Auto racing
Car Show
Auto racing
Formula One | Rallying
Auto racing (also known as automobile racing,
autosport or motorsport) is a
sport involving racing
automobiles. Motor racing or motorsport may also mean
motorcycle racing, and it can further include
motorboat racing and air racing. It is one of the world's most popular
spectator sports and perhaps the most thoroughly commercialized.
History
The start
Auto racing began almost immediately after the construction of the first
successful petrol-fuelled autos. In 1894, the first contest was organized by
Paris magazine Le Petit Journal, a reliability test to determine best performance.
A year later the first real race was staged in
France, from Paris to Bordeaux. First over the line was Émile Levassor but he was disqualified because his car was not a required
four-seater.
An international competition began with the
Gordon Bennett Cup in auto racing.
The first auto race in the
United States, over a 54.36 mile (87.48 km) course, took place in Chicago,
Illinois on November 2, 1895, Frank Duryea winning in 10 h and 23 min, beating
three petrol-fuelled cars and two electric. The first trophy awarded was the
Vanderbilt Cup.
City to city racing
Fernand Gabriel driving a Mors in Paris-Madrid 1903
With auto construction and racing dominated by
France, the
French automobile club ACF staged a number of major international races, usually
from or to Paris, connecting with another major city in Europe or France.
These very successful races ended in
1903 when Marcel Renault was involved in a fatal accident near Angouleme in the
Paris-Madrid race. Eight fatalities caused the French government to stop the
race in Bordeaux and ban open-road racing.
1910-1950
The 1930s saw the radical differentiation of racing vehicles from high-priced
road cars, with Delage, Auto Union, Mercedes-Benz, Delahaye and Bugatti
constructing streamlined vehicles with engines producing up to 450 kW(612HP)
with the aid of multiple superchargers. From 1928-1930 and again in 1934-1936,
the maximum weight permitted was 750 kg(1654Lbs), a rule diametrically opposed
to current racing regulations. Extensive use of aluminium alloys was required to
achieve light weight, and in the case of the Mercedes, the paint was removed to
satisfy the weight limitation, producing the famous Silver Arrows.
Categories
There are many categories of auto racing.
Single-seater racing
-
A modern
Formula One car:
Michael Schumacher's Ferrari at the 2005 United States Grand Prix.
Single-seater (open-wheel)
racing is perhaps the most well-known form of motorsport, with cars designed
specifically for high-speed racing. The wheels are not covered, and the cars
often have aerofoil wings front and rear to produce downforce and enhance
adhesion to the track.
Single-seater races are held on specially designed closed circuits or street
circuits closed for the event. Many single-seater races in North America are
held on "oval" circuits and the
Indy Racing League races mostly on ovals.
The best-known variety of single-seater racing is the
Formula
One World Championship, which involves an annual championship featuring
major international car and engine manufacturers in an ongoing battle of
technology and driver skill. Formula One is, by any measure, the most expensive
sport in the world, with some teams spending in excess of 200 million US dollars
per year. Formula One is widely considered to be the pinnacle of motorsports,
and a seat in a Formula One car is undoubtedly the peak of any driver's racing
career. In North America, the cars used in the National Championship (currently
Champcars and the Indy Racing League) have traditionally been similar to F1 cars but
with more restrictions on technology aimed at helping to control costs.
Other single-seater racing series are GP2 (formerly known as Formula 3000 and
Formula Two), Formula Nippon, Formula Renault 3.5 (also known as the World
Series by Renault, succession series of World Series by Nissan), Formula Three,
Formula Atlantic, and A1 Grand Prix.
There are other categories of single-seater racing, including kart
racing, which employs a small, low-cost machine on small tracks. Many of
today's top drivers started their careers in karts.
Rallying
- Main article:
Rallying
Rallying,
or rally racing, involves highly modified production cars on (closed) public
roads or off-road areas run on a point-to-point format where participants and
their co-drivers “rally” to a set of points, leaving in regular intervals from
start points. A rally is typically conducted over a number of stages of any
terrain, which entrants are often allowed to scout beforehand. The co-driver
uses the "pacenotes" to help the driver complete each stage as fast as possible,
reading the detailed shorthand aloud over an in-car intercom system. Competition
is based on lowest total elasped time over the course of an event.
The top series is the
World Rally Championship (WRC), but there also regional championships and many
countries have their own national championships. Some famous rallies include the
Monte Carlo Rally and Rally Argentina. Another famous event (actually best
described as a "rally raid") is the Paris-Dakar Rally. There are also many
smaller, club level, categories of rallies which are popular with amateurs, making up the "grass
roots" of motorsports.
Touring car racing
-
V8 Supercar Touring car racing
Touring car racing is a style of road racing that is run with production
derived race cars. It often features exciting, full-contact racing due to the
small speed differentials and large grids.
The V8 Supercars originally from Australia, Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters
originally from Germany, and the World Touring Car Championship held with 2
non-European races (previously the European Touring Car Championship) are the major touring car championships
conducted worldwide.
The
Sports Car Club of America's SPEED World Challenge Touring Car and GT
championships are dominant in North America while the venerable British Touring
Car Championship continues in Great Britain. America's historic Trans-Am Series
is undergoing a period of transition, but is still the longest-running road
racing series in the U.S. The National Auto Sport Association also provides a venue for amateurs to
compete in home-built factory derived vehicles on various local circuits.
Stock car racing
One of the most famous NASCAR tracks was the old
Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California.
Stock car racing is the American variant of touring car racing. Usually
conducted on ovals, the cars look like production cars but are in fact
purpose-built racing machines which are all very similar in specifications.
Early stock cars were much closer to production vehicles; the car to be raced
was often driven from track to track.
The main stock car racing series is
NASCAR and among the most famous races in the series are the Daytona 500 and
Allstate 400 at The Brickyard. NASCAR also runs the Busch Series (a junior stock
car league) and the Craftsman Truck Series (pickup
trucks).
NASCAR also runs the
Featherlite series of "modified" cars which are heavily modified from stock
form. With powerful engines, large tires, and light bodies. NASCAR's oldest
series is considered by many to be its most exciting.
There are also other stock car series like
IROC in the United States and CASCAR in Canada.
British Stock car racing is a form of Short Oval Racing This takes place on
shale or tarmac tracks in either clockwise or anti-clockwise direction depending
on the class, some of which allow contact.
Races are organised by local promoters and all drivers are registered with
BRISCA and have their own race number.
What classes exist depends on the promoters, so events in
Scotland at Cowdenbeath can be very different from an event at Wimbledon Stadium
in London.
Formula Cars
- F1 - Cars built to Specification normally utilising 5,6 or 7 Litre V8
engines
- F2 - Specification built cars similar to F1 with 2 Litre Engines
These are the two main National forms of British Stock Car Racing, there are
World Championships organised by the governing body
[1]
There are also local variants raced in some smaller tracks, they are usually
similar to F2 Stock Cars.
F1's race (in the UK) at the following venues:
Belle Vue Stadium (Manchester), Owlerton Stadium (Sheffield), Skegness
Stadium, Buxton, Hednesford, Birmingham, Northampton, Coventry, Kings Lynn,
Ipswich, Cowdenbeath, Knockhill.
They also race in Holland.
Hot Rods
- Local Variations on the concept of fibreglass cars that look like
production models Non Contact
Production Models
- Modified Road cars, classes range from Non-Contact 2 Litre Hot Rods to
Contact Banger Racing.
Contact Classes can be identified by the inclusion of external side impact
bars and large bumpers at either end made out of square section steel.
Drag racing
In drag racing, the objective is to complete a certain distance,
traditionally 1/4 mile, (400 m), in the shortest possible time. The vehicles
range from the everyday car to the purpose-built dragster. Speeds and elapsed
time differ from class to class. A street car can cover the 1/4 mile (400 m) in
15 s whereas a top fuel dragster can cover the same distance in 4.5 s and reach
330 mph (530 km/h). Drag racing was organised as a sport by Wally Parks in the
early 1950s through the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) which is the largest
sanctioning motor sports body in the world. The NHRA was formed to prevent
people from street racing. Illegal street racing is not drag racing.
Launching its run to 330 mph (530 km/h), a top fuel dragster will accelerate
at 4.5 g (44
m/s2), and when braking and parachutes are deployed, the driver
experiences deceleration of 4 g (39 m/s2), more than space
shuttle occupants. A single top fuel car can be heard over eight miles (13 km)
away and can generate a reading of 1.5 to 2 on the
Richter scale. (NHRA Mile High Nationals 2001, and 2002 testing from the
National Seismology Center.)
Drag racing is often head-to-head where two cars battle each other, the
winner proceeding to the next round. Professional classes are all first to the
finish line wins. Sportsman racing is handicapped (slower car getting a head
start) using an index, and cars running faster than their index "break out" and
lose.
Drag racing is mostly popular in the
United States.
Sports car racing
In
sports car racing, production versions of sports cars and purpose-built
prototype cars compete with each other on closed circuits. The races are usually
conducted over long distances, at least 1000 km, and cars are driven by teams of
two or three drivers (and sometimes more in the US), switching every now and
then. Due to the performance difference between production based sports cars and
sports racing prototypes, one race usually involves many racing classes. In the
US the American Le Mans Series was organized in 1999, featuring GT, GTS, and two
prototype classes. Another series based on Le Mans began in 2004, the Le Mans
Endurance Series, which included four 1000 km races at tracks in Europe. A
competing body, Grand-Am, which began in 2000, sanctions its own set of
endurance series, the Rolex Sports Car Series and the Grand-Am Cup. Grand-Am events typically feature many more cars and much
closer competition than American Le Mans.
Famous sports car races include the
24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Offroad racing
In
offroad racing, various classes of specially modified vehicles, including cars,
compete in races through off-road environments. In North America these races
often take place in the desert, such as the famous Baja 1000. In Europe, "offroad"
refers to events such as autocross or rallycross, while desert races and
rally-raids such as the Paris-Dakar, Master Rallye or European "bajas" are called Cross-Country Rallies.
Kart racing
Although often seen as the entry point for serious racers into the sport,
kart racing, or karting, can be an economic way to try your luck at motorsport
and is also a fully fledged international sport in its own right. World-famous
F1-drivers like Michael and Ralf Schumacher and most of the typical starting
grid of a modern Grand Prix took up the sport at around the age of eight, with
some testing from age three. Several former motorcycle champions have also taken
up the sport, notably Wayne Rainey, who was paralysed in a racing accident and now races a
hand-controlled kart. As one of the cheapest ways to go racing, karting is
seeing its popularity grow worldwide.
Go-karts, or just "karts" - seem very distant from normal road cars, with
dimunitive frames and wheels, but a small engine combined with very light weight
make for a quick machine. The tracks are also on a much smaller scale, making
kart racing more accessible to the people.
Other categories
Autocrossing
Autograss
Demolition Derby
Dirt speedway racing
Dirt track racing
Drifting
Grand Prix Truck Racing
Road racing
Short track motor racing
Slalom
Solo
Street racing
Rallycross
Folkrace
Use of flags
In open-wheel, stock-car and other types of circuit auto races, flags are
displayed to indicate the general status of a race and to communicate
instructions to competitors in a race. While the flags have changed from the
first years (e.g. red used to start a race), these are generally accepted for
today.
| Flag |
Displayed from start tower |
Displayed from observation post |
 |
The race has started or resumed after a full caution or stop, or the
race is proceeding normally. |
End of hazardous section of track. |
 |
Full course caution condition for ovals. On road courses, it means a
local area of caution. Depending on the type of racing, either two
yellow flags will be used for a full course caution or a sign with 'SC'
(Safety
car) will be used as the field follows the
pace/safety car on track and no cars may pass. |
Local caution condition — no cars may pass at the particular corner
where being displayed. |
 |
Debris or slippery patches on the track. |
 |
The car with the indicated number must pit. |
The session is halted; all cars on course must return to pit lane. |
 |
The car with the indicated number has mechanical trouble. |
 |
The driver of the car with the indicated number has been penalized
for misbehaviour. |
 |
The driver of the car with the indicated number is disqualified or
will not be scored until they report to the pits. |
 |
A car must allow another car to pass if the flag is blue only. With
an orange or yellow stripe, it simply serves as a warning that faster
traffic is behind. |
A car is being advised to give way to faster traffic approaching. |
 |
The race is stopped—all cars must halt on the track or return to pit
lane. |
 |
One lap remains. |
A slow vehicle is on the track. |
 |
The race has concluded. |
Accidents
For the worst accident in racing history see
Pierre Levegh
External links
Sanctioning bodies
News sites
Forums
Student Racing Teams
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