Dave to the rescue

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Sometime last year, a new channel called Dave launched on Freeview. It's aimed squarely at blokes like me and, from the off, it's been showing re-runs of the entirety of new-generation Top Gear. Not just TG, obviously, but quite a lot of it. Recently, however, it's kicked into motorsport overdrive with the addition of WRC and a quality little show called GT Racer.

When I first caught GT Racer, I was really unimpressed. In hindsight, I think I just misunderstood it. Although it follows various historic race series across Europe and the States, it's more in the mold of a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a WRC-style sports highlights programme. There's absolutely no narration, the interviews with competitors and mechanics are entirely one-sided (you never hear or see the interviewer or his/her questions), and the racing highlights have a distinctly cheap-sounding, techno soundtrack. Actually, I've read somewhere that it's Kraftwerk, but it makes the whole thing come across like a corporate video for an under-funded club circuit.

Give it time, however, and it begins to grow on you. You become familiar with the featured racers, their pit crews and the cars, and realise they're such nice people that you can't help but wish them well. You get a real feel for the camaraderie in the paddock. It dawns on you that the camera-work is actually quite high quality and even the soundtrack becomes little more than a gentle heart-beat. Overall, it's a refreshingly unpretentious, understated piece of television. If it's still going when you read this, catch it at 7pm on Sundays and relax into a world of friendly competition.

Update: dammit! I posted this so late, the series has already finished. Fingers crossed for a re-run and/or another series.

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