A True Highlight On The Motorsport Calendar Where It Isn't All Serious, But What Is Happening At ROC This Year?
Once again it is that time of year where we get to see the best racers from all different motorsport disciplines, from F1 to Nascar, from Indycar to Touring Cars and Rally, and they all come together to have a good bit of fun and see just who is the best. Split in to the race of champions solo and the sort of World cup edition where teams are made up of two different drivers from the same nation a knockout style tournament is the way ROC works. A head to head two cars on the same track but it is a tight narrow difficult track creating a time trial head to head. No excuses here it is just who is faster, same car, same track.
Who is there
This year along with some classic fan favourites the highlights from the formula 1 world is surely Mika Hakkinen making his second ROC appearance, and on the Saturday Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel representing team Germany. Along with David Coulthard will be Jamie Chadwick the w series champion representing team GB also from the F1 grid we see Valterri Bottas back again.
The world of Rally arguably the favourite discipline to win on this surface brings legend Sebastian Loeb along with father and son Petrer and Oliver Solberg who won the nations cup last year. Travis Pastrana and Tanner Foust head up team USA and Mr Le Mans himself Tom Kristensen returns again to ROC.
Where is it
This will be the 32nd running of the race of champions and it will be held in Pite Havsbad only 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle, coats will certainly be needed there! On the frozen ground a true test of car control comes out something our rally drivers will already be a little bit accustomed to.
What Cars Do They Use
The cars are always a joy, from the classic Roc Buggy to the KTM x bows a true test of the drivers skill across all types of driving. This year, however, we head to Sweden, yes racing on a frozen lake so no slick tyre race cars the rally style cars will feature heavily as they did last year. And a frozen surface is far from what the F1 drivers are used to.
This years cars include the Cupra Urbanrebel Concept, an Electric rally hatch from Cupra with a 0-60 time of 3.2 weighing only 1230 KG.
The Zeroid X1 boasts a similar 0-60 time but weighs even less at 1170kg.
A favourite from last year is the light weight Polaris RZR a tad slower this really rocks around on its suspension and is great to watch being hustled around the track especially when it is in the hands of Seb Loeb.
The supercar lites based on the Ford Fiesta rally car also features and alike the olarirs before it in an effort for sustainability ROC is powering it's ICE cars with biofuel as they step towards highlighting sustainability.
How can I watch
We cannot wait to watch this year and will keep a quick update available for you as it unfolds, if you want to watch it in the UK you will find the nations cup live at 11:00 GMT on saturday and the individuals live at 11:00 on the sunday on the Sky F1 channel.
Photo Credit: ROC