Something like this would totally work now. You could have a Legends series with over-50 year old racers racing Legends cars at one of the many infield ovals that are at Charlotte, Atlanta, Vegas, ect. Great video by the way. ESPN used to really care about motorsports back in the day.
This is incredible yet hilarious. Throwing a million dollar supercar from the 90's (the era where all the supercars were primative and wanted to kill you) on an oval was amazingly silly in reality, I'm kinda shocked that ESPN didn't see the shortcomings there. Sticking them then on the 'Road Course' that looks more like a kart track, or an oval with a big chicane in it is even more funny. You've got admire them for doing it though. The best part is, these old guys were probably the best drivers for the job, as the cars looked as lethal as the ones they probably grew up with! Fast Masters is possibly the most 90's racing series to ever exist, and if there was ever a race series that looked like a TV company came up with it, this would be it. A beautiful mix of potential and chaos. The Motorsport equivalent of pouring gravy on a Happy Meal
Pescara Productions I was thinking the same thing, crazy that these cars cost 10 fold more than the cars these guys raced and jaguar pretty much just let them have at it
It was a good idea, the choice of car was definitely the main problem, if they did it in something a bit slower, much safer/easier to drive and most important cheaper, it would be a success. I really like that it was done on the oval and road course on the same track on the same night.
My former boss at Maple Grove Raceway Lex Dudas who ran IRP was instrumental in this event as well. Lex always enjoyed talking to me about his many great memories of IRP. After IRP he went on to help build and run Las Vegas Motor Speeedway Pikes Peak International Raceway and Kentucky Speedway. Sadly we lost lex a year and a have ago after a long battle with cancer. RIP LEX!
This was also at the time called "Crash Masters". I don't think anybody thought Eddie Hill would be that fast except maybe his wife. Thanks for the memories. Notice how young Robin Miller looks in that opening Newspaper article.... He's getting old (and therefore I )
Oh man, I remember watching this as a little kid because I was fascinated by the drag racers being on the same track. I always remembered it being IROC but could never find the race. This cleared up so much.
there was a similar series for retired F1 drivers over 40, it was called Grand Prix Masters and featured bespoke open wheelers instead of road cars. they should really think about revamping this format, it would be a great watch and a fun way to educate new generations about the racing legends they might have missed
that were mostly sitting around unsold because the people who originally wanted them walked away when they finally arrived without the V12 they were promised (never mind that they V6 twin-trubo was technically faster). These folks wanted road going V12 Jaguar Le Mans cars. So Jaguar had to do something with the cars and something with racing in the US in 93 with TWR. So Tom, here's some cars please go race them so we can fulfill our contract with you and walk away before the company completely folds. Tom: Hey ESPN, I have a bunch of these crazy Jaguars where can I race them? ESPN: Hold my beer....
@@swedeis I think they'd have been much better off with the originally planned Consuliers. Cheaper, safer, more durable, but still a fast mid engined sports car.
@@thestarlightalchemist7333 100% I love the Consulier. That said, I’d vote for ust a generic “stockcar” style ride that could be cheaply and easily repaired if they were going to only do it at Indy like they did. Look at the later IROC series for inspiration. Although after watching Stadium Trucks, I’d vote that as a great equalizer among the different drivers and it is exciting to watch for the fans! Goodness knows those things will take a beating!
If their is one thing that would safe what's left of nascar, this is it, They should try it again ! With today's nascar's, the fans young and old would love it !
If they have better cars in terms of handling than these Jaguars, I'm all on board. It's a great chance to see some guys fans want to see again, like Michael Waltrip, Johnny Benson, Dale Jr., Carl Edwards, etc.
@@Pensfan5919 This sounds like a great idea! In addition to Dale Jr. and other retired NASCAR stars like Michael Waltrip and Jeff Gordon, there should be retired IndyCar stars like Michael Andretti, Buddy Lazier, and Scott Sharp, as well as drivers retired from drag racing, IMSA sports cars, and even an F1 driver or two (Jacques Villeneuve, perhaps?). I'd love to see a revived Fast Masters series on TV, or whatever they decide to call it. That and a new version of the pro-celebrity race would be must-see racing, bar none.
Nah, the viscous diff was the main problem and easily remedied if they had caught it under testing or after the first event, but with all of the damage done there wasn't much interest in paying Quaiffe for a bunch of their diffs and the time/labor to break the gearboxes down and swap the differentials out. Also the rather primitive turbochargers at the time were laggy as heck, so coupled with the oddities provided by the diff/mid engined layout you had a recipe for backing the cars into the wall with little chance to catch them. It was a great car, but not for that style event. Hell some Jaguar sedans would have worked better since their handling would have been much more predictable and easier for the older drivers to acclimate to. But, Jaguar couldn't move the damned XJ220 at the time and they were forced to do SOMETHING in the US with TWR for 93, so here's a bunch of unsold cars go race them and make sure we get plenty of air time.
What a series. I would love to see it come back one day, hosting events all over the globe. I can only imagine the attention it would get from the European audience.
Just being nit-picky here, but ESPN's weekly races were billed as "Thursday Night Thunder." When it moved to Saturday nights for a year, it was billed as "Saturday Night Lightning." Sorry for being "that guy," but I've learned a lot from the videos. The videos have brought back a whole lot of great memories, as well. Thanks for what you've brought to us race fans!
Don’t ask me how in the blue hell I remember this, but the show names you’re referencing was from 1994. I can remember Dave Despain during the FastMasters final that on ESPN, “Thunder” was moving back to Thursdays, while on the newly launched ESPN2, there would be a comparable show called Saturday Lightning.
For all of you who would wish they would do something like this again. I don't think so. In 2010, stock car legends, in stock cars, on a stock car track they all had some success on, Bristol. A NASCAR for charity legends race, four or five laps to go, Larry Pearson hits the wall in the middle of 1 and 2, car comes down the track, Charlie Glotzback drills him right in the driver's door. Laid Larry up for awhile, and rung Charlie's bell pretty good. Us old guys don't heal very fast, or quite as good as we used to.
I can't believe they thought million dollar supercars would be a good idea. They could have just used the iroc Camaros and it would have been much better racing and way less expensive.
It wasn’t the only senior championship that held multiple events, there was Grand prix masters which held 3 events over 2 years with legends including Mansell and Fittipaldi, Patrese, Johansson...
This was so entertaining to watch.. thanks for the upload..only thing I could think of that came close to it, is Celebs racing Mazada Miatas around Long Beach.
identical series with drivers from everywhere, F1, sportscars, IndyCars, NASCAR, Rallying, drag racers, so a bit like IROC but for older drivers I think would work really well all over the world, theres always talk about diversity in racing using women and minorities but what about the older drivers who can't get drives anymore in the top series?
What was that series on a few years ago with the old timers? Paul Tracy and I think a Andretti, and some NASCAR guys. Those were good races, only caught them randomly though.
I would watch the hell out of that! Think of all the drivers who would be eligible today: Alain Prost, Martin Brundle, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Nigel Mansell, Bobby Rahal, Al Unser Jr., Michael Andretti, Terry Labonte, Scott Pruett, Sammy Swindell, Steve Kinser, Rick Mears, John Force...
I wonder who thought that a bunch of british supercars would work for this, I mean it is pretty cool, but not cost effective, and the XJ220 was never really an incredibly relevant car so, I don't think it really boosted the popularity of the series. I wonder if those cars still exist.
Oh yeah, remember the Crash Masters, which was humiliating enough without having their collective asses kicked by the Drag Racets Ed 'TheAce' mcculough and Eddie Hill. These guys who never turn while they are racing, Rocked it, While it sounded like a great concept... I did.not really deliver. I was disappointed.
A few drag racers through the years had done more than a little dirt track racing. Check the earlier Eldora All-Star charity races. Plus to prove racers, are racers, it went the other way around Doug Kallita, and John Andretti were dirt dogs before they ever got into drag cars. Tanner Gray and Gary Scelzi's son Gio, are making their way up the stock car racing ladder.
I apreciate your effort. Creating a video - don on this event. But i have to say overall it was daamn boring event with too many crashes. 700.000 dollars/car?? wtf
Lol Drag racers vs Derek Bell, David Hobbs, Brian Redmond, and all those road racing and F1 veterans. Genius. Doesn't it again with McLaren 720s cars or something!
This is so cool! I don’t remember it though. So glad they drove those beautiful jags -problems and all. Those kitcar looking things they were first considering were butt-fugly.
I get I'm 7 months late but the serious issues was using Jaguar's. They should've just used old Winston Cup cars or even old IROC cars. Cheaper and not so expensive to fix
Though it was billed as a car that could do 220mph, I dont believe the cars ever did that even after modifications from Jaguar to atleast one test car.
I remember this when it happened. My thoughts now are the same as then: How did anyone think this would go well? You gave old school racers hyper-expensive luxury cars ill-suited for a short track and flashed a pile of cash in front of them. The results should never have surprised anyone.
Think the English mechanics made a mistake in bolting on the rear wing, you see, in England they drive on the left side of the road, so in order to prepare the car for the usa, some parts need to be "mirrored" like the steering,and padlle box for example. In this mirroring they might by accident got the rear wing upside down as well, creating lift as the cars go faster. Its pervasive that them bottems get loosy-goosy when things get going!
Something like this would totally work now. You could have a Legends series with over-50 year old racers racing Legends cars at one of the many infield ovals that are at Charlotte, Atlanta, Vegas, ect. Great video by the way. ESPN used to really care about motorsports back in the day.
Carl come back pls
This sorta aged well with SRX
@@jaybarker4744 SRX is a rental kart race compared with this Jaguar series
This is incredible yet hilarious. Throwing a million dollar supercar from the 90's (the era where all the supercars were primative and wanted to kill you) on an oval was amazingly silly in reality, I'm kinda shocked that ESPN didn't see the shortcomings there. Sticking them then on the 'Road Course' that looks more like a kart track, or an oval with a big chicane in it is even more funny. You've got admire them for doing it though. The best part is, these old guys were probably the best drivers for the job, as the cars looked as lethal as the ones they probably grew up with! Fast Masters is possibly the most 90's racing series to ever exist, and if there was ever a race series that looked like a TV company came up with it, this would be it.
A beautiful mix of potential and chaos. The Motorsport equivalent of pouring gravy on a Happy Meal
Pescara Productions I was thinking the same thing, crazy that these cars cost 10 fold more than the cars these guys raced and jaguar pretty much just let them have at it
It was a good idea, the choice of car was definitely the main problem, if they did it in something a bit slower, much safer/easier to drive and most important cheaper, it would be a success. I really like that it was done on the oval and road course on the same track on the same night.
Something like TCR cars or NASCAR Euro-style cars would work well today
Exactly
What about a V8 Supercars-style car? That'd have a little something for everyone in the driver pool.
What do you expect these dudes to race in? VW Beatles?
@@h-j.k.8971 nah, more like a road going pony car rather than the FASTEST CAR IN THE FUCKING WORLD
That joke Davey Allison made is incredibly sad now.
Yeah he died a month after that was filmed :(
Hobbs: “Ah we’re passing under Caution I see.”
Bobby Unser: “Ah hell not this again...”
Thank you for making this.
My former boss at Maple Grove Raceway Lex Dudas who ran IRP was instrumental in this event as well. Lex always enjoyed talking to me about his many great memories of IRP. After IRP he went on to help build and run Las Vegas Motor Speeedway Pikes Peak International Raceway and Kentucky Speedway. Sadly we lost lex a year and a have ago after a long battle with cancer. RIP LEX!
I never knew this series existed
Me neither
Me either. Im 57 and a lifelong race fan. Never knew
Thanks to Doug for mentioning this series. This video was a great recap!
the jaguar xj220 being one of my favorite cars, every crash made me want to cry. this video is the embodiment of pain.
This was also at the time called "Crash Masters". I don't think anybody thought Eddie Hill would be that fast except maybe his wife. Thanks for the memories. Notice how young Robin Miller looks in that opening Newspaper article.... He's getting old (and therefore I )
My goodness those cars were loose
I am surprised TWR didn't engineer that out of them. Maybe ESPN didn't want them to, so as to keep it more dramatic. Great fun tho
That guy in the fox costume was having too much fun with the cheerleaders lmao
Remembered to revisit this video now that GT7 added the XJ220.
Oh man, I remember watching this as a little kid because I was fascinated by the drag racers being on the same track. I always remembered it being IROC but could never find the race. This cleared up so much.
there was a similar series for retired F1 drivers over 40, it was called Grand Prix Masters and featured bespoke open wheelers instead of road cars. they should really think about revamping this format, it would be a great watch and a fun way to educate new generations about the racing legends they might have missed
Ok gents, we have a series of older drivers, what car do we use.
How about the one of the most difficult, coolest and fastest cars ever made
Yeah
that were mostly sitting around unsold because the people who originally wanted them walked away when they finally arrived without the V12 they were promised (never mind that they V6 twin-trubo was technically faster). These folks wanted road going V12 Jaguar Le Mans cars. So Jaguar had to do something with the cars and something with racing in the US in 93 with TWR. So Tom, here's some cars please go race them so we can fulfill our contract with you and walk away before the company completely folds.
Tom: Hey ESPN, I have a bunch of these crazy Jaguars where can I race them?
ESPN: Hold my beer....
@@swedeis I think they'd have been much better off with the originally planned Consuliers. Cheaper, safer, more durable, but still a fast mid engined sports car.
@@thestarlightalchemist7333 100% I love the Consulier. That said, I’d vote for ust a generic “stockcar” style ride that could be cheaply and easily repaired if they were going to only do it at Indy like they did. Look at the later IROC series for inspiration.
Although after watching Stadium Trucks, I’d vote that as a great equalizer among the different drivers and it is exciting to watch for the fans! Goodness knows those things will take a beating!
Seems like a older look at what a SRX series would have been like in that time.
The Davey Allison interview is just haunting because that year he would die at Talladega
9:47 aw man that hurt
RIP Davey
If their is one thing that would safe what's left of nascar, this is it, They should try it again ! With today's nascar's, the fans young and old would love it !
I agree!
If they have better cars in terms of handling than these Jaguars, I'm all on board. It's a great chance to see some guys fans want to see again, like Michael Waltrip, Johnny Benson, Dale Jr., Carl Edwards, etc.
There's no need to save Nascar, it's doing just fine.
@@Pensfan5919 This sounds like a great idea! In addition to Dale Jr. and other retired NASCAR stars like Michael Waltrip and Jeff Gordon, there should be retired IndyCar stars like Michael Andretti, Buddy Lazier, and Scott Sharp, as well as drivers retired from drag racing, IMSA sports cars, and even an F1 driver or two (Jacques Villeneuve, perhaps?). I'd love to see a revived Fast Masters series on TV, or whatever they decide to call it. That and a new version of the pro-celebrity race would be must-see racing, bar none.
You know you’re getting old when you remember the names being proposed for a “legends” series as “the young guys”.
Honestly if you made a patreon I would donate to it, this is the best Motorsports channel I can find.
Ya know it help if I read the desc lol
It may have helped to add a wing or longer splitter to help them control the car better.
Nah, the viscous diff was the main problem and easily remedied if they had caught it under testing or after the first event, but with all of the damage done there wasn't much interest in paying Quaiffe for a bunch of their diffs and the time/labor to break the gearboxes down and swap the differentials out. Also the rather primitive turbochargers at the time were laggy as heck, so coupled with the oddities provided by the diff/mid engined layout you had a recipe for backing the cars into the wall with little chance to catch them.
It was a great car, but not for that style event. Hell some Jaguar sedans would have worked better since their handling would have been much more predictable and easier for the older drivers to acclimate to.
But, Jaguar couldn't move the damned XJ220 at the time and they were forced to do SOMETHING in the US with TWR for 93, so here's a bunch of unsold cars go race them and make sure we get plenty of air time.
What a series. I would love to see it come back one day, hosting events all over the globe. I can only imagine the attention it would get from the European audience.
SRX is a thing. It's not global yet but it might be
9:45 damn
Just being nit-picky here, but ESPN's weekly races were billed as "Thursday Night Thunder." When it moved to Saturday nights for a year, it was billed as "Saturday Night Lightning." Sorry for being "that guy," but I've learned a lot from the videos. The videos have brought back a whole lot of great memories, as well. Thanks for what you've brought to us race fans!
Don’t ask me how in the blue hell I remember this, but the show names you’re referencing was from 1994. I can remember Dave Despain during the FastMasters final that on ESPN, “Thunder” was moving back to Thursdays, while on the newly launched ESPN2, there would be a comparable show called Saturday Lightning.
this is the stuff i love to find on UA-cam. thank you for making this.
I think this would be an AWESOME thing to bring back.
For all of you who would wish they would do something like this again. I don't think so. In 2010, stock car legends, in stock cars, on a stock car track they all had some success on, Bristol. A NASCAR for charity legends race, four or five laps to go, Larry Pearson hits the wall in the middle of 1 and 2, car comes down the track, Charlie Glotzback drills him right in the driver's door. Laid Larry up for awhile, and rung Charlie's bell pretty good. Us old guys don't heal very fast, or quite as good as we used to.
12:22 Buford T. Justice at the wheel
I had no idea this was a thing, Thank you so much.
fascinating, I've never heard of this. Thanks for posting.
All our best 50+ yr old drivers are still in a series..
I can't believe they thought million dollar supercars would be a good idea. They could have just used the iroc Camaros and it would have been much better racing and way less expensive.
I would’ve thought a stock car would’ve cost about the same if not more then a supercar
@@automan224 nooo
Honestly this kind of seems what SRX is right now
Jaguar xj220 hot exotic sports car ever built from the early 90s Epic
This video is awesome, same goes for the series
Thanks Doug!
It wasn’t the only senior championship that held multiple events, there was Grand prix masters which held 3 events over 2 years with legends including Mansell and Fittipaldi, Patrese, Johansson...
Even though this series was pretty much a disaster for Jaguar, at least those guys were having fun.
Yeah it probably wasn't a wise idea using those cars
David Pearson deserved that championship! Fight me! That flick out of Turn 4 was enough proof of his talent!
This was so entertaining to watch.. thanks for the upload..only thing I could think of that came close to it, is Celebs racing Mazada Miatas around Long Beach.
“Talent never goes away.”
Yeah, tell that to the Mears family.
Are you talking shit about the winner of the 2007 Coca Cola 600?
Let's make a race series for drivers over 50
Epic!
Let's use 3/4 million dollar cars!
Hmmm... Yeah, that's a GREAT idea...
Bass Masters. One expensive clusterfxck. Was pulling for Silver Fox though.
4:47 hi to my family at home
The drag racing driver's were awesome to watch
Nice save! 23:55
Guy at work a year or so ago: "They should do like a senior tour for auto racing."
Me: "They tried that once. Once!"
more than once
identical series with drivers from everywhere, F1, sportscars, IndyCars, NASCAR, Rallying, drag racers, so a bit like IROC but for older drivers I think would work really well all over the world, theres always talk about diversity in racing using women and minorities but what about the older drivers who can't get drives anymore in the top series?
OldROC?
@@Logan912 nah more like SROC
What was that series on a few years ago with the old timers? Paul Tracy and I think a Andretti, and some NASCAR guys. Those were good races, only caught them randomly though.
This amazing xj 220 is my favorite car watching bobby Unser sawing on the wheel awesome
Doug Demuro told me to youtube this series
Watching old guys trash $9M is Jags is just awesome!!
Now we got the srx series
I am thankful for SRX
This series would have worked had they not used the XJ220. For all the speed it had, it couldn't handle worth a shit.
I wish they would bring back something like this except with more affordable cars so it's more practical.
NFS Shift Oval racing in real life: Trashing supercars one race at a time
There was and is a permanent road course at IRP. it was there before the oval.
Now they would do it with I-Paces
I would watch the hell out of that! Think of all the drivers who would be eligible today: Alain Prost, Martin Brundle, Emerson Fittipaldi, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Nigel Mansell, Bobby Rahal, Al Unser Jr., Michael Andretti, Terry Labonte, Scott Pruett, Sammy Swindell, Steve Kinser, Rick Mears, John Force...
And the ones we wish could participate: Senna, Earnhardt, Allison, Kulwicki, Moore, Wheldon….
$750,000 wouldn't even touch a cup series event today. Like $550,000 for car alone... 😂
750k is $1.7 million in 2024
Great idea at the time I wish they kept it they should have used different cars instead of jaguars but nowadays we have the SRX by Tony Stewart
RACING'S HEROES OF WRESTLING VERSION
...with higher production values.
It wound up a grand sight better than that shitshow, to be sure.
Awesome, kinda like NASCAR but more expensive somehow
Hopefully the new SRX Series will be better
hey nascar man can you do a video on the old stock car connection races from i believe 87-88
So its like a precursor to SRX
Remember gp masters for ex f1 drivers?
Only people that are familiar with the popular Honda model say "pray-lude" ;)
I remember watching this, aghast at the venue they used and wasting rare supercars.
Actually they only really ever produced around 280 of them
I wonder who thought that a bunch of british supercars would work for this, I mean it is pretty cool, but not cost effective, and the XJ220 was never really an incredibly relevant car so, I don't think it really boosted the popularity of the series.
I wonder if those cars still exist.
They tore the hell out of those cars!
If they'd of only had a car that wasn't so long and stupid to drive.
Oh yeah, remember the Crash Masters, which was humiliating enough without having their collective asses kicked by the Drag Racets Ed 'TheAce' mcculough and Eddie Hill. These guys who never turn while they are racing, Rocked it, While it sounded like a great concept... I did.not really deliver. I was disappointed.
A few drag racers through the years had done more than a little dirt track racing. Check the earlier Eldora All-Star charity races. Plus to prove racers, are racers, it went the other way around Doug Kallita, and John Andretti were dirt dogs before they ever got into drag cars. Tanner Gray and Gary Scelzi's son Gio, are making their way up the stock car racing ladder.
Yassss YassssssssssYASSSSSSSSSSSSASS
I apreciate your effort. Creating a video - don on this event. But i have to say overall it was daamn boring event with too many crashes. 700.000 dollars/car?? wtf
Lol Drag racers vs Derek Bell, David Hobbs, Brian Redmond, and all those road racing and F1 veterans.
Genius.
Doesn't it again with McLaren 720s cars or something!
This is so cool! I don’t remember it though. So glad they drove those beautiful jags -problems and all. Those kitcar looking things they were first considering were butt-fugly.
I get I'm 7 months late but the serious issues was using Jaguar's. They should've just used old Winston Cup cars or even old IROC cars. Cheaper and not so expensive to fix
Good job catching up to what everyone figured out a long time ago lol
The entire purse wouldn't even cover the cost of the damage to the cars.
Dear God........They hired a furry to be the mascot.💀
Though it was billed as a car that could do 220mph, I dont believe the cars ever did that even after modifications from Jaguar to atleast one test car.
Correct. Jag engineers topped it out at 217.
I quess drag racers are more used to driving cars with terrible handling.
9:44 :(
I watch this video and all I can think about is dollars going down the drain.
This is really the precursor to the srx, a good idea, yet very poor execution
So today you can buy a old Jaguar sedan for the same price as a lease payment then, with inflation and everything.
I remember this when it happened. My thoughts now are the same as then: How did anyone think this would go well? You gave old school racers hyper-expensive luxury cars ill-suited for a short track and flashed a pile of cash in front of them. The results should never have surprised anyone.
Think the English mechanics made a mistake in bolting on the rear wing, you see, in England they drive on the left side of the road, so in order to prepare the car for the usa, some parts need to be "mirrored" like the steering,and padlle box for example. In this mirroring they might by accident got the rear wing upside down as well, creating lift as the cars go faster. Its pervasive that them bottems get loosy-goosy when things get going!
What a sh*tshow. Awesome!
I remember how awful this series was.
they should do this again, except with modified Tesla’s.
Thanks for the video. 👍