The legacy motorsport's 'Olympics' can build

To countries with storied motorsport history, the Motorsport Games likely looked an oddity. But the Olympics-style event gives a platform to emerging countries and could build an important legacy

Published Nov 8, 2019, 2:10 PM

Grabbed by the shoulders from behind, I was manoeuvred to face the direction of the big screen in the paddock. Two teenagers were celebrating taking third place in what was admittedly a low-rent karting competition.

"That is why," exclaimed my assailant, "you should do all the events!" It was perhaps the defining moment of the inaugural Motorsport Games at Vallelunga last weekend. That's the bronze medal won by Russians Olesya Vashchuk and Vladislav Bushuev in the Karting Slalom Cup, not my encounter with George Andreev from their national motorsport federation.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.