Welcome to the opening paragraph of this weekly post, which I’m trying to cut as short as possible so I can go outside to see what little I can of the Perseids meteor shower from my light-polluted suburban abode. This weekend: About $800 Bajillion in racecars make people wince a lot, two wheels still good, and total stock car overload. Read more after the jump.
Pro tip: Keep this page open all weekend or bookmark so you have all the resources handy. 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).

Monterey Historics (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca)

The “featured marquee” at this year’s showcase of Cars You Can’t Afford, Pal is the Shelby GT350, since it’s the tuned Mustang’s 50th anniversary. Since Ford is also selling the new GT350 and maybe unveiling something else special this weekend, Hooniverse’s own Bradley Brownell can expect something of a FoMoCo-gasm at the track when he goes there with his press credentials and impressive beard. The actual theme of the weekend is “Screw You, Proles,” but that’s generally an unspoken theme what with the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance down the road a piece.
The real news at Laguna Seca, unfortunately, has a lot to do with the track’s apparently imminent sale to the International Speedway Corporation. Without delving too deeply into the situation, the question is “What happens when a world-famous racetrack, money-making potential, and local politics get thrown together?” The answer is probably “A lot of people who aren’t you or I make a bunch of money,” as it tends to be.
Links: Historics site. Schedule. Entry list.
Coverage: Maybe streaming on Ustream?
 

MotoGP: Grand Prix of the Czech Republic (Brno Circuit)

MotoGP’s bang-up season continues and Marc Marquez looks healthy and back to form. The Spaniard has won his last two races aboard the Repsol Honda and done so in convincing fashion. Unfortunately, he trails championship leader Valentino Rossi by 41 points. Marquez could theoretically catch the 36-year-old Yamaha rider, but he’ll need Rossi to finish poorly in a few races while winnnig most, if not all of the races himself. Since Rossi has yet to finish off the podium the entire season, that seems unlikely, but the unpredictable nature of this season means anything is in play.
The series heads to Brno in the Czech Republic, a track where Honda have won the last three years (twice by Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa and once himself). That said, Rossi is a five-time winner at Brno so it should be a classic give-and-take on the 3.3-mile circuit that features several great passing opportunities.
Links: MotoGP site. Brno site. Event page with schedule. Entry list. Season Points. Live timing.
Support race(s): Moto3. Moto2.
Coverage: Sunday @ 7:30 a.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. Replay Sunday @ 4 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2. Moto2 – Sunday @ 3 p.m. ET on FS2. Moto3 – Sunday @ 2 p.m. ET on FS2.
 

NASCAR Xfinity Series: Nationwide Children’s Hospital 200 at Mid-Ohio

NASCAR’s Xfinity Series heads to their second of three road course races this month. Joey Logano swept the Watkins Glen weekend last Saturday and Sunday in both series, but he’ll be absent from Mid-Ohio. That leaves the (mostly) young and talented Xfinity Series regulars to compete on Mid-Ohio’s rolling terrain. Former IndyCar star Alex Tagliani is one of a handful of “road course ringers” and he’ll be in a Penske car. He would have won at Road America last summer if not for a dreaded green-white-checker finish, so look for him to get redemption in his rare U.S. appearance. Also look for sports car ace and former NASCAR driver Andy Lally to put it to the competition from his super-small team. Should it rain, expect Lally, Tagliani, and Boris Said to walk away from the field of driers unused to dealing with wet racetracks. As the video above suggests, Mid-Ohio is a much more technically demanding track than any other on the NASCAR calendar so it can be a free-for-all where getting to the end at all is license to compete for the win.
The support race for this weekend is the ever-growing Trans-Am Series, which runs its three classes over two races. Amy Ruman has utterly dominated the first half of the season in the TA class, having won four of the first five rounds. Should she hang on to victory, she’ll be the first female Trans-Am champion.
Links: Xfinity Series site. Mid-Ohio site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season Points. Live timing.
Support race(s): The Next Dimension 100 (Trans-Am Series)
Coverage: Saturday @ 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network. Trans-Am – Delayed on CBS SN: August 29 @ Noon ET (TA & TA3) and September 5 @ Noon ET (TA2).
 

NASCAR Sprint Cup: Pure Michigan 400 (Michigian International Speedway)

Just a bit northwest from Mid-Ohio, Sprint Cup and the Trucks series both race on Michigan’s steeply banked two-mile oval. Unlike the usual superstar faces we see who have done well, some of the best Sprint Cup drivers at MIS have been Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle. Of those, only Biffle needs a win to get into the season-ending Chase. As of now, only 11 drivers have won races, leaving five spots up for grabs on points with four races left before the Chase. Jeff Gordon, in his final season, has yet to win but at this time would qualify for the Chase based on points if the standings stay the same. However, you can bet Gordon wants to secure his spot with a victory rather than chance it on points.
Links: Sprint Cup site. MIS site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season Points. Live timing.
Support race(s): Careers for Veterans 200 (Camping World Truck Series).
Coverage: Sunday @ 2:30 p.m. ET NBC Sports Newtork. CWTS – Saturday @ 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
 

NASCAR K&N Pro Series East: Motordrome Speedway (Smithtown, PA)

NASCAR at Motordrome. That just sounds so right, doesn’t it? The southwest Pennsylvania half-mile oval hosts NASCAR’s development series, where Rico Abreu is the elder statesman in the series at the ripe age of 23. The reigning Chili Bowl champion is doing extremely well in his first season on paved ovals, but he trails 18-year-old William Byron in the championship. Byron leads by 14 points over 21-year-old Scott Heckert and the younger of the pair won earlier this year at Greenville-Pickens, a similarly configured oval.
Links: K&N East site. Motordrome site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season Points.
Coverage: August 20 @ 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1.
 
 

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West: Evergreen Speedway (Monroe, Washington)

On the far coast, the West series heads to Evergreen, a track that also hosts Formula Drift in its other big night(s) of the year. It’s a tight battle in the points race with Noah Gragson taking over the championshio lead from Chris Eggleston by a mere two points after outperforming Eggleston at the East/West shared race at Iowa Speedway. At 5/8-mile long, it’s one of the longer ovals on the West schedule and Iowa winner Brandon McReynolds set the pole time at Evergreen last year, though it was veteran David Mayhew winning that race.
Links: K&N West site. Evergreen site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season Points.
Coverage: August 21 @ 2:30 P.M. ET on FOX Sports 1.
 

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series: Riverside Speedway

Familiar faces top the Canadian NASCAR series points standings with just three races left. Three-time champion Scott Steckly maintains a six-point lead on Andrew Ranger. Steckly holds the lap record on Riverside’s high-banked one-third mile oval and also has led the most laps at Riverside in NCTS history, but Ranger is an old hat in the series. After this, the final two rounds are held on the roller coaster road course at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park with the finale held on Kawartha Speedway’s flatter 3/8-mile oval. Ranger is a master at CTMP with five wins to Steckly’s two while Ranger has never won at Kawartha. It should be a good finish to the season next month with these final three rounds.
Links: CTS site. Riverside site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season Points.
Coverage: August 22 @ 6 p.m. ET on TSN.
 

Brazilian Stock Cars: Goiana

Brazil’s tubeframed V8 beasts race this weekend around the Autodromo Ayrton Senna, a 2.3-mile circuit with a very long straightaway as the primary feature followed by a deceptively tricky technical “infield” track. This weekend marks the start of the season’s second half and Marcos Gomes leads the championship by 25 points from Julio Campos who in turn holds three points on Daniel Serra and five-time champion Caca Bueno. Gomes, Campos, and Serra are all seeking their first title so the series will be keen for some fresh faces on atop the championship podium at year’s end. However, don’t expect Bueno and defending champion Rubens Barrichello, who is fifth in the championship just four points behind Bueno, to go away easily.
Links: Stock Car Brasil site. Event page. Entry list with season Points.
Coverage: None in the U.S.
 

The Off-Road Championships: Bark River

TORC’s season heads to its penultimate weekend in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s been a year packed mostly with stadium venues at oval tracks, but the season ends with two classic TORC venues at Bark River and Crandon, Wisconsin. Bark River’s layout means constant work for the drivers with no real straightaway and a course packed full of hulking Pro4 trucks in the top class, where C.J. Greaves leads his twice-champion brother Jonny in the season points. Who leads the Pro2 class? That would be C.J. Greaves also by 13 points over Keegan Kincaid.
Links: TORC site. Bark River site. Event page. Entry list with season Points.
Coverage: Full weekend streaming on TORC YouTube channel. Delayed broadcast October 22 & 29 @ 10 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2.
 

World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies: Hungarian Baja

On the longer off-roading track, the WCCCR heads to Hungary for some classic rally raiding across the countryside and through the forests. Axle-deep mud? Check. Water crossings? Check. High speeds over deeply rutted gravel roads? Check. Hungarian yumps? Check. This one would be awfully fun to follow if there were any way of doing so.
Links: WCCCR site. Hungary site. Schedule. Entry list. Points.
Coverage: None.
 

FIA European Hill Climb Championship: St. Ursanne

The hill climb at St. Ursanne is one of the shortest on the series schedule, but it lacks absolutely nothing in intensity. Drivers in the fastest cars will scarcely breathe on the brakes until the switchbacks in the final kilometer or so. This is some breakneck hillclimbing and the driver below only finished third.

Links: EHCC site. St. Ursanne site. Event page. Season Points. .
Coverage: None, but check YouTube for more videos like the one above.
 
 
Scandinavian Touring Car Championship: Karlskonga
Unfortunately missing from this STCC round is the V8 ThunderCars series and their totally bitchin’ Howe-chassis Camaros, but the main event and its myriad of support races probably make it worthwhile if you’re in the area.
Links: STCC site. Karlskonga site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list. Season Points.
Support race(s): Porsche Sports Cup, Ginetta Supercup, RS Clubman/Radical Series, Porsche Carrera Cup, Swedish GT, Legends, and whole lot more.
Coverage: None in the U.S., unfortunately.
 

SCCA Majors: Pittsburgh International Race Complex

It’s one of the final two Majors events of the year before the SCCA Runoffs at Daytona in the fall. Rejoice if ye have qualifed, curse the sports racing gods if ye be heathen.
Links: Majors site. Pitt site. Event page. Schedule. Entry list.
Coverage: Live timing on SCCA Live and on Race Monitor app.
 
 

American Endurance Racing: Virginia International Raceway

The upstart endurance racing series tackles VIR this weekend, usually with a handful of well-known racers on their off-weeks. Since pro-level sports cars aren’t racing anywhere in the U.S., that should give a decent turnout of East Coast racers. Or maybe not. Either way, it’ll good, clean fun on the track and plenty of racin’ stories in the paddock.
Links: AES site. VIR site. Season Points.
Coverage: Live timing on Race Monitor app.
 
 

ChumpCar World Series: Brainerd International Raceway

ChumpCar heads to another “International” racetrack, which brings up an interesting question: What makes a racetrack “international?” The cars that race there? The drivers? The location? An arbitrary naming convention? Yeah, it’s probably that. Either way, Chump racers head to Brainerd for a one-day, 12-hour race.
Links: CCWS site. BIR site. Event supplemental information with schedule.
Coverage: Live timing on CCWS site and on Race Monitor.
 
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[Lead image copyright 2015 Hooniverse/Eric Rood | Other sources: Jim Pace Motorsports, MotoGP, NASCAR, GP2 Series]