What's the appeal of racetrack-based motorsport?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m not a big fan of sports, including motorsport, or anything else much related to vehicles, but I can appreciate Rally Driving because it seems to me to be an extreme version of regular driving, having challenges that real drivers have to face, albeit on a larger scale.

But Formula 1 or other motorsports that use a racetrack don’t seem to demonstrate much of that, and it’s all about maintaining a lead and avoiding spinning out, which though I’m sure is a huge challenge when at those kinds of speeds, doesn’t really have any central point of interest. And worse, they just go round and round and round in a circle, with only the occasional hairpin or chicane to vary it up a bit. That seems so dull, in comparison.

So, sports fans, what’s the appeal for you?

2

I am with you and I love the visual spectacle of sports. My best ever race watching experience was Australia’s biggest circuit race, the Bathurst 1000. As I was going out on race day I thought, “The Bathust 100 must be about to start.” I turned on the TV and they were leaving the starting grid and entering the first turn. I watched them through the turn and switched it off. When I came home I thought, “The Bathurst 1000 must be nearly over.” I turned on the TV to see the leader make the last 3 corners and get the checkered flag. Perfect - just the right amount of racing and I knew who had won.

3

Some Go-Kart racing is better than most motor sports. Heck, college basketball is better baketball than pro b-ball. Amatuer boxing is WAY better than heavyweight boxing.

It comes down to:

Marketing
Marketing
Marketing

Top motor sports get built on the BIGGEST sponsors and biggest hype, drama, spectacle.

4

Rally driving is great, and I love watching it.

Motorcycle racing, especially road racing, like GP and Superbike/Supersport, are great. I also love dirt track racing. I don’t like motocross all that much, but oval track stuff is fantastic. For cars, too – I love watching sprint cars.

NASCAR is unwatchable. I can’t understand the attraction at all.

5

‘Rednecks turning left.’ :stuck_out_tongue:

6

Although the appearance suggests that Formula One or similar should be a constant succession of thrilling moments, they’re actually marathon-type tactical sports. Think golf, cricket…seriously. And this does make it difficult for the uninitiated listener. Plus most commentators are either morons or sound like morons, so you either are being told nothing helpful or just can’t stand to listen to them. Add to that the skill of a successful overtaking manouevere - which again is something that doesn’t look particular impressive to the unknowledgable viewer. In the same way as baseball looks like ‘just hitting the ball’, or that snooker seems to just be geometry.

7

I also love rally racing and motorcycle racing. I do find road races more interesting than closed tracks, such as the Isle of Man TT. I like CART and F1, but its more about the technology involved than the actual racing itself. NASCAR, fuhgetaboutit.

8

Interviewer (to A. J. Foyt): “What is your secret to winning at Indy?”

Foyt: “Go 200 miles per hour and turn left.”
I think that much of the appeal to speedway racing lies on the supply side of the equation. It’s hard enough to close a street or two for a few hours to hold a 5K run; a road race would require closing off an entire part of a town for the entire day. Crowd control is also a lot easier inside a staduim and it’s a lot harder to sneak inside.

Beyond that, between the board tracks of 1900-1920 and the dirt tracks of early stock car racing, there’s a tradition of circle racing in the U.S.

9

I like NASCAR enough I guess, but it’s mostly because it’s easily accessible. I loved going down to the strip with friends in high school and racing 1/4 miles (Budds Creek MD in case you care), and my old neighbor races ATV semi-professionally which is a lot of fun to do too. I would love to do some 4x4 rock crawling, and the Baja looks like it would be a blast. So I guess if you like high speed and technical driving skills racetrack is more your thing. If you just like to see dirt flying everywhich way, not so much. I can enjoy and appreciate what Indy, CART, F1 and NASCAR drivers are doing, and can do the same with other types of racing.

10

NA$CAR’s appeal to me is waning but still strong enough to attempt to answer your question. You’re characterization of the sport is off, to begin with. If there was one MEGA-RACE, gaining and maintaining the lead would be your primary objective. This is not the case in NA$CAR, and most racing divisions. NA$CAR’s season runs from mid-February through November, with only a handful of weekends off. The goal is to be a consistent top-15 team with a shot down the stretch to win the championship. Mind you, every driver and every team would love to win every race, but with the competition so tight and 42 other drivers, it isn’t likely.

It is also important to have a “vested interest”. I could give a crap about European soccer, not that it isn’t a great sport, just that I have negative interest in whether Manchester beats who ever. NA$CAR’s greatest selling point is the accessability of the drivers. Until recently, it was very easy to gain access to the pit area, meet and get an autograph of your favorite driver. Not only that, they are characters, real life figures you could imagine yourself either having a beer with or punching in the face. I can think of no other major sports figures that are so . . . down to earth? The public also has access to team radio communication and after listening to a guy talk for 5 hours a day once a week, you get a decent gauge on his personality. This can tend to a WWE mentality and some fans are driven by it (will go to a race just to boo Kurt Busch or Jeff Gordon) but there is more. Also, unlike other sports, the same drivers compete against the same drivers every week, with only the venue changing. So rivalries play out every week, as opposed to a couple of times a year.

Like I said before, the ultimate goal is to win a championship and the key to that is to be consistently good. How a team will perform on any given Sunday is determined when they roll the car off the truck. All testing, practice and research is used to estimate the best possible set-up of a car for the forecasted conditions of the track. Once the race begins (actually, post inspection) there are limited things a team can do to a car, restricted by both rules and time. If the team has missed the set up badly, they set their sights on a top 20 finish and stay out of trouble (wrecks, etc). Teams that are close to the mark can make small adjustments throughout the day, trying to dial it in to be competitive with the cars running top 5.

This leads to another important yet very random aspect of the sport. I love NA$CAR and will willingly spend several hundred dollars over a race weekend if necessary, but damn I have seen some boring races due to very long runs with no cautions. A caution lets a team have a little more time to work on things but more importantly, bunches up the field. So even if “your guy” has been terrible it up all day and is almost a lap down, a caution flag is his opportunity to come in, make some changes and have another run at the leader. To me, there is nothing more exciting than to hear my driver come on the radio and say “Boys, I think we’ve got her right now.” which is code for, “We’ve been sucking but now we’re going to the front and kicking some ass!”. Races with very few cautions are boring, unless your guy is winning.

The important/exciting parts of a race are (in decending order):
The final 10 laps
The final 20 laps
The beginning of the race
Any restart

Bruce_Daddy’s Incredibly Short Primer on Becoming a Race Fan is to start with that list. Watch the end of a race. Watch the end of the next race. (I’m only talking 20 laps or so). Eventually, you will want to know what happened immediately before you started watching and then you’re hooked. Tivo would be a good primer tool as well, just fast-forward until the little green flag at the top of the screen goes yellow, watch the wreck and the restart, rince and repeat.

The parts in between are mildly interesting to be honest, unless the end of the season is near where every gained position is crucial.

So :stuck_out_tongue: right back to Johnny L.A.* and all the other haters; Any sport can can be reduced to “guys chasing a white ball around the grass” or “a bunch of ogres crashing into each other” or “dirty Eurotrash running up and down a field”. Unless you are familiar with the detail and nuance of a sport, it really isn’t going to make much sense.
And with 5 days to go, let me say:

GO Jr!!! 8

*Not even remotely personal, JLA is one of my favorite posters.

11

I’ve slowly gained interest in NASCAR over the last 5 years. Granted, I used to be ignorant of it and thought it was a very basic “all out sprint to the finish line”, and “fastest car wins”.
While the races can be tedious to watch they almost play out like an NBA game.
The first 95% is an endurance competition to try and keep pace with the leaders, and the last 5% is a sprint to the finish.

The endurance portion of the race has more to do with the car itself, the adjustments the team makes during the race, when to stop for fresh tires and gas, attempting to stay up front of the pack.

The sprint finish has to do with the drivers skills, partnering with other drivers for pushes (two cars driving bumper to bumper move faster than one), and that “drafting” term you’ve heard so much about. The most exciting part of the race.

After watching post and pre-race interviews with the drivers enough times you can put faces and personalities with the cars and learn that theres probably only 10-15 real good drivers out there that consistantly place in the top 10 of each race.

Like NBA, MLB, or NFL where you check the divisional scoreboard to see who’s leading each week, you can check the Nextel Cup scoreboard to see who’s leading in points for the season and who finished where in the last race.

12

The simple answer is that there are an awful lot of guys who work on their cars in their driveways, watching the races on TV and saying, “I could do that!”

13

I’ve never followed ball sports of any kind, and for a long time I sort of smugly looked down on people who (I thought) foolishly got all worked up over something as trivial as who won a baseball, football, or basketball game. “Get a life!” I thought.

So imagine my surprise when I found myself just as fanatically devoted to Champ Car racing within the space of a few months. This was about twelve years ago.

The first thing that attracted me was the technology. The single-seat, open-wheel racecars have high-tech engines, sophisticated aerodynamic features, and just look cool. In a good, competitive series like IRL or CART (but not F1), the basic action–passing, pit stops, etc.–is exciting and accessible to newbies. As you get familiar with the basics, you begin to gasp more subtle aspects of strategy–tire selection, making a pit stop out of sequence to improve your track position, and so on.

You also get to know the personalities of the drivers and pick out guys you like and don’t like. Once you have a driver you like and are rooting for, the fun really starts, because then you have a stake in what happens.

Next time a race comes on, pick a driver, any driver (don’t pick the one on the pole, make it the guy in fifth or sixth position to make it interesting), and decide that this is your guy. He’s your favorite cousin, your best friend from high school, you love this guy, and he has to win. Really get into it. Better yet, watch with a friend (or friends) who pick someone else as his driver. You *will *enjoy this race.

Going to a race is even better. The sights! The sounds! The smells! Yes, the smells. The ethanol fuel, the brake dust. It’s very exciting. And if you get a paddock pass, you have a good chance of seeing some of the drivers (maybe even your guy!) close up. Probably get an autograph if you want. Try doing that at the next NFL, NBA, or MLB game you go to.

I enjoyed it all so much that I started learning race driving technique by driving my sports car on racetracks. It’s given me a much better idea of the skills and physical stamina it takes to drive like the pros. It’s been my major hobby for the last five years, and adds a whole new level of appreciation to watching the big boys race.

Want more reasons? How about this: drivers in the top series like F1, CART, IRL, and NASCAR, are arguably better athletes and face more difficult challenges than virtually any other pro sports players. They need great strength to counter the G-forces that can make their bodies weigh five or six times as much as when they’re at rest. They need much faster reactions than any other class of athlete: at 200 mph you’re traveling the length of a football field every second. They have to maintain complete focus and concentration for two solid hours or more, with only brief breaks, in cockpits that can get up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Their hearts beat at 120 to 150 bps for most of that two hours. This is not just sitting in a car and turning left.

And the mental aspect of racing is far more complex than any ordinary sports. The driver has understand physics and engineering, and know how every aspect of the car works, communicating possible problems to the team, and helping develop solutions, all at 180 mph. He’s competing against not just one other team, but as many as 20 or 30. He has to know every other driver on the track, his strengths and weaknesses. And much more.

And if he gets it wrong, he could die. It’s increasingly rare, but it happens.

In short, auto racing is among the most interesting and challenging sporting activities in the world. Boring? I don’t think so. Football and basketball are boring, but not autosports.

14

I drag race my street bike on the 1/4 mile track a few times a year. Bracket racing is great, a guy like me on a bone stock duel-sport motorcycle can beat a guy with a hyped up crotch rocket* by having better reaction time. Show up and go with no special equipment, what a rush.

I can’t bring myself to watch NASCAR once I found out they don’t race in the rain. I’ve been to many Supersport and Superbike motorcycle races (where they go both right and left) and always have a great weekend with my friends, eating drinking hanging out and watching racing. I’ve a garage wall of autographed posters from meeting the riders in the paddock areas. Great fun is watching guys race at 150+ in the rain on two contact patches the size of a playing card. When they do slide out they pick up the bike and keep going most of the time.

The noise, the smells, it’s all a rush.

15
  • addendum

Nothing against hyped up crotch rockets. I dearly miss my 68mph in first gear CBR1000, but the squished discs in my lower back made it unreasonable to ride for several hours at a time.

16

Goodyear has developed and tested rain tires in the past with mixed results. Article

Trust me, if “they” could figure out a way to race in the rain, they would.

17

A lot has been said that I’ll try not to rehash, but I think you can enjoy oval-track auto racing on the most basic of levels.

  1. It’s a race. People are always attracted to racing. Personally, I like all kind of racing, foot-racing, bike-racing, ski-racing, speed-skating, horse-racing. I like that event where they put 4 snowboarders on the slope at the same time and race. I don’t follow rally-car racing or motorcycle-racing, but I think I’d like them if there was more accessibility (and I really can’t pick up another sport right now).

  2. It’s fast cars. I like fast cars. Lots of people like fast cars. Big, loud, V8 engines running at 8000 rpm real close together. Incredible down forces that just stick your car to the track, turning so tightly you’re peeling rubber off your tires at every corner.

If you’re attracted to those things, then you’ll probably like a race. You’ll eventually start to understand how partnerships and teammates work, pit-strategy, fuel decisions, tire decisions. You come to recognize how setups change during the race and who is “locking it in” and who is losing touch.

What it’s not. . .

It’s not F1. It gets slammed by people becuase it’s not as technical as F1. So what. It has some great personalities, great rivalries. There are lots of restirctions on the cars and engines. This can help highlight driver skill over engineering. The races are typically determined MUCH later than an F1 race (or a rally car race) so in that sense, it makes for better viewing.

It’s not necessarily a sport. But, for me, it doesn’t have to be. It’s a competition of man, machine and team. I know enough about chess to enjoy watching a chess match. That’s not a sport either.

Personally, I don’t think they’re athletes, but again, I don’t care. Sure, they have to have endurance, and some specialized driving skills, excellent reaction time. But again, I don’t care. Some of them are good athletes (and had basketball scholarships, some excellent golfers, etc.) but some aren’t. That’s true of a lot of sports, though.

18

Motorcycles have rain tires, so do F1 cars. I’m sure the engineers at Goodyear are working on it, but I’m skeptical as to how hard.

Half of the strategy before the race is which tires to use. The rain tires disintergrate on a dry track and the slicks are awful in the rain. Adds another layer of intrigue to me.

19

No series runs on oval tracks or superspeedways in the rain, even those like CART that also run on road courses in the rain.

I don’t think it’s a tire issue, per se. It’s that speeds through the turns are much higher on average on ovals than on road courses. Also, on oval tracks there’s a lot of side-by-side racing, and the best rain tires couldn’t provide the grip needed to keep cars from sliding a couple inches, which is all that separates them from the next car. On road courses the field is usually spread out single file, except at the start or restarts, so that degree of precision isn’t needed.

But the biggest difference between stock cars and open-wheel cars is weight: it’s easier to keep an 1,800-pound car on track in the rain than a 3,500-pound car.

I don’t happen to know: does NASCAR run at Watkins Glen or the other road courses if it rains?

20

I don’t buy either of these arguments. F1 doesn’t stop races at Indianapolis in the rain, even though they’re using the oval for part of the course. And there’s plenty of extremly close & precise racing on regular F1 courses. (And you’ve seen how little room for error there is at Monaco?!)

It seems to me to be a divide between America and Europe. Lower saloon-car formulas in Europe are also happy to race in rain. No team in any formula America will want to encourage a turn to this approach, because it means spending a lot more money (on tyres, on testing the car in different conditions, etc). And none of them know how their drivers will perform in wet weather - it’s a whole different skill to dry racing.