Bribery, assault — and some good news
Here are the Top 10 motorsport stories of 2014:
1. The financial crisis facing Formula One
I have suggested many times that the commercialization of Formula One was akin to the Goose that laid the Golden Egg. At some point, greed would bring the whole thing crashing down. At year’s end, two teams — Marussia and Caterham — had gone bankrupt. Force India, Sauber and Lotus are barely hanging on. How much longer can Red Bull field two teams? Max Mosley warned years ago that a day of financial reckoning was coming. He was right.
2. L’Estage undefeated in winning seventh Canadian Rally Championship
Antoine L’Estage cleaned the table en route to his seventh Canadian Rally Championship. He won all six events in the 2014 championship. He also won his seventh North American rally title this year.
3. Michael Schumacher fights to recover from head injury
Though the accident happened on Dec. 29, technically making it a 2013 news story, the fact of the matter is that the devastating injury suffered by Michael Schumacher only became fully known during 2014. Schumacher was skiing with his son at a French resort just before New Year’s when he lost his balance and smashed his head against a rock. It has since been revealed that he is paralyzed.
4. Kurt Busch accused of assault
Since he broke into the big-time world of NASCAR in 2002, there has not been a year where Kurt Busch hasn’t been in trouble with either his employer of the day or NASCAR. Near season’s end, news broke that he had been accused by his ex-girlfriend, Patricia Driscoll, of assaulting her. A police investigation is ongoing.
5. Ecclestone bribes Germany to have bribery charges dropped
State prosecutors in Germany lay charges of bribery against Bernie Ecclestone. They say they determined that he paid a German banker to do something they said was illegal. So at trial, Ecclestone turns to one of those prosecutors and says, “How much to make this go away?” And the German prosecutor says, “How does $100,000 sound?” Ecclestone says, “Right, here’s a cheque then,” and walks away a free man.
6. Kevin Harvick wins NASCAR Championship
Although other series championships were exciting the toughest and most exciting fight for the title was in NASCAR Sprint Cup and when the smoke had cleared, Kevin Harvick won the championship by winning the winner-takes-all final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
7. IndyCar Series? What IndyCar Series
Most of this year’s Top 10 has come from NASCAR and F1. This is because the Verizon IndyCar Series shut down its business on Labour Day weekend and hasn’t been heard from since.
8. Sprint to stop sponsoring NASCAR’s top series
Following the 2016 season, Sprint will no longer sponsor NASCAR’s Cup series. Although NASCAR says this was not a surprise, the fact that its major title sponsor is going away at the same time TV ratings are declining and speedways are removing seats rather than adding them has got to be troubling.
9. Marquez, Elliott earn their spurs
Winners: Marc Marquez of Spain won the MotoGP world championship for the second straight year. Chase Elliott won his first big race, a Camping World Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. In 2014, he won the NASCAR Nationwide Series championship.
10: Tony Stewart at the wheel of sprint car that kills driver walking on speedway
In August, during a sprint car race at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, a car driven by Tony Stewart struck and killed race driver Kevin Ward Jr., who was out of his car and walking on the speedway.