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
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
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.
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
The 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 63rd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 60th Formula One World Championship which was contested over 17 events commencing with the on 29 March and ending with the ina ...
in
Abu Dhabi at the
Yas Marina Circuit
The Yas Marina Circuit (Arabic: حلبة مرسى ياس) is the venue for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke, and is situated on Yas Island, near Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Yas Marina w ...
, with the Driver's Cup being contested on Wednesday 4, November.
The new dates affected the United States and Australia the worst, since it meant drivers from those countries' popular saloon-car series (
V8 Supercar
The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.
Supercars events take place in all Australian ...
and
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...
) could not participate in the event.
Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden ZB Commodore, won a rec ...
of
Team Vodafone
Triple Eight Race Engineering, (branded as Red Bull Ampol Racing) is an Australian motor racing team competing in the Supercars Championship. The team has been the only Brisbane based V8 Supercar team since its formation, originally operating ...
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
Carl Michael Edwards II (born August 15, 1979) is an American former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. Prior to that, he drove the No. ...
, and four-time Sprint Cup Series champion
Jeff Gordon
Jeffery Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, who is the Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports. He raced full-time from 1993 to 2015, driving the No. 24 Chevrolet for Hendrick M ...
and
Jimmie Johnson
Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...
. Two
X Games
The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...
stars and
Rally America drivers were chosen.
Mattias Ekström
Mattias Ekström (born 14 July 1978 in Falun, Sweden) is a racing driver from Sweden. He competed in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters for Audi from 2001 until his retirement in 2018, and has been competing in the FIA World Rallycross Championshi ...
won the World Final for Team Scandinavia, while
Sebastian Vettel and
Michael Schumacher
Michael Schumacher (; ; born 3 January 1969) is a German former racing driver who competed in Formula One for Jordan, Benetton, Ferrari, and Mercedes. Schumacher has a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles (tied with Lewis ...
won the Nations Cup for Team Germany.
South Europe Regional Final
![Michèle Mouton - 2009 Race of Champions](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Mich%C3%A8le_Mouton_-_2009_Race_of_Champions.jpg)
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
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
,
Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
and
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. It was held in the
Estádio do Dragão
The Estádio do Dragão (; English: Dragon Stadium) is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Porto, Portugal, and the home ground of FC Porto since 2003. It has a seating capacity of 50,033, making it the Lis ...
, the home of
F.C. Porto on 6/7 June.
ROC Portugal
Miguel Barbosa
Miguel Ângelo Freitas Barbosa, known as Miguel Barbosa (born 16 October 1996), is a Portuguese football defender who plays for FK Sloboda Užice in the Serbian First League.
Club career
Born in Funchal, the capital of Madeira islands, a Portu ...
won the ROC Portugal opener and was joined by
A1 Grand Prix
A1 Grand Prix (A1GP) was a "single-make" open-wheel auto racing series that ran from 2005 until 2009. It was unique in its field in that competitors solely represented their nation as opposed to themselves or a team, the usual format in most for ...
driver
Filipe Albuquerque
Filipe Miguel Delgadinho Albuquerque (born 13 June 1985) is a Portuguese professional racing driver, currently driving a Acura ARX-05 in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Wayne Taylor Racing, and an Oreca 07 in the FIA World Endurance Cham ...
, José Pedro Fontes and team captain and
Production World Rally Championship
The FIA Production World Rally Championship, or PWRC, was a companion rally series to the World Rally Championship, contested by Group N rally cars.
History
The series started in 1987 as ''FIA Cup for Production Rally Drivers'' and obtained th ...
Armindo Araújo
Armindo Araújo (born 1 September 1977) is a Portuguese rally driver. He won the Production World Rally Championship in the 2009 season, repeating the accomplishment in the next year ( 2010 season), to become the first pilot to ever win this cup ...
in the Portuguese team.
ROC Iberia
The Portuguese team faced a Spanish team made up of team captain
World Rally Champion
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
Carlos Sainz Carlos Sainz may refer to:
People
* Carlos Sainz Sr. (born 1962), Spanish rally driver world champion, father of Jr.
* Carlos Sainz Jr. (born 1994), Spanish Formula One driver, son of Sr.
Other uses
* '' Carlos Sainz: World Rally Championship'', 1 ...
,
Citroën WRC driver
Dani Sordo
Daniel "Dani" Sordo Castillo (born 2 May 1983) is a Spanish rally driver. He competes in the World Rally Championship for Hyundai Motorsport. He achieved his first WRC victory at the 2013 Rallye Deutschland.
Career
Sordo began in motocross wh ...
,
World Series by Renault
The Renault Sport Series (formerly known as World Series by Renault) is a motor racing series. The series latterly consisted of the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, and used to contain the Renault Sport Trophy and the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. ...
driver
Jaime Alguersuari
Jaime Víctor Alguersuari Escudero (; born 23 March 1990), also known as Jaume Alguersuari (), and Squire is a Spanish DJ and retired racing driver best known for competing in Formula One between and , and for being the 2008 British Formula 3 ...
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
Massimo "Miki" Biasion (born 7 January 1958) is an Italian rally driver, two-time World Rally champion.
Career
Biasion was born in Bassano del Grappa, Veneto.
Biasion came to prominence in the early 1980s, winning both the Italian and European ...
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
Clivio Piccione (born February 24, 1984 in Monte Carlo, Monaco) is a Monégasque race car driver. He raced in the 2005 GP2 Series season for the Durango team and David Price Racing for 2006.
Career
Piccione's career started in karting in 1997 ...
and
Le Mans 24 Hours winner
Emanuele Pirro
Emanuele Pirro (born 12 January 1962) is an Italian racing driver who has raced in Formula One, touring cars and in endurance races such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans which he has won a total of five times. Two times Italian Karting Champion (19 ...
, 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.
ROC Legends
There was also a RoC Legends competition on the Saturday evening, featuring Sainz, Biasion, Pirro,
Johnny Herbert
John Paul "Johnny" Herbert (born 25 June 1964) is a British former racing driver and current television announcer for Sky Sports F1. He raced in Formula One from 1989 to 2000, for seven different teams, winning three races and placing 4th in ...
,
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Heinz-Harald Frentzen (born 18 May 1967) is a German former racing driver. He competed in multiple disciplines including Sportscars, Formula One and DTM. He had his most success in Formula One, entering over 150 Grands Prix and winning three.
...
,
Mick Doohan
Michael Sydney Doohan (born 4 June 1965) is an Australian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racing World Champion, who won five consecutive 500 cc World Championships.
Biography
Originally from the Gold Coast, Queensland, Doohan attended ...
,
Andy Priaulx
Andrew Graham Priaulx, MBE ( born 8 August 1974) is a British professional racing driver from Guernsey. In 2019 he raced for Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and Cyan Racing Lynk & Co in the FIA World Tou ...
and
Pedro Chaves
Pedro António Matos Chaves (; born 27 February 1965) is a Portuguese racing driver.
Chaves was the second Portuguese Formula Ford Champion, in 1986, starting an international career in 1987 in the British Formula Ford Championship. In 1990 ...
. Priaulx beat Herbert in the Legends final by two heats to one.
[ ]
Participants
*
Jamie Whincup
Jamie Whincup (born 6 February 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver competing in the Supercars Championship. He currently is team principal for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He has driven the No. 88 Holden ZB Commodore, won a rec ...
originally was confirmed to participate, but later withdrew due to a scheduling conflict with the
V8 Supercars
The Supercars Championship is a touring car racing category in Australia, running as an International Series under Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) regulations, governing the sport.
Supercars events take place in all Australian ...
Championship.
Chad Reed took his place.
* The two fastest
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
drivers in the ROC China Challenge would represent their nation in the Nations Cup.
Cars
*
Ford Focus RS WRC
The Ford Focus RS WRC is a car built for the Ford World Rally Team by Ford Europe and M-Sport and based on the Ford Focus Climate 2-litre production hatchback, developed to compete in the World Rally Championship. The RS stands for ''Rallye Sport ...
*
KTM X-Bow
* ROC Car
* RX Racing RX150
* Solution F Prototype
*
Volkswagen Scirocco
The Volkswagen Scirocco is a three-door, front-engine, front-wheel-drive, sport compact hatchback manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen in two generations from 1974 to 1992 and a third generation from 2008 until 2017. Production ended without a ...
ROC China
ROC Nations Cup
Group A
Group B
Group C
Knockout stages
Semifinals
Final
World Final
Round 1
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stages
Final
References
External links
{{Race of Champions years
Race of Champions
Race of Champions
The Race of Champions (ROC) is an international motorsport event held at the end/start of each year, featuring some of the world's best racing and rally drivers. It is the only competition in the world where stars from Formula One, World Ral ...
Race of Champions
The Race of Champions (ROC) is an international motorsport event held at the end/start of each year, featuring some of the world's best racing and rally drivers. It is the only competition in the world where stars from Formula One, World Ral ...
Sports competitions in Beijing
International sports competitions hosted by China
2000s in Beijing