This year's Race of Champions saw Sebastian Vettel defeat Tom Kristensen, and a pair of English touring car champs take down the Germans for the Nations Cup in heated competition in London's Olympic Stadium.
The Race of Champions is leaving Barbados to return to London, where the year-end event will be held at the retrofitted stadium that was originally built for the Olympics in 2012.
Every year the racing season closes with the annual Race of Champions. The year-end event gives drivers from different racing disciplines a chance to compete against each other on common ground and in identical machinery. And while it doesn't necessarily move every year, organizers try to bring the action to different locations.
Every year, winners from various motorsport disciplines gather for the Race of Champions. It's a time-honored tradition that anchors the end of the racing calendar, and has been held every year without fail since 1988. But it won't be happening this year as organizers have announced its cancellation.
With so many different cars, competitions, rulebooks and drivers gunning for wins each weekend in various racing events all across the world, how do you go about crowning the best of the best? Put more simply, Who is the best racing driver in the world?
Eighteen of the world's top drivers returned this past weekend to Düsseldorf's ESPRIT Arena to contest this year's 2011 Race of Champions. Up for grabs was glory for each driver's native land in the ROC Nation's Cup on Saturday, as well as individual glory and the title Champion of Champions in Sunday's elimination competition.
Who's the best driver in the world? Hard to say when everyone's driving on different machinery in different series... That's what the annual Race of Champions is all about.
Six drivers have been added to the roster of the 2011 Race of Champions, the latest being Travis Pastrana. The Red Bull team rider and driver tore up his ankle at this summer's X-Games and hasn't competed since, but expects to be ready come the RoC weekend December 3-4 in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Not everyone can compete in the Race of Champions. You have to be, you know, an actual champion of something. (That something being a professional racing series of some sort.) But us ordinary Joes can do the next best thing: pretend like we're champions while playing with our smartphones.
Every year, the Race of Champions brings the best and brightest from all disciplines of motor racing together for one winner-takes-all blitzkrieg. Last year's event was hosted in Dusseldorf, and in 2011, the season-closer will once again return to Germany.
Tesla Roadster 2.5 with 2010 F1 champion Sebastian Vettel – Click above for high-res image gallery
Heikki Kovalainen crashes out at the 2010 Race of Champions – Click above to watch video after the jump
Carl Edwards and Travis Pastrana represent US at ROC 2010 – Click above to watch video after the jump
So far, only three drivers are confirmed for the 2010 Race of Champions, but it's already shaping up to be one for the history books. Not only is the year-end, cross-discipline event returning to Germany – the country that has held the Nations Cup title the past three years running – but now one of the most successful racing drivers alive will finally, for the first time in his career, be on
Michael Schumacher at the 2009 Race of Champions – Click above for high-res image gallery
