Patronise F1

The annual end-of-season motorsport jamboree has left the confines of Wembley Stadium to head for the similar, but a bit different, confines of the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing this year, and Patronise will be covering the whole, fun-filled event.

The Idea

The Race of Champions is ostensibly a head-to-head battle between champions of various motorsport disciplines, in a variety of machinery, in an effort to try and prove which of the star-studded cast is truly the "Champion of Champions". But in reality, it's a knockabout lark around a superspecial rally stage where a heady mix of talent from F1, rallying, Touring Cars and journalism muck around in hot hatches for an afternoon for the entertainment of a baffled but noisy audience.

The first Race of Champions was organised back in 1988, and was originally planned to merely be for rally drivers. That first event was a veritable porn movie of an even for anoracked rally enthusiasts, featuring all eight of the most recent world champions (Björn Waldegård, Walter Röhrl, Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Timo Salonen, Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biasion, if you're keeping count at the back). But since then, the event has come on in leaps and bounds (sort of) since then to welcome anyone from motorcycle champions through to NASCAR racers.

The format of the event sees two titles fought for. Firstly, the drivers are paired up under the umbrella of their respective nations in the fight for the Nations Cup, before the individual knockout event (the Race of Champions itself) takes place to decide the winner of the Henri Toivonen Memorial trophy.

Drivers race in head-to-head knockout races around a "crossover" track, with both drivers completing two laps, one on the inside lane and one on the outside, in order to ensure they cover the same distance. The first driver across the line advances to the next round. In the Nations Cup, the two pairs of drivers from each country have a best-of-three knockout event to decide who advances.

The Venue

The Race of Champions has packed it's bags and moved location this year, after spending two seasons based at the new Wembley Stadium, as London's big white elephant continued it's efforts to whore itself out to literally every sport in the world in an attempt to recoup the cost of getting a bunch of lazy Australian workmen to build the thing in the first place. For 2009, the ROC will move to the odd-looking Beijing National Stadium (the Bird's Nest Stadium to it's friends) in China, best known for staging the 2008 International run, jump or throw something championships.

The ROC has been brought forwards this year to an early November date, having taken place in mid-December recently. This was largely a tactical move to snare F1 drivers while they were out in Abu Dhabi anyway, and seems to have worked to an extent, with both Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel signed up to take part. The event has also changed format in that the action now takes place over a number of days, with some national Chinese preamble on Monday, the Nations Cup on Tuesday and the Race of Champions itself on the Wednesday.

The Schedule

Tuesday 3rd November
- The ROC Nations Cup - 19.30 (Local time) / 11.30 (GMT)

Wednesday 4th November
- The Race of Champions - 19.30 (Local time) / 11.30 (GMT)

The History

The ROC was traditionally dominated by rally drivers, with Juha Kankkunen winning the opening event, before the likes of Stig Blomqvist, Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae and four-time winner Didier Auriol took over. In fact the only non-rally champions have been Heikki Kovalainen, who took a shock win in 2004 back when he was still racing in the World Series by Renault, and DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom, who took back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007.

In the Nations Cup, the competition has been more open. A USA superteam of NASCAR men Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and motorbike ace Colin Edwards took victory in 2002, while Kovalainen also tasted success in this back in 2006, partnering rally man Marcus Gronholm. For the last two seasons, though, Team Germany have taken victory, with their combination of Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel, who are back this time to try and make it three in a row.

The Runners and Riders

Team Monaco:
- Clivio Piccione - GP2 Series race winner, A1GP Team Monaco driver.
- Emanuele Pirro - Five-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner, former Benetton and Scuderia Italia F1 driver.

Team Germany:
- Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull F1 driver, four-time Grand Prix winner, reigning Nations Cup champion.
- Michael Schumacher - Seven-time F1 champion, 91 GP wins, 68 pole positions, reigning Nations Cup champion, dodgy neck.

Team Scandinavia:
- Mattias Ekstrom - Two-time DTM champion and twice Race of Champions winner in 2006 and 2007.
- Tom Kristensen - Eight-time Le Mans winner, Five-time Sebring 12 Hours winner.

Team Autosport Great Britain:
- Jenson Button - 2009 F1 drivers champion, seven time GP winner, can grow a crap beard.
- Andy Priaulx - Three-time World Touring Car champion.

Team Finland:
- Mikko Hirvonen - Twice WRC championship runner-up, 11 rally wins, looks like an emaciated Woody Harrelson.
- Marcus Gronholm - Two-time WRC champion, 2002 Race of Champions winner, 2006 Nations Cup winner.

Team Australia:
- Chad Reed - Motocross bike champion person, has the most American-sounding name of any Australian ever.
- Mick Doohan - Five-time GP500 motorcycling champion, 54 GP500 wins, 58 pole positions, just celebrated 93rd birthday.

Team France:
- Yvan Muller - 2003 BTCC champion, 2008 WTCC champion, often in a mood.
- Guerlain Chicherit - No idea. Finished 9th in this year's Paris-Dakar rally.

Team United States:
- Travis Pastrana - Sometime rally driver, sometime stunty driving-bikes-over-humps performer.
- Tanner Foust - Sometime rally driver, sometime TV host.

Team All-Stars:
- David Coulthard - BBC F1 talking head, 13 time GP winner, this year will be his year.
- Giniel de Villiers - 2009 Paris-Dakar Rally winner, which took place in South America. Wuh?

Team China:
- Ho-Pin Tung - A1GP driver for Team China.
- Han Han - Stutteringly-named rally driver.

On Patronise

To sign off our 2009 live coverage of motoring stuff, and following in the footsteps of our segues into Indycar, Le Mans and the odd court case so far this season, Patty will be bringing you minute-by-minute (ish) accounts of the goings on in both the Nations Cup and the Race of Champions for anyone bored enough at work to want something to read. Join us from 11.30 GMT on Tuesday for the start of the Nations Cup, it might be fun!