I remember President Jimmy Carter banning some ofrm of autoracing to conserve gasoline. I am having a hard time finding a reference to this. Did this actually happen or has my memory tricked me yet again?
How would a President ban NASCAR (or whatever form of autoracing) even if he wanted to?
From 1973 oil crisis - Wikipedia
Is this what you were thinking of? It’s before Carter, though, and entirely voluntary.
That must have been it. Thanks for your quick response. I guess that is why I had a hard time finding any reference to a Presidential ban on Nascar during the Carter administration.
As a long time auto racing fan, I have never heard of any banning of any form of motorsports. During the energy crisis in 1974, NASCAR shortened many of it’s Winston Cup events to save fuel.
How about during WW2? Gas and tires were both strictly rationed and I recall reading that auto racing pretty much went away during that time. Dunno if there was a government ban on the sport directly, or if the racers hung it up voluntarily, or if the rationing just made it impossible to continue.
FYI: Switzerland has a ban on motor racing (or did a few years ago) on safety grounds.
Many European countries banned motor racing in response to the 1955 Le Mans Disaster. Switzerland kept theirs the longest, but I think they finally dropped it a couple of years ago.
ETA This article mentions that Switzerland ended their ban last June.
Good job fighting ignorance! I can’t remember ever hearing of that incident and it is a major catastrophe.
What (other than popular opinion) would make it so difficult compared to, say, the illegality of dog-fighting?
A president couldn’t outlaw dogfighting, either. That would require a law, and the president doesn’t make laws.
So I presume it’s impossible to read ‘Did President Carter…’ as a convenient metaphor for ‘Did the Carter administration…’? I’d have thought the more important part of the question was whether or not anything was banned.