Courses change from event to event; nobody at that event had seen the course before except for the course designer. The car was from Subaru themselves, it was a promotion.Bubba1 wrote:I dunno Jim. I don;t think its fair to condemn a guy's talent just because he didn;t do well on an autocross course he'd never seen before in a borrowed car. Everyone has their strengths and learning speeds. Being great in one dicipline does not automatically translate to making you instantly great at another. For example, Kimi and Montoya. both were in the top echelon of F1, and both are currently mediocre for WRC and NASCAR respectively. doesn;t mean they don't have a lot of talent.flohtingPoint wrote:http://ploney.shackspace.com/download/t ... esults.pdf
Time sheet from an autocross Ken Block (driving an 08 STi) entered in 2007 as a guest appearance. He didn't even trophy in a very, very weak A-Stock class and STU times crushed his. Good comparison is Yeoh, who is a SCCA national level competitor (note: not professional, still amateur) driving a 2000 Subaru 2.5 RS in Street Touring, smashed Block's time by over a second at that event.
Ken is a Youtube superhero 1st, a viral sensation 2nd, a shoe salesmen 3rd and a driver somewhere around 10th.
Methinks if the course were longer, not marked with just cones and on dirt, the outcome would be vastly different.
Autocross is, like rally, a point to point time trial. A professional rally driver should have been right at home and had no problem. Block didn't just do "not well", he did horribly. If you know the classes, it helps when you read the time sheet. ST cars are supposed to be some of the slowest out there, which is why they're given such a great PAX multi. An ST car destroyed Blocks time. No professional driver should get beat in a superior class car by an ST car driven by an amateur. I'm anywhere between 1.5 to 2.5 seconds faster than ST cars in my under-prepared Corolla and I'm very far from a professional.
As far as Raikkonen goes, this is his first season in WRC and he's with a junior team, meaning he has far less developmental dollars to spend than Sordo/Loeb, and motorsports is 75% money/development/car, 25% driver. All things considered, Kimi is doing pretty well, even winning a stage in Germany and getting a 5th overall placing in Turkey. Kimi in an autocross would be horrifying, there is little doubt he'd decimate the field if given an appropriate car (Kimi wouldn't get FTD in an H-Stock car for example).
JPM is a chronic under-achiever, he can never seem to get out of his own way. Any sucking coming from him is earned.
JPM and Kimi are both champions at something major (JPM Cart and Kimi in F1). Block to them is like me to SCCA National Champions, there is a huge difference.
That's actually a very good video with very good points. A lot of America has forgotten the most important thing about motorsports: WINNING. These silly Youtube videos and other viral marketing campaigns are just flashy commercials filled with fluff and nothingness. Motorsports is about being faster than everyone else in your class/grid and winning, not looking cool and doing silly stunts.MellowS13 wrote:this video is relevant to this thread.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT5T3OVh ... playnext=5[/youtube]