Schumacher buries Johnson in Race of Champions
Quote selected text Published December 16th, 2007 in NASCAR News
During the stop-and-go, 10-mile trek from his hotel to Wembley Stadium Sunday morning, Jimmie Johnson voiced concern that he wasn’t acclimated to the four-wheel drive rally car he would pilot later that day in a highly-anticipated duel with seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher.
Those reservations would prove worthy, as Schumacher single-handedly eliminated Team USA from the Race of Champions Nation’s Cup, then joined teammate Sebastian Vettel in defeating England then Finland to win the overall team Nation’s Cup championship. It is Germany’s first such victory.
Schumacher opened the competition by outrunning Johnson to win by a landslide.
Afterward, Johnson was visibly steamed.
“Hell yeah I’m [upset] — I want to win,” said Johnson, the two-time defending NASCAR Nextel Cup champion. “I went out and did all that I could. I just do not understand the four-wheel drive, hand brake, Rally car driving.
“I don’t have a lot of experience at it, and to show the level that he showed in the car, I think he’s had some days in it. He certainly navigated.”
Other than ROC, Johnson has never driven a four-wheel drive car in competition. Then again, the same goes for Schumacher, who would later stall the same car — the Fiat Abarth rally car — in which he beat Johnson at the starting line in a loss to Finnish F1 star Heikki Kovalainen.
“Even guys in the drivers’ room were like, ‘That’s pretty good for an asphalt guy driving like a Pro Rally guy,’” Johnson said. “But he did an awesome job. I wasn’t even close.”
Bookmark to:
- Jimmie Johnson to race in Paris again
- Johnson to run the Race of Champions again in December
- Heikki, Massa, Nico want Schumacher to Stay
- Jimmie Johnson to race Michael Schumacher at Race of Champions
- Schumacher Vows to Fight Back
Like I predicted, JJ didn’t have a chance from the get go. JJ was probally right though about Schumacher having some time in a car like that to pratice first. Schumachers season ended sooner and he had the time and commentment to go seek out the cars that would most likely be used and get seat time in them with profesional help to sharpen his skills. Skill is what he has a lot of in any race car, its his people skills that suck.
To bad JJ but as they say stick to your day job, its what you do best…
Couple of things here
1. I would be honored to be beaten by Shumacher
2. Jimmie has known about this race for a few months (not to mention he was supposed to be in it last year). You would think that he would have practiced driving that style of car.
I understand that Jimmie might not have been able to test the actual car, but he knew they ran that style of car in that race so he had plenty of time to prepare.
Wow Jimmie could have given credit where credits due
schumacher has been retired for a year and only tested in a F1 car which is far different
from a rally car..
but no he just did his usual whining instead of winning.
you’ve had months to practice and 2 days of practice prior. So who can you really blame otehr than yourself?
hes a retired driver and still one of the greatest. anything he gets in he wins. he didnt need to practice to sharpen his skills. just look at the cab driving incident a week before the race. talent like his never goes away
Schumacher will always be the man to beat. I bet JJ is feeling a little more humble today. And if JJ could’ve practiced earlier, then why didn’t he? Is he gonna be like this when Jr starts winning?
Way to go the Guest who commented. You hit it on the money. I think JJ has got above his raising…LOL I am glad to see him lose after everthing I have read about him here lately I wonder how he gets his head through a door also he doesn’t need a fan club he loves himself too much (the way it seems) .
JJ just needs to peel back and know that the BEST beat him hands down !!
Driving skills proved out in the race and showed the true Champion to be Beat was not JJ..
I always know, get JJ out of the 48 car and he can’t drive a car.
Schumacher in the last couple weeks, set the fastest test time in a off season F1 test after not being a F1 in more than a year, over all the
current F1 drivers! The he commandeered a cab in Germany to make a flight, the cabbie became a passenger as Shumi pushed it hard to catch his plane
(with his family in the car)!
I figured he would come out and dominate this competition, the man wants to race again!
Didn’t he also test a MotoGP (or other series) bike the other month?
a major problem is that jj is not a good road racer. and the roc is a road race format. stewart and gordon would be the american dream team. they would both do much better than johnson, who cant do much at all without knaus by his side.
i just want to say haha!
WHO CARES…….. Im not a jj fan but put schumacher in a stock car against jj or any other top cup driver and you would get the same result jj would kill him F1 is a joke hell a computer drives the car more than the driver does.
Lee learn your history, Shumacher was dominant in F1 before all that computer crap came in too.
I know my history just fine F1 and Indy/Irl have been using onboard computers for well over a decade therefore they were using them before he even started racing f1……………
He didnt win 1st championship until 1994 they were using computers then an he wouldnt have won then if ayrton senna hadnt gotten killed that year.
I think Schumacher should try NASCAR! He could probably kick everyones butt!
If ya had to lose Jimmie, you lost to the best. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t whine about it. Move on. There aren’t a lot of drivers in the world that can say The Shoe kicked their asses. You’re in select company.
Lee wrote:
Lee,
I hate to be the one who tells you this, but you have no clue. Look at how
many chapionships and races Schumacher has won. Anyone racing in England
this weekend deserves to be there, except Jimmy. Poor Jimmy just didn’t have
Chad there to set up (cheat) his car for him. I think the American camp
would have been better served if a real wheel man would have shown up, like
Tony or Robby Gordon.
Dude, I would love to see Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch go over to the Race of Champions. If they raced side by side, those other drivers would freak out if someone put a bumper on their ass. It would be nice to see some attuitude in there. Maybe send Harvick.
Now everyone is going to get mad
but honestly the three best overall drivers on the circuit are
Robby gordon, jeff gordon, and tony stewart.
they could hold their own in the RoC
obviously for the SECOND time jimmy cant
All of you are crazy. Any news that has Johnson’s name in it is just a hate magnet. Dang shut up already.
Oh, and not giving credit where credit is due?
“But he did an awesome job. I wasn’t even close.”
Johnson is nothing but class. He’s just showing his competitive edge.
Nice - why not invite rugby players to compete against soccer players? Two different worlds. I’m no fan of JJ, and I’m certain they could have picked a half dozen better road racers, but this is a clear case of apples and oranges. Schumaker is incredibly talented with that brand of racing, I’m just not a fan. Turn left only and he’d be lost. JPM is the perfect example - at times he looked like he was driving bumper carts at an amusement park this year. Given time and patience, sure he could do it (either JJ or Schumaker).
But here is the thing though, they were not racing Stock cars or F1 style cars. They were racing the ROC car which is some 4cylinder buggy thing that kinda looks like it should be in Baja and a 4 cylinder Fiat that is more akin to a WRC car then anything else. There were to days of official practice prior to the event, and plenty of time to practice before this past weekend.
Comparing Shumacher’s F1 career to JJ’s NASCAR career to any other driver from any other type of racing career can’t be done. However put them in equal EQ in a setting like this and you can begin to compare them, but not fully.
I have had an idea for awhile that we need something that is like a Racing Olympics. Each country would pick 5 drivers, and there would be 10-15 different styles of racing. At the end of this week or two long “event” the driver with the most points/medals would be the driver winner and the country with the most points/medals would be the Nations winner.
JimB you missed the point of what I was saying,I know how many championships schumacher has and in a earlier post I said i couldnt careless about jj,and other people are right they shouldve sent either gordons or stewart there they wouldve done much better.
Shows how good of a driver he is. Also shows how lucky he is in Nextel
Lee wrote:
Lee,
I may have missed your point, I am sick of hearing about JJ as well. I just
don’t beleive that Schumacher’s cars or the technology had anything to do with his success/
Wasn’t trying to pick a fight either, just seems to me that people give JJ
too much credit. His cew chief has been suspended two seasons in a row and
his car owner isn’t much better.
Should have been Robby Gordon or Mark Martin…. Mark Martin is a highly overlookd driver. He started driving dirt ovals and is a powerslide champ. He also has won NUMEROUS iroc championships, and even dominated on the road courses when they did them. He would have been beaten by Schumi as well (as I also predicted JJ would get molested), but definitely would not have done as poorly as JJ. Saying he wasn’t prepared is BS, he could easily have found an evo or sti or something to test out for a few weeks.