Race of Champions 2025 - you've missed it.

[moffspeed]

During the F1 down-season there used to be 3 lifelines for me (4 once Stoneleigh had rocked up).

1) The (proper) Paris-Dakar with nightly Eurosport coverage.

2) The Autosport show at the NEC.

2) The Race of Champions - especially in classic Scalextric figure of 8 configuration at Wembley/Stade de France.


The Dakar has now moved out of Africa and is a lower profile weaker event for this. Eurosport has been pulled from the UK to add to the pain. The Autosport show is (in my opinion) a shadow of its former self.

I was vaguely aware that the RoC had been revived this year and with a half-decent entry and a return to a stadium-base to boot. So I Googled it this morning to find out when I could sit down and enjoy it.

I've missed it ! It was last weekend in Sydney, Loeb won the Drivers' event. There seems to have been so little publicity either in the specialised Press or on-line. Did any of you PH'ers catch it ??

[Castellet]

Monte Carlo Rally used to be another, and the Daytona 24HR.

RoC used to attract the big active names - Michael Schumacher especially, hence apparently why Mick still does it.
Guess the current, heavily PR, branding and safety sensitive, drivers aren’t allowed to do it.

Quite enjoyed it on ice, but was always going to be won by a rally or rallyX driver.

[FredericRobinson]

Castellet said:

Monte Carlo Rally used to be another, and the Daytona 24HR.

RoC used to attract the big active names - Michael Schumacher especially, hence apparently why Mick still does it.
Guess the current, heavily PR, branding and safety sensitive, drivers aren’t allowed to do it.

Quite enjoyed it on ice, but was always going to be won by a rally or rallyX driver.

Daytona 24 is a much better race than it was in the Grand Am days, and is available to watch in full, for free, if you're in the UK

[moffspeed]

FredericRobinson said:

Castellet said:

Monte Carlo Rally used to be another, and the Daytona 24HR.

RoC used to attract the big active names - Michael Schumacher especially, hence apparently why Mick still does it.
Guess the current, heavily PR, branding and safety sensitive, drivers aren’t allowed to do it.

Quite enjoyed it on ice, but was always going to be won by a rally or rallyX driver.

Daytona 24 is a much better race than it was in the Grand Am days, and is available to watch in full, for free, if you're in the UK

Good point, yes I watched most of it this year - I'm glad we've seen the back of the old D.P's...

[GlobalRacer]

Knew all about RoC from social media but didn't watch it as it's behind the Sky paywall in the UK rather than being on YouTube in the old days. Still on YouTube for some countries.

[bergclimber34]

It has never really been the same since it dropped its rallying roots, the old event at Gran Canaria and a few others were fabulous, these crap events in a tiny stadium, are just very poor.

I would prefer something more suited to the venue like the old Becry karting event., that was amazing.

RoC is just a franchise that charges a ton of money to host and never stays anywhere fro 2 years as the venue always loses ,money. The crows in OZ was less than 30 k in a big stadium, and the p[rices were, high? Why? because the venue was asked to pay a fortune to host and lay a track down, it is a loss maker and always has been

[spikyone]

bergclimber34 said:

It has never really been the same since it dropped its rallying roots, the old event at Gran Canaria and a few others were fabulous, these crap events in a tiny stadium, are just very poor.

I would prefer something more suited to the venue like the old Becry karting event., that was amazing.

RoC is just a franchise that charges a ton of money to host and never stays anywhere fro 2 years as the venue always loses ,money. The crows in OZ was less than 30 k in a big stadium, and the p[rices were, high? Why? because the venue was asked to pay a fortune to host and lay a track down, it is a loss maker and always has been

Agreed, I went to it both years when it was at Wembley. A half empty stadium with very little atmosphere. Michael Schumacher was a bit of a pointless addition as Ferrari wouldn't let him drive anything made by another manufacturer (though they were part of Fiat at the time). On the plus side I can lay claim to having been there on the day that Schumi lost to a NASCAR driver!

The really old RoC format with proper rally cars going head to head was fantastic.

[bergclimber34]

The big issue is that the rally version will not sell in countries that know little about racing, you have to try and get other sorts of drivers involved, something the early RoC event also did with Rossi, Jimmie Johnson Jeff Gordon I think doing events.

The venues are too small, the cars they use are barely out of first gear and as an event it just looks a bit naff, tickets are also usually very dear as they have to try and recoup the stadium event costs and hosting fees. For an event that is really not that easy to sell! Unless to people who know nothing about motorsport, as I doubt too many real fans are paying to watch it

Somehow it still exists and managed to find a buyer every year, so somebody somewhere is doing a grand job

[GravelBen]

Even on their own website there was bugger all information when I looked afterwards, not even a head to head results table - just a couple of badly written press releases about who won the RoC and Nations cup.

[spikyone]

bergclimber34 said:

The big issue is that the rally version will not sell in countries that know little about racing, you have to try and get other sorts of drivers involved, something the early RoC event also did with Rossi, Jimmie Johnson Jeff Gordon I think doing events.

The early RoC events? I think you've missed a few, it started in the 1980s! Rossi was the first non rally driver as far as I can tell and that was in 2000. I'm not suggesting they should only invite rally drivers anyway, there's plenty of scope for them to go back to something like rallycross rather than the unspectacular stadium stuff.

[Rewtle Litand]

spikyone said:

bergclimber34 said:

The big issue is that the rally version will not sell in countries that know little about racing, you have to try and get other sorts of drivers involved, something the early RoC event also did with Rossi, Jimmie Johnson Jeff Gordon I think doing events.

The early RoC events? I think you've missed a few, it started in the 1980s! Rossi was the first non rally driver as far as I can tell and that was in 2000. I'm not suggesting they should only invite rally drivers anyway, there's plenty of scope for them to go back to something like rallycross rather than the unspectacular stadium stuff.

I think he means the early revamped RoC events in Wembley, Paris, etc not the proper Gran Canaria event in December........

[Arkose]

Rewtle Litand said:

spikyone said:

bergclimber34 said:

The big issue is that the rally version will not sell in countries that know little about racing, you have to try and get other sorts of drivers involved, something the early RoC event also did with Rossi, Jimmie Johnson Jeff Gordon I think doing events.

The early RoC events? I think you've missed a few, it started in the 1980s! Rossi was the first non rally driver as far as I can tell and that was in 2000. I'm not suggesting they should only invite rally drivers anyway, there's plenty of scope for them to go back to something like rallycross rather than the unspectacular stadium stuff.

I think he means the early revamped RoC events in Wembley, Paris, etc not the proper Gran Canaria event in December........

They held it on ice only a few years ago I think, they was half decent if I remember