CANBERRA –I recently caught the Portuguese round of the WTCC. I immediately noticed that there was something a little bit different about this race meeting. As it turned out, Alain Menu wasn’t driving his usual factory-backed liveried Chevy Cruze; he was driving a Vaillante race car as Michel Vaillant! But, who is Michel Vaillant?
I didn’t know and the Eurosport commentator Martin Haven alongside 3x BTCC title winner Matt Neal, stated that he didn’t think many fans of the English speaking world would get the reference. However, to me personally, there seemed to be something awfully familiar to what this was all about. And just like Scanner of Computer Warriors did while attempting to peer beyond the bit-stream, I sat there and pondered; “I wonder…”.
After a little research, it soon became apparent why I had I thought I had seen this all before; in 1991 a series aired on TV called ‘Heroes on Hot Wheels’, which was an Americanized version of a French cartoon called Michel Vaillant. In this cartoon, "Michael Valiant"and the family company; Vaillante competed successfully in many different categories of motorsports defeating the baddies as they went, saving the world one race at a time.
Hot Wheels released toys with each of the VHS titles, including this little piece called ‘Speed Shark’ that I remember being in my collection as a child.
Michel Vaillant was Alain Menu’s childhood hero as he read the comic books growing up and in a fairy tale ending of the reverse grid race 2; Menu won by some considerable margin. He even cut and dyed his hair to look more like the comic book character himself. All the effort involved for this presentation is for the promotion of a new Michel Vaillant series that will debut in November.
Alain is currently sitting 3rd in the World Touring Car Championship, after team mates; Yvan Muller and Rob Huff.
The next race will be the inaugural United States meeting at Sonoma Raceway, California on September 21-23. The WTCC is said to be working closely with the USTCC, in an attempt to develop the series and help the format gain more prominence in North America.
No comments:
Post a Comment