2009 Race of Champions

The 2009 Race of Champions was the 22nd running of the event, and took place on November 3–4, 2009 at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China. It was the first time that the event took place outside of Europe and Africa. It was also the first international sports event to be held in the "Bird's Nest" stadium since the 2008 Summer Olympics.

2009 Race of Champions
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The Beijing National Stadium, the venue for the 2009 Race of Champions.

The event also moved from a weekend to a midweek slot for the first time. The RoC Nations Cup took place on Tuesday, November 3, just two days after the climax of the 2009 Formula One season in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina Circuit, with the Driver's Cup being contested on Wednesday 4, November.[1]

The new dates affected the United States and Australia the worst, since it meant drivers from those countries' popular saloon-car series (V8 Supercar and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series) could not participate in the event. Jamie Whincup of Team Vodafone was originally selected to participate but could not because of the schedule, so two motorcyclists were used on the team. In the past, the United States team has used Nationwide Series champion Carl Edwards, and four-time Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. Two X Games stars and Rally America drivers were chosen.

Mattias Ekström won the World Final for Team Scandinavia, while Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher won the Nations Cup for Team Germany.

South Europe Regional Final
Michèle Mouton driving an Audi Quattro S1 during the South Europe finals

For the first ever time, regional finals were held to determine which nations will take part in Beijing. The first of these regional finals was for South Europe, featuring Portugal, Spain, Monaco and Italy. It was held in the Estádio do Dragão, the home of F.C. Porto on 6/7 June.

ROC Portugal

Miguel Barbosa won the ROC Portugal opener and was joined by A1 Grand Prix driver Filipe Albuquerque, José Pedro Fontes and team captain and Production World Rally Championship Armindo Araújo in the Portuguese team.

ROC Iberia

The Portuguese team faced a Spanish team made up of team captain World Rally Champion Carlos Sainz, Citroën WRC driver Dani Sordo, World Series by Renault driver Jaime Alguersuari and rally driver Sergio Vallejo in the ROC Iberia. Albuquerque beat Sordo by two heats to nil in the Iberian final.

ROC South Europe Finals

The Spanish pairing of Sainz and Sordo faced the Italian pairing of former World Rally champion Miki Biasion and current WRC driver Gigi Galli in the first semi-final. Spain won by three heats to nil. The Portuguese pairing of Albuquerque and Araujo faced Monaco, featuring A1GP driver Clivio Piccione and Le Mans 24 Hours winner Emanuele Pirro, who although born in Italy, has been a resident of Monaco for over 22 years. After four of five heats the score was balanced at 2–2, before Piccione beat Albuquerque by one ten thousandth of a second, the narrowest margin of victory in Race of Champions history. The Monegasque pairing beat the Spanish pair by three heats to one in the final to send Monaco through to the main event in November.[2]

ROC Legends

There was also a RoC Legends competition on the Saturday evening, featuring Sainz, Biasion, Pirro, Johnny Herbert, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Mick Doohan, Andy Priaulx and Pedro Chaves. Priaulx beat Herbert in the Legends final by two heats to one.[3]

Participants
Team Drivers 2009 series
All-Stars David Coulthard none
Giniel de Villiers Cross Country World Cup
Australia Mick Doohan none
Chad Reed AMA Motocross Championship
China Han Han Chinese Rally Championship
Ho-Pin Tung A1 Grand Prix & Superleague Formula
Finland Marcus Grönholm none
Mikko Hirvonen WRC
France Guerlain Chicherit Cross Country World Cup
Yvan Muller WTCC
Germany Michael Schumacher none/Formula One testing
Sebastian Vettel Formula One
Great Britain Jenson Button Formula One
Andy Priaulx WTCC
Monaco Clivio Piccione A1 Grand Prix
Emanuele Pirro none
Scandinavia Mattias Ekström DTM
Tom Kristensen DTM
United States Tanner Foust X Games & Rally America
Travis Pastrana X Games & Rally America
  • Jamie Whincup originally was confirmed to participate, but later withdrew due to a scheduling conflict with the V8 Supercars Championship. Chad Reed took his place.
  • The two fastest Chinese drivers in the ROC China Challenge would represent their nation in the Nations Cup.

Cars

ROC China
Round 1 Quarter-Finals Semi-Finals Final
            
H. Han 2:23.923
Y. Zhou DNF
H. Han 2:10.148
Z. G. Ren 2:11.272
Z. G. Ren 2:09.466
C. H. Huang 2:10.420
H. Han 2:07.639
Y. Liu 2:08.598
Y. Liu 2:07.540
L. F. Lin 2:09.921
Y. Liu 2:07.809
D. A. Chen 2:08.482
D. A. Chen 2:08.246
H. S. Guo 2:10.914
H. Han 2:07.311
H. B. Dong 2:05.181
H. J. Wei 2:10.355
H. B. Dong 2:06.955
H. B. Dong 2:09.551
C. D. Liu 2:11.409
R. Wang 2:10.579
C. D. Liu 2:08.815
H. B. Dong 2:32.583
S. F. Wang DNF
B. Liu 2:07.976
D. J. Wu 2:10.044
B. Liu 2:06.635
S. F. Wang 2:06.097
S. F. Wang 2:06.304
N. J. Lu 2:13.080

ROC Nations Cup

Group A
Pos Team Races W L Best Time
1  Germany 6 6 0 3:55.963
2  China 6 3 3 4:04.314
3  Finland 6 2 4 4:00.151
4  Australia 6 1 5 4:04.386

Group B
Pos Team Races W L Best Time
1 Great Britain 4 4 0 3:55.111
2 All-Stars 4 1 3 3:58.339
3  Monaco 4 1 3 3:58.882
Team 1 Time 1 Score Team 2 Time 2 Car
Great Britain 2–0 All-Stars
Jenson Button 2:00.394 David Coulthard 2:00.964
Andy Priaulx 1:58.399 Giniel de Villiers 2:02.927
Great Britain 2–0 Monaco
Jenson Button 1:59.109 Clivio Piccione 2:01.408
Andy Priaulx 1:56.002 Emanuele Pirro 1:57.466
Monaco 1–1 All-Stars
Clivio Piccione 2:01.416 David Coulthard 1:58.824
Emanuele Pirro 1:58.607 Giniel de Villiers 1:59.515

Group C
Pos Team Races W L Best Time
1  United States 4 2 2 4:09.184
2  France 4 2 2 4:09.208
3 Scandinavia 4 2 2 4:10.252
Team 1 Time 1 Score Team 2 Time 2 Car
France 1–1 Scandinavia
Yvan Muller 2:00.635 Tom Kristensen DNF
Guerlain Chicherit DNF Mattias Ekström 2:13.070
Scandinavia 1–1 United States
Tom Kristensen 2:05.039 Tanner Foust 2:03.692
Mattias Ekström 2:05.213 Travis Pastrana 2:05.776
United States 1–1 France
Tanner Foust 2:03.408 Yvan Muller 2:03.104
Travis Pastrana 2:06.738 Guerlain Chicherit 2:08.573 ROC Car

Knockout stages
Semi-Finals Final
      
A1  Germany 2
C1  United States 1
A1  Germany 2
B1 Great Britain 1
A2  China 1
B1 Great Britain 2

Semifinals
Team 1 Time 1 Score Team 2 Time 2 Car
Germany 2–1 United States
Michael Schumacher 2:03.615 Tanner Foust 2:03.281 ROC Car
Sebastian Vettel 1:55.212 Travis Pastrana 1:55.582 Ford Focus RS WRC
Sebastian Vettel 2:03.167 Tanner Foust 2:04.084 ROC Car
China 1–2 Great Britain
Han Han 2:06.654 Jenson Button 2:03.201 ROC Car
Ho-Pin Tung 1:57.890 Andy Priaulx 2:01.565 Solution F Prototype
Ho-Pin Tung 2:04.477 Jenson Button 2:01.544 ROC Car

Final
Team 1 Time 1 Score Team 2 Time 2 Car
Germany 2–1 Great Britain
Michael Schumacher 1:59.348 Jenson Button 1:59.842 ROC Car
Sebastian Vettel 2:13.299 Andy Priaulx 1:52.479 Ford Focus RS WRC
Michael Schumacher 2:01.200 Andy Priaulx 2:02.364 ROC Car

World Final

Round 1
 
Semi-finalsFinal
 
      
 
 
 
 
 Clivio Piccione1:59.759
 
 
 
 Ho-Pin Tung2:03.870
 
 Clivio Piccione2:04.098
 
 
 
 Tanner Foust2:01.233
 
 Tanner Foust2:02.205
 
 
 Emanuele Pirro2:18.797
 

Knockout stages
 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
 Ford Focus RS WRC
 
 
 Jenson Button1:51.375
 
 Ford Focus RS WRC
 
 Andy Priaulx1:55.500
 
 Jenson Button1:50.627
 
 Solution F Prototype
 
 Mattias Ekström1:49.500
 
 Mattias Ekström1:56.530
 
 
 
 Tom Kristensen1:57.814
 
 Mattias Ekström2
 
 ROC Car
 
 Michael Schumacher0
 
 Sebastian Vettel1:58.213
 
 KTM X-Bow
 
 David Coulthard1:58.930
 
 Sebastian VettelDNF
 
 KTM X-Bow
 
 Michael Schumacher1:57.940
 
 Michael Schumacher1:57.805
 
 
 Mikko Hirvonen1:59.786
 

Final
Driver 1 Time 1 Car Driver 2 Time 2
Mattias Ekström 1:57.290 ROC Car Michael Schumacher 1:57.471
Mattias Ekström 1:56.044 KTM X-Bow Michael Schumacher 1:56.657

References
  1. "Race of Champions moves to Beijing". autosport.com. Haymarket Publications. 2009-04-16. Archived from the original on 2009-08-12. Retrieved 2009-05-26.
  2. "Monaco Surprise Spain To Win Euromilhoes RoC South Europe". Race of Champions. 2009-06-07. Archived from the original on 2009-08-12. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
  3. "Priaulx Prevails Over Herbert In All British Race Of Champions Legends Final". Race of Champions. 2009-06-07. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
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