WRC 2012 is about to begin this weekend. The teams have been testing in the Alpine hills near Monte Carlo and I was watching some videos this evening. Here’s some test footage from perennial champion, Sebastien Loeb. Each team seemed to have a stretch of road they hammered all day to iron out the kinks. This isn’t full on racing.

This is my favorite kind of auto racing, bar none. Autocross is great for amateurs, but there’s nothing more exciting than this. The only potential downfall is the part where you can only realistically spectate a 100′ long piece of the course. In my one experience at a less impressive race in Tennessee, there was a lot of down time sitting around in the damp woods. Should have brought more stuff to keep ourselves occupied. Which is perhaps a reason to better enjoy it on TV where you can get all shades of coverage. Too bad no one in the States airs it. Speed used to but then Fox, or some equally vapid corporation, purchased the network and now it’s wall-to-wall dudebro talking head grease monkeys working on X-treme 4x4s and Hotrods, airhead chick hosts, and occasional breaks to bring us yet another Barrett Jackson Auction LIVE!!!!11!!one! Oh, and sometimes Pinks. :rollieyes:

Fortunately we don’t have TV!

So as per usual I’m not really sure how much of the season I’m going to catch. I can normally be relied on to acquire a race or two from the deepest, darkest internets every year. We’ll see.