It’s long been tradition (and known) for race courses, of any sort, to be counterclockwise.
Probably related to that: I used to work at a mini-amusement park, as a teen. We had 11 rides. 10 of them were unambiguously counterclockwise, with the 11th being the ferris wheel (which depends on which side you look at it from), and even that was counterclockwise from the point of view of where we loaded and unloaded.
This was true even for the train (which was taken off the track and then put back on every season, and could have been put on in either direction) and for the hand-carts (which were similarly taken off and then put back on, every day). In other words, if the morning ride operator for the hand carts had so chosen, they could have made it clockwise that day, just as easily as making it counterclockwise, but they never did.
When it comes to auto race tracks, as a general rule (with exceptions, of course), oval tracks, like Indianapolis, are counter-clockwise, and road and street courses, like Monaco, are clockwise.
I think that in most humans, the right leg is stronger and more coordinated than the left, much like with our arms. It’s a smaller effect, but it’s still there. That makes most human runners slightly faster on a counterclockwise race than a clockwise one, and so racetracks designed for human runners are usually counterclockwise. This in turn influenced the design of racetracks for other sorts of races, such as horses or cars.
I don’t know about road races. I had thought, actually, that most of those were figure-8 courses, so there’s the same amount of turning left and right.
I also wonder if that preferentially-turn-counterclockwise thing holds in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Human scale is too small for Coriolis to be relevant, but there might conceivably still be some influence from the direction the Sun is seen to move through the sky.
Merry-Go-Rounds: In the US they go counter-clockwise so riders can use their dominant arm to reach for the gold ring. In the UK, they go clockwise to emulate a cavalry attack surrounding the enemy with their dominate sword hands facing in. I heard this on a podcast, so it must be true.
Seems to be true for many animals. Horse races and dog races are also counter-clockwise in America. Whether that’s from mere human preference or anatomical understanding isn’t clear, though.
History is somewhat more complicated. Both clockwise and counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise in England) have histories and sometimes appear to have been random local choices.
Contemporary illustrations show that when running on tracks was revived in the nineteenth century, clockwise running was probably just as common. Oxford and Cambridge universities ran clockwise – Oxford until 1948, Cambridge until some time later. The first modern Olympic Games in Athens (1896 and 1906) and Paris (1900) used the clockwise direction, but in 1906 there were complaints, as many countries had by then settled for the anti-clockwise practice. From 1908 the Games have all been run ‘left hand inside’.
Counter-clockwise dominates more recently. If most of the competitors in multi-country events are used to that direction, it will eventually become universal to not put the local teams at a disadvantage.
My WAG is that the earliest oval auto tracks (e.g., Indianapolis) followed the examples of the horse racing tracks of the time. I don’t follow NASCAR, but AFAIK, all US ovals are counter-clockwise.
A little Googling supported my guess and provided a little more detail.
Why do oval tracks in the U.S. run counter-clockwise, while those in other countries run clockwise?
There are many reasons given for this, such as:
Automobile racetracks developed from horse racing tracks. Horse races in England, Europe, and other places outside the U.S. are typically run clockwise. The switch to counter-clockwise in the U.S. dates from 1780, when the first circular race track was built here by William Whitley in Lincoln County, KY. A supporter of America’s independence, he insisted that the horses run counter-clockwise as a sign of rebellion from the mother country. Gradually other tracks followed suit.
In oval track the auto racing the driver is on the left and a crash into the wall is on the opposite side of the car, so it is safer. It’s also easier for a driver on the left to make a sharp left turn. In Australia, the cars go right rather than left, mirroring the fact that Australians drive on the left side of the road rather than the right and thus the driver is sitting on the right side of the car. Formula One racing is still run clockwise, as are most other races in Europe, Asia, and Australia. When the U.S. Grand Prix was held on the oval Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2000, the race was run clockwise.
Apart from Figure-8 racing, where intentional collisions are part of the event, there are very few figure-eight road courses. Suzuka in Japan is the only one that comes to my mind. (The cross-over is a bridge, not at-grade.)
I saw one at Irwindale about twenty years ago. Like the demolition derby on the same bill, it looked to me like the intention of the participants was to put on a good show rather than “win”. Nobody got t-boned but there were a lot of direct hits on the quarter panels to make the victim spinout.
I saw that a lot when I was creating my post. However, that seems to be pure urban legend, and race tracks here precede him by a century. He might have built the first circular race track west of the Allegheny Mountains, although even the Kentucky Historical Society says only “one of the first.” Nevertheless, the racing industry became so important in Kentucky that he’s been boosted to a symbolic forefather and this “fact” is all over the internet. Nobody ever bothers to quote him saying he was doing so for anti-British reasons, which I find suspicious.
The other question is whether English racetracks really were all clockwise. I couldn’t find any cite for that. I did find some that said they always were a mixture in that era. Any UK racing fans here to give us some history?
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots was a home boxing game that was probably based on an earlier arcade game called Silver Gloves from the late 1940s. I saw this game being played in a movie I watched recently (don’t recall the name).
A coworker posted in our Slack channel about visiting Union Pacific 4-8-8-4 “Big Boy” #4014 on its coast to coast tour in Steamtown NHS in Scranton, PA. I did not know that Steamtown USA moved from Vermont to Scranton, PA in 1984, along with their static display of “Big Boy” #4012 which is on static display right next to 4014 for the rest of the week. I haven’t really explored my train geekery since my grandfather died in the 80s, but long story short, I’m now taking a solo road trip to Scranton on Saturday to see the 2 Big Boys
Not a racing fan but did a little googling. 888sport says
“British racecourses come in many shapes and sizes and there is certainly a vast array on offer. At most tracks the races are run left-handed, ie anti-clockwise around the course, however some courses are right-handed (clockwise) - for example, Kempton, Ascot and Sandown”
I got lucky. I ran into a debunker early on or else I would have quoted it too.
The British Triple Crown - 2,000 Guineas, Epsom Derby, and St. Leger Stakes - are all run at least partially clockwise. So there’s certainly a long-lasting tradition. Whether that was the universal in 1780 is unknown. I mean, by me.