy Neate in the BTCC
-Romain Grosjean's long list of retirements and incidents

 

[Mac K]

How could I forget Sid Watkins too? Guess I should go back and redo my list..

 

[basherblake]

The Good: BTCC finally Gordon Shedden gets his BTCC title, such a nice bloke and he thoroughly deserved it
F1 Kimi Raikkonen telling his team to shut their noise!!
WTCC Rob Huff doing the honours getting his crown
WTCC Team AON Fords sticking out for a full season
The Bad:BTCC Andy Neate giving a lot of people grief and needlessly expensive repair bills
BTCC Chris James (enough said)
F1 Unfair stick given to Kobayashi, he's been in less scuffs than Romain Goeswrong
WTCC No British round for 2012 & none for 2013 either!!

 

[vetteman24]

The Good

F1- USGP great race and a great track
F1- "Leavemealoneiknowwhatimdoing" Classic Kimi right there
F1- Brazil was the best race in a very long time
WTCC- Sonoma I thought was a great start to hopefully a WTCC extended stay in the US
WTCC- Huff knocking Muller off his perch
DTM- The new cars look stunning
DTM- Beamers showing whose boss after a long time away
Le Mans- Great 24 not as good as last years though
Le Mans- Toyota winning and winning big late in the season
ALMS- Peite Le Mans was a good race if you get rid of the Rebellion Butt kicking
ALMS- Deltawing proving it can race and is not just a batmobile wanna be
Indycar- Helio's moment at St Pete really showed how much we miss and still do Dan Wheldon
Indycar- Great racing just great
Nascar- Kez and Penske winning it all

The Bad
Sato really
Kimi- you know what you are doing but do you know where your going?
Hamilton and McLaren split
Speed losing its F1 coverage- i feel that NBC can do a great job especially 4 live network races something Fox/Speed never did except for Canada I think

 

[Ardius]

Indy- Sato, you sir, are an idiot. You had a potential podium TWICE. What the hell.

The Bad
Sato really

Ah you guys misunderstand the brilliance that is Takuma Sato. You never know whether he is going to bin it or take the result. Its such a buzz watching him .
I knew he wasn't going to finish the Indy 500 and he did it in great style.

If you had watched his F1 career you'd be used to it by now. The guy has awesome speed and can pull off some brilliant overtakes. But he is unable to hold it together whenever he gets into a decent position. May as well make a drinking game based on how long into the race he is going to crash or spin.

And every now and again he does manage to bring it home and beat some of the very best. That is why he is popular.
You know drama is around the corner when Sato does well.

Its also why I'm quite the fan of Kobayashi - he has everything Sato had going for him but he doesn't crumble under pressure and can reliably and consistently finish well.

 

[cgr-10]

Yeah, spot on about Sato. Complain all you want about him throwing away a potential podium finish but that was a very exciting finish to an exceptional race. A few more feet and they'd both have been out of it; I remember watching live and it looked like Sato's car almost curved around Franchitti's.

That was probably the result I was most happy about this year to be honest. I really wanted Dario to win it for for Dan and he delivered; was quite emotional seeing his three friends cross the finish line in formation.

 

[Mac K]

Maybe include what races we attended in person and watched on TV or an internet live stream? Might get a few more people in here.. Cool thread 👍 I line the idea John.

 

[JohnBM01]

I've done several "The Year in Racing" posts here on GTPlanet. Anything relevant to racing for this year is fair game- including races you've been to. It can even be little-known races or grassroots racing action from this year. We don't always have to be about the big time races. Hell- 24 Hours of LeMons chatter is fine here!

Doing this post makes me remember all the different tidbits regarding this year in racing. That's another reason why I like doing these threads year after year. Sharing these thoughts on the past year in racing just helps all of us really remember what all has happened this year. I'm not sure how many of these posts I've done (I even devoted one "Year in Racing" entirely to sportscar racing once) since my GTPlanet debut on December 5, 2003 (meaning I'm coming up on nine years on this fine forum); but I've done several of these here on GTP.


Any more memories of 2012 in racing?

 

[Shoe67]

One of the best things in racing this year was the way the second half of the F1 season played out. The Vettel Alonso battle was very interesting. Although Alonso ended up losing, I was happy with the close racing.

One thing that disappointed me this year was the 24hours of Le Mans this year. Seeing Toyota was nice, but them both getting wrecked left Audi to an easy win. Losing Capello from the super team of Audi drivers was very saddening to me.

BK winning the NSCS championship this year was unbelievable. I have known BK since he was a young kid racing at my local track (Auto City Speedway). Also, I am glad that Jimmy Johnson threw away the championship. The Jeff Gordon/Clint Boyer incident was quite disappointing as well. I understand that adrenaline is flowing, but I feel that he took it way too far.

That is some of my opinions for this year in racing. Will post more later 👍

 

[Wilbur]

Well ill just ramble about few things this year good and bad.

It was nice to see COTA be a success so far and i went from not caring to buying tickets to V8 Supercars! It was awesome to see my buddy win the TORC series prelude championship with basically a small funded volunteer effort compared to bigger teams. Few good races in NASCAR this year and I have fallen inlove with truck series even more than I was after being in pits at Martinsville.

Now some things that rubbed me wrong. NASCAR needs to get themselves better plan for cautions, how to get fans to races. SCORE needs to stand by the rules they right and not allow cheating when others get in trouble for same thing, I don't care if you are the winner and from the country, Rules are rules! NASCAR really needs to get away from the 1.5 mile tracks period, they are boring and only few drivers seem to be good there over races.

 

[Adamgp]

BK winning the Sprint cup, and JJ having the golden horseshoe fall out of his butt was great to see.

Plenty of other excitement, like Montoya try to blow up Daytona by hitting a jet dryer was exciting. (glad everyone was ok) Too bad I missed being there because of the rain postponement.

The Watkins Glen race was very good.

I'm still laughing at Kyle Busch for missing the Chase by 1 point. That had to sting.

Unlike others here I liked seeing the Gordon/Bowyer fight. It's nice to see passion back in Nascar, enough with the politically correct crap, have at it boys!

I've never been into F1 much but have started watching a few races this year and it was actually a pretty good season. Way better than I remember it in the past.

EDIT: The 2012 Indy 500 was pretty good. Didn't follow the rest of the season.