[ENGINE REVVING]
-Leo, we're back.
LEO PARENTE: What?
-It's time to do "ShakeDown."
LEO PARENTE: We're back.
What do you mean "we're back"?
I never left.
-/DRIVE's back. "ShakeDown's" back.
Come on.
LEO PARENTE: What are you talking about?
I'm not back.
It's the audience that left.
You guys.
You're back.
I've been sitting here since the last "ShakeDown" show,
that Spa 24 video from February 5.
I've been here since the last "ShakeDown" studio show on
February 1, been sitting here waiting for you
viewers to come back.
Well, Ian, whatever.
Welcome to "ShakeDown" 2013.
Season 6 on /DRIVE.
It's the start of a new year, so I'd better start with a
preview of the racing that'll be coming up in 2013.
Like in F1, Mark Webber will emerge as the Infinity Red
Bull Racing team driver number one, disputing any evidence
that in the future Mark can be Porsche'd around--
I mean, pushed around.
Danica Patrick will prove that the move to NASCAR was perfect
for her driving style.
She, too, will dominate to the point that the France family
that owns NASCAR will rename the series Dani-car.
And VW will enter WRC, but fail miserably.
No one in their first year of competition can win all the
rallies, save for one, and maybe finish second in the one
that they don't win.
And in sports car racing, it's all going to be about--
-Hey, Leo, it's May.
LEO PARENTE: What?
-The race season's already started.
It's been going on for five months.
It's too late for predictions.
LEO PARENTE: What?
But /DRIVE just launched.
What calendar are we using around here that starts the
year in May?
The Discordian calendar, the Mayan calendar, the Rapa Nui,
the Zoroastrian calendar?
Those are all real, by the way.
Oh, no, no, no.
It's the Musialian calendar.
OK, I get it.
Was I right with those predictions?
No?
Look, I never left the desk.
But go to break, we'll launch "ShakeDown" 2013.
Can I predict that?
[ENGINE REVVING]
Let's do three things today on the return of "ShakeDown,"
Season 6 on /DRIVE.
Number one, let me tell you what's in store for
"ShakeDown" and you viewers in 2013.
Number two, let's do a recap of the racing to date and a
preview of the racing that's happening this weekend.
And number three, let's warm up with my first
rant of the new year.
Let's start with telling you how "ShakeDown"
will work this year.
Once a week, every Friday.
But every month, there'll be four different versions of
"ShakeDown." Like having a high speed spa set up and then
a street course set up for a Long Beach configuration, high
down force.
And hopefully, all of them won't be low drag.
Get it?
Yep, the bad jokes are back.
So first, there'll be a straight studio
show, like this one.
My opinion, attitude, any topic.
Not really the racing news, because you can get those
facts anywhere, everywhere, and faster than on a Friday,
but more translation and analysis.
The did you knows and what do you think abouts.
Next, we'll have an interview every month.
It could be in the studio.
It could be on Skype.
But always good people and their interesting insights.
Then we'll have a new version of "ShakeDown" called
"TrackDown." Since I'm at every ALMS race doing my day
job work and working on the Porsche IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge
by Yokohama videos, the ones you see here on /DRIVE, the
series with the Porsche race cars with the yellow Hertz
windshield banners.
Yes, that was a sponsor plug.
Since I'm at those races, I've tracked down two racers and
convinced them to take turns guest hosting "ShakeDown"
shows with me.
So each month, Viper racer Tommy Kendall--
remember him from our Race of Champions broadcast?--
and/or Corvette Racing Program Manager Doug Fehan will be on
"TrackDown." And we'll snark on the racing goings on, in
general, and the Viper and Corvette programs in
particular.
You'll love their opinions.
Both have no shortage of those, or personality.
And finally, the fourth version of "ShakeDown" 2013 is
"ShakeDown Nation." Fast Lane Daily occasional host, and
someone who works in the car biz, Christina Thompson will
join me, and we will bring you a show that plays off your
comments, opinions, and interests.
And for those of you in the US, think of it as ESPN
"SportsNation," but for racing.
We'll have segments like things you may have missed,
the they said, they meant, they should've said racer
quotes and our translations, and best of all, viewer polls
on questions, topics, news of the day.
See?
I really do care about your thoughts, opinions, and
comments, even the ones that suggest I shave my head, grow,
stare goofily into the camera, gain a bazillion pounds, adopt
a Brit accent, or just die.
Hey besides, I'm tired of only hearing myself.
Oh, you, too?
So bring on the guest host.
So that's the plan, given the tools I've been
given to work with.
But I got other ideas to try to do more, like out of the
studio field trips, "ShakeDown University" training, et
cetera, et cetera.
But even without that stuff, we got four
big shows every month.
So tune in to "ShakeDown" on Friday, follow me on my
Twitter and Facebook accounts, and check out the "ShakeDown"
stuff on "ShakeDown" on Kinja, and of course, slashdrive.tv.
All the links are below.
Next, the racing year is already up and running.
So here's the "ShakeDown" racing flash cap recap of the
2013 racing to date.
Only a few words in just a few moments, but right to the
point, hopefully.
F1.
Tyres, too much show.
Lewis, for real.
Vettel, still the one to beat, but his good guy mask has got
pulled off.
McLaren are pretenders, again.
Ferrari-Alonso are strong.
Kimi's good.
DRS sucks.
Politics and dollars will wound F1.
But you have to watch.
It's intense drama and the highest order
of performance art.
WRC rally.
We miss Loeb, but VW and Sebastien Ogier have replaced
the other Seb's dominance.
This weekend, they go head-to-head, as Argentina is
one of the WRC events that Loeb has chosen to appear.
And the last time Loeb WRC'd was Monte Carlo, and he won.
The only WRC to date that VW has not won.
They finished second in Monte Carlo, by the way.
Sports cars.
We got World Endurance Championship, ALMS, Grand Am,
ELMS, FIA GT Series, World Challenge, blah, blah,
freakin' blah.
And either way, either they're all geniuses for having so
many places to race, or the US is smarter, with its ALMS
Grand Am consolidation into the 2014 United Sports Car
Racing series.
But already the pissing contest about Daytona
prototypes versus P2 specs suggest that the Rodney King
of sports car racing-- you know, the can't we all just
get along guy from the LA Riots of 1990s--
that guy in racing may not exist, although not for the
lack of trying by operations leaders Scot Elkins and
Richard Buck from the URS, USR.
As to the racing.
P1, they're spaceships.
They're awesome.
P2 is on life support in the US, but it's the biggest class
of racing at the Le Mans 24.
GT racing is always great.
And in the US and soon at Le Mans,
Viper's racing much better.
And Porsche has their new GT car.
And everybody is sandbagging before Le Mans to avoid
performance adjustments.
Now WEC is in Spa this weekend, tired of finally
rolling out their new 2013 edition.
This is the last race before Le Mans.
And yes, we'll be doing another 25 hours of the 24
Hours of Le Mans live stream.
I'll check the calendar.
Hopefully a /DRIVE is planned for the same day as the actual
race, June 22 and 23, not sometime five months later.
That was a joke.
Ha, ha, ha.
Sedan racing.
DTM is going DRS and tire compounding.
Really?
More show versus racing.
I thought the racing was good.
DRM race one for 2013 is this weekend.
And a US DTM series is coming in 2015 or '16.
V8 Supercars.
New cars, still great racing.
So why can't NASCAR do the same, when they went to their
new Gen 6 race cars?
Aussie V8's are also in action this weekend, but Ford,
Nissan, Mercedes, they need to step it up versus Holden.
World touring cars are suffering from the loss of
Chevy, but they gain a factory, Honda.
Yeah, whatever.
And in the US, the Conti Tire series is huge.
Formula Drift and Global RallyCross, they're still
putting on a good show.
MotoGP.
Rossi's back on a good bike, while Lorenzo is faster still.
And Honda rookie Marc Marquez is the next thing.
He's already won a race.
MotoGP goes this weekend in Spain, and could the storyline
be any more obvious?
And why are most of all the best riders all Spanish?
Then there's Indy Car.
It's still the Indy 500, and then they run a
bunch of other races.
With teams, owners, drivers, they're really good, but
living in their own bubble of divorced
from reality and viewers.
And then there's NASCAR.
More of the same, both the good and the bad.
Now so far this year, I've been to two big meetings with
big European manufacturers and racing brands, and they see
NASCAR as US racing.
So I want NASCAR to be great.
I need it to be great, because to everyone else in the world,
it represents us.
So to recap.
Stylistically, F1 good.
WRC, in a holding pattern until 2014, when more
manufacturer competition comes to play, like Hyundai, Toyota,
maybe more.
Sports Car Racing, waiting for unification.
Sedan racing and MotoGP, don't screw up a good thing.
And the racing this weekend you should follow.
IndyCar, MotoGP, WEC, DTM, V8 Supercars, World Touring Cars,
WRC, and NASCAR at their biggest track, Talladega,
which really is worth the watch.
And now a quick "ShakeDown" rant to get the year going.
Racing is its own worst enemy.
We as racers and racing fans are either too close to the
action or just a bunch of morons that
love to screw up success.
Yeah, I know Euro and US economies suck, making
spending on racing tougher than ever.
And yeah, kids still like their phones more than cars.
But Buddha H. Christ, do we have to help them make the
choice away from racing, make it so easy?
It seems living in our bubble of racing gets racing to
forget the sport has to be appealing versus everything
else in the world.
Everything, not just other racing.
And to do that does not mean dumbing it down for the masses
or dropping the sport for more show.
Look at football, American and global.
It's wildly popular, and they immerse you in tech, data and
schemes, and everything.
Racing does not need to be unnecessarily selfish or
negative in the press.
We got Bernie, with his I hate the 2014 Turbo talk.
Or self-inflicting distractions to the excitement
of racing, NASCAR and IndyCar are best at those skills.
You got NASCAR penalties right now that make no sense.
You have the Indy 500 coming, but press releases that tell
me about teams going out of business.
And last year at Indy, after an intensely engaging 500
race, the distraction was all about the bagging of the
IndyCar CEO.
Screw the race.
Let's watch the dead man walking reality show.
Oh, and they did off the guy and gave control back to the
family that for decades drove IndyCar into the wall like a
rookie on Pole Day.
Yes, racing is business and rules and politics, like
everything else.
But racing seems to do everything it can to air its
laundry out the window, like an Italian family in a
five-story walk-up apartment building in the
Bronx, circa 1950.
Long ago, someone taught me that these are the things that
interest people, that make them care about paying
attention, and they're relevant to racing.
First, aspirations, anxieties, how to's, David versus
Goliath, contrarian views, glitz and glamour, new trends,
relevance, personalities.
And I want to add authenticity to the list, because I believe
people are more cynical, skeptical, and angry about
being sold than ever before.
So looking at that list, I ask you to think about which
racing series hit the most of those
cylinders to attract fans.
Start with aspiration.
That should be easy.
The attainable dream, or the role model.
Anxieties.
Got a ton of those in racing.
How to's, and frankly, sim driving videos may be the best
tools for that.
The sims where you don't have to drive with a jet booster,
machine guns, or score points by driving over Girl Scouts.
How about David versus Goliath?
Check.
In racing, or not.
In many series, it's the haves and the you never will have.
But David versus Goliath does exist in racing.
Just keep it authentic, not made up.
Contrarian views.
We need more.
Or simply stated, stop with the spec cars and let
different options fly.
How about glitz and glamour?
Well, yeah.
New trends, stop hating on new tech, because, first, it
allows the manufacturers to spend on racing, because it's
relevant tech to their business.
Hell, diesel race cars are fine.
And there's going to be a KERS in a Toyota GT86, Subaru BRZ,
and even a Volvo, let alone all the hypercars.
Personalities.
Of course, racing has a tun.
Like JF Musial, because now he's a racer, too.
He's carting, lemons, and chump car.
Or Matt Farah or Mike Musto, or Mike
Spinelli and Chris Harris.
Frankly, the only guy not racing is me.
But I'm not getting in a race car that, A, looks like an
abandoned car crime scene or the clown car, or B, smells
like the garbage from the food court at the New
Jersey truck stop.
I digress.
You prima donna, right?
Hey, if racing really focuses on these attributes and stops
living in its own bubble economy and mindset, all will
be good, or at least better.
So again, the list.
Aspirations, anxieties, how to's, David and Goliath,
contrarian views, glitz and glamour, new trends,
relevance, personalities, and authenticity.
Now you tell me, which racing series checks most or all of
those boxes and is getting it right?
I want your opinion.
Thanks for being here.
And tune in for the four new versions of
"ShakeDown" in 2013.
Listen, I'm probably taking next week off, as we head to
Laguna Seca and the LMS action.
But we'll be back every week after that from then on,
starting with our first "TrackDown." Later.
[CAR ENGINES AND MUSIC PLAYING]