This weekend’s edition of the Motorsports Weekend Guide is brought to you by videos. Videos: They’re like pictures that move. The big racing show comes to North America this weekend and Xtreme autosport also puts on their show. IndyCar and NASCAR nail down the ovals while the most viscerally dangerous racing event in the world is in full swing by now. Follow the jump for more on who is racing what and where this weekend, along with a few videos on it.
Want more information on a series mentioned below? Click here for Hooniverse’s Massively Oversized Guide to Motorsports 2015, which will tell you all you need to know (and then some).

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhfMV8gzHXg[/youtube]

Formula 1: Grand Prix of Canada (Circuit Gilles Villeneuve)

The F1 show makes its first of three trips to North America this year, starting with Montreal and the Canadian track named for the famed and deceased Canadian F1 pilot. Canada’s Grand Prix tends to be one of the more exciting, circling a man-made island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River. Well, the location in the middle of the river isn’t the exciting part; the wide racing surface with several passing zones provides ample opportunities to make up positions.
Last year, Daniel Ricciardo triumphed for Red Bull Racing and while Ricciardo and Red Bull have struggled for pace this year, they’ve started to look a bit better lately. The series remains a Mercedes show with Lewis Hamilton, a three-time winner in Montreal, and Nico Rosberg’s intrateam rivalry capturing most of the headlines. Sebastien Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have also looked competitive with Vettel taking a gifted second place at Monaco.
Links: F1 site. CGV site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list with season points.
Support races: Canadian F1600 Championship. Ferrari Challenge. Nissan Micra Cup.
Coverage: Sunday @ 2:00 p.m. on NBC.
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PJj4ncu9us[/youtube]

Isle of Man Tourist Trophy

We mentioned the TT last week for practice and now it’s time for the real deal with races for the remainder of the week. Yesterday marked the first untimely death of this year’s TT when French rider Frank Petricola, but do keep the rest of the riders in your thoughts since this is one of the most incredibly dangerous motor races in the world.
I don’t know if the coverage will show sidecar racing (shown above), but I hope that it does.
Links: TT site. Schedule.
Coverage: Daily hour-long recap shows on Velocity during race (next) week. At least one of them is Saturday @ 11 p.m. ET on Velocity./
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcFtVc9-Zjk[/youtube]

NASCAR: Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ 400 (Pocono Raceway)

The NASCAR show rolls on with superstar Jimmie Johnson taking his incredible 10th victory at Dover Speedway’s “Monster Mile” last weekend. The series now heads to Pocono Raceway, better known as the “Tricky Triangle” for its irregular shape and three unique turns. The 2.5-mile hella-not-an-oval hosted two victories for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., last year, which is interesting because he’d never before won at Pocono.
ARCA gets the supporting bill, making this one of the stock car series’ big billings. Fun fact: Team Penske NASCAR ace Brad Keselowski’s dad, Bob, won five ARCA races at Pocono from 1989 to 1991.
Links: Sprint Cup site. Pocono site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Support races: Pocono ARCA 200 (ARCA Racing Series)
Coverage: Sunday @ 1 p.m. ET on FOX. Qualifying – Friday @ 4:45 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. ARCA – Saturday @ 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2.
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFokCCfUU2Y[/youtube]

IndyCar: Firestone 600 (Texas Motor Speedway)

TMS remains one of the fastest 1.5-mile ovals in the world when the 2001 CART race famously produced sustained G forces in excess of 5 g and making drivers sick. Today’s IndyCars actually produce considerably less horsepower and consequently lower G forces, but the D-oval is still an incredibly fast one with former winner Will Power setting a pole time of 218.9 mph last year, although oval specialist Ed Carpenter won last year’s race. Carpenter bested all of Chip Ganassi and Team Penske’s cars in that race with all seven from those two teams finishing in the Top 10. Given those teams’ domination at the Indy 500, I’d expect more of the same this weekend.
Also on the bill is one of the few shared IndyCar/NASCAR rounds with the Camping World Truck Series taking the Friday night bill for an unusually long 400-mile race. The Trucks have qualified at more than 180 mph at TMS, so there’s plenty of speed to go around there, as well.
Links: IndyCar site. TMS site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list with season points.
Support races: Winstar World Casino 400 (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series)
Coverage: Saturday @ 8 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network. CWTS – Friday @ 9 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
 
 

X Games: Circuit of the Americas (Circuit of the Americas)

The extreme sports version of the Olympics heads to its new home in Austin. While BMX, motocross, and skateboard remain the principle sports to some, but the event now includes flat-track motorcycle, Robby Gordon’s Formula Off-Road truck racing, and rallycross.
Links: X Games site. COTA site. Schedule.
Coverage: Live on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN.com. see schedule.
 

Formula Drift: Orlando Speedworld

FD makes its first foray into Florida and all of the trappings of Florida Man with a run in Orlando. Recent Driver on Driver guest Fredric Aasbo currently sits second in the championship and he has done reasonably well in the compact venues like that in Orlando.
Links: FD site. Orlando site. Event page with schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Coverage: Streaming live on FD site via DailyMotion. Livestream starts @ 5 p.m. ET.
 

Formula E: Moscow

Yes, Formula E is still a thing and while the last round in Germany was pretty tepid on the track, the post-race exclusion of winner Lucas Di Grassi knocked him from a huge championship lead to third in the championship with Nelson Piquet and Sebastien Buemi (the only repeat winner so far this year) separated by just two points at the top. At stake this weekend then is the points lead heading into the final double-round in London in a few weeks and you can bet Di Grassi will be trying to make up lost at ground at the circuit that, no joke, literally runs in the Kremlin’s shadow.
Links: Formula E site. Moscow event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Coverage: Saturday @ 10 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
 

World Superbike Championship: Algarve Circuit

In case you haven’t been paying attention, the story in World Superbikes this year has been “All Brits, All the Time.” We’re not, however, talkin’ ’bout a RockBlockOfZeppelinAndTheWhoCominAtYaOnBritishRockvasionWeekend. No, this has been utter domination of Kawasaki riders Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes, who have nearly every win between them so far this year and only a handful of non-Brits have dared finish as high as third. Will that continue in Portugal this weekend? I’d bet on it.
Links: WSBK site. Algarve site. Event page with schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Support races: SuperSport. SuperStock 1000. SuperStock 600. European Junior Cup.
Coverage: Early Sunday morning on beIN Sports.
 

NHRA: Summernationals (Old Bridge Township Raceway | Englishtown, NJ)

The Summernationals is, as best as this total NHRA novice can tell, one of the bigger NHRA events of the year. Defending Pro Stock champion Erica Enders-Stevens has looked incredibly strong early this year, but the NHRA season is a long one, much like NASCAR’s nine-month race year. Meanwhile, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan continue to go blow-for-blow, separated by just five points in the championship.
Links: NHRA site. Englishtown site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Coverage: Sunday @ 11 a.m. ET on ESPN3.com (Live) and Sunday @ 9 p.m. ET on ESPN 2 (Delayed TV).
 

British Touring Car Championship: Oulton Park

British Touring Cars and Oulton Park go together like cod and fries, the English delicacy. The top five points leaders this year is a veritable who’s who of past BTCC champions and/or fan favorites: Gordon Shedden, Colin Turkington, Matt Neal, Jason Plato, and Andrew Jordan.  This is, of course, the most British collection of names in motorsport today.
Links: BTCC site. Oulton Park site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Support races: Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain. MSA Formula Championship. Ginetta GT4 Super Cup. Ginetta Junior Championship. Renault UK Clio CUp.
Coverage: Live on ITV4 in the UK only. Delayed coverage June 17 @ 7 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network in the U.S.
 

World Touring Car Championship: Moscow

Meanwhile, the WTCC heads to Moscow Raceway (not in the Kremlin’s shadow) for another round of the Citroen factory team drubbing everyone else. The Lada team will be at their home race and while they showed good pace at the (actually exciting for a change) Nurburgring round, reliability issues kept them out of real contention while the Citroens did their thing. Still, if Lada lead driver Rob Huff is going to make a showing this year, this will be the round to do it.
Links: WTCC site. Moscow site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Support races: Formula Masters. SMP Formula 4.
Coverage: None in the U.S.
 

Blancpain Sprint Series: Zolder

Blancpain runs the famous Belgian circuit this weekend. The Sprint Series has not been as heavily subscribed this year as the Endurance Series and the racing has been a mixed bag. The Navarra round was a snoozer while the Brands Hatch round was a dogfight. Since Navarra is boring and Brands Hatch isn’t boring, I’ll wager that we see a not-boring round at Zolder with the Belgian WRT Audi squad making a good show in front of their home crowd.
Links: BSS site. Zolder site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Support races: Porsche GT3 Cup Benelux. German Touring Car Challenge.
Coverage: Sunday @ noon ET and Sunday @ 3 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network. Live streaming outside the U.S. on the Blancpain GT site.
 

FFSA GT: Spa Francorchamps

Meanwhile, just a few miles away (I assume anyway; it’s not that big of a country), the French GT series races at Belgium’s famouser track along with the Dutch Supercar Challenge, a pretty decent national grand-tourer series in its own right.
Links: FFSA GT site. Spa site. Event page. Entry list.
Support races: Dutch Supercar Challenge. Formula Renault 2.0 Alps. Supertourisme Mitjet. Formula Ford.
Coverage: Live video on the FFSA site.
 

NASCAR Whelen Euro Series: AMERICAN SPEEDFEST III (Brands Hatch Circuit)

Speaking of Brands Hatch, NASCAR’s European Series headlines a celebration of all things AMERICAN in Kent, England.  Hell yeah! The Whelen Euro Series run American-like stock cars with considerably less power (~400 HP), but on a road course (as most of these races are), the lower power produces some good, hard racing.
Links: WES site. Brands Hatch site. Speedfest site. Event page. Schedule.
Support races: GD MONSTER TRUCKS, Rock and/or Roll music, stock cars, Formula 5000, and a whole lotta Stars ‘n’ Bars.
Coverage: Live on FansChoice.tv.
 

European Drag Racing Championship: Tierp Arena (Sweden)

The EDRC is a refuge for Europeans who love big horsepower, mostly in northern Europe. In fact, I think all of the rounds are in the UK or Scandinavia this year. Drag strips are only slightly more common across the pond than oval tracks and while you may not be terribly familiar, the Europeans do in fact run Top Fuel Dragster in their top class.
Links: EDRC site. Tierp site. Event page. Season points.
Coverage: Delayed coverage on MAVTV.
 
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y3fkCxPBPc[/youtube]

European Rally Championship: Rally Azores

To be perfectly, bluntly honest, I started writing the Motorsports Weekend Guide for myself to start discovering more forms of racing and then sort out what I like. I shared it with others because maybe five other people in the world would find it useful to the same end. Ultimately, this rally perhaps more than any other event I’ve discovered through doing the MWG (except maybe the Pau Grand Prix) has made my bucket list. Stages running around the island, overlooking sheer cliffs with the Atlantic Ocean at the bottom? Just mesmerizing. I want to go to there.
Links: ERC site. Rally Azores site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Coverage: None in the U.S. Highlights on the ERC YouTube channel.
 

Rally America: Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally

Closer to home, one of Rally America’s most popular events takes place in the obscurity of the Pennsylvania forests. It’s a shame that Rally America is something of a shadow of its former self with Subaru works driver David Higgins essentially running unopposed in the top class, but the scramble in the lower classes remains interesting and is very much the realm of privateers and garage builders, as rally has been at its best.
Links: RA site. STPR site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Coverage: Coverage on Rally America Radio. Stage times posted on STPR site.
 

European Hill Climb Championship: Sternberk (Czech Republic)

Hill climbs, like this Czech version, are best explained in pictures, not words.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prcJa0KAM4k[/youtube]
Links: EHCC site. Event page. Route. Season points.
Coverage: None in the U.S.
 

SCORE International Off-Road Racing: Baja 500

The Baja 500 is a very-long warmup for the Big One, the Baja 1000 November. Unlike the 1000, this race doesn’t traverse the length of the Baja Peninsula. It instead crosses the narrow finger of land, but some of the routing will undoubtedly be similar (if not the exact same) to that in the later race.
Links: SCORE site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Coverage: Live coverage on SCORE Live site.
 

African Endurance Series: Killarney 3 Hours

The AES is something of a mixed bag of racing with basically any kind of sports racer and tin-top car running together. This includes, strangely, the Chrysler V6-powered Can-Am cars from the series’ “relaunch” in the ’90s among Porsches and hatchbacks, all on tracks in South Africa. With Porsche announcing it was redesigning and improving Kyalami, perhaps South Africa may be a new center of racing talent.
Links: AES site. Killarney site. Event page. Schedule.
Coverage: None in the U.S.
 

East Coast Timing Association: Ohio Mile

The Ohio Mile gives a venue for East Coasters to run as fast as they can over a mile, similar to the Texas Mile and possibly as a tune-up for some hot rodders headed to Bonneville in the fall. This weekend is a full-mile run on the Ohio Mile’s 9,000-foot runway.
Links: ECTA site. Ohio Mile site. Event page with schedule.
Coverage: None in the U.S.
 

Atlantic Championship: Virginia International Raceway

SCCA Pro Racing runs the Atlantic Championship, a shadow of the former Formula Atlantic championship that was once a support series for various guises of professional American open-wheel racing. Today, it’s a mixed bag of older racers looking to go fast in the Toyota 4AGE-powered opn-wheeled cars and young talent looking to use the series as firm ground from which to step onto one of the open-wheel ladders.
Links: Atlantics site. VIR site. Schedule. Entry list. Season points.
Support races: Formula 2000 championship. Formula 1600 championship. NARRA.
Coverage: Live timing on the RaceMonitor app.
 

World Racing League: High Plains Raceway

The American endurance series runs at Colorado’s High Plains in a 12-hour race. High Plains is a roller coaster and a great track for WRL, who bring a mix of everything from crapcans to well-prepared club cars.
Links: WRL site. High Plains site. Event information with schedule.
Coverage: Live timing on WRL site and on RaceMonitor.
 

World Racing League/Lucky Dog Racing League: The Ridge Motorsports Park

New racing series Lucky Dog Racing League, formed by former ChumpCar World Series regional director Cathy McCause, joins with WRL (also started by a former CCWS regional direct, Joey Todd) to co-host a pair of eight-hour races at the Shelton, Washington, racetrack, where LeMons racer and friend of Hooniverse Matt Adair is an instructor. I’m not sure I could name-drop any more than that.
Links: WRL site. LDRL site. The Ridge Site. Event information with schedule.
Coverage: Live timing on WRL site and on RaceMonitor
 

ChumpCar World Series: Auto Club Speedway

ChumpCar runs on Auto Club Speedway’s road course, a short circuit inside the Fontana oval. The Double-7 races at this track have been regularly on the Chump schedule since the series’ first full year in 2010.
Links: CCWS site. Auto Club site. Event supplemental regulations w/schedule.
Coverage: Live timing on CCWS site and on RaceMonitor
 

ChumpCar World Series: NCM Motorsports Park

Chump also runs this weekend in Bowling Green at the National Corvette Museum, where the race series will share the racing grounds with the Pro Touring beasts of the Optime Ultima Street Car Association.
Links: CCWS site. NCM site. Event supplemental regulations w/schedule.
Support races: Optima Ultimate Street Car Association.
Coverage: Live timing on CCWS site and on RaceMonitor
 
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[Lead photo copyright 2015 Hooniverse/Eric Rood]