Automobile Racing :: essays research papers

Automobile RacingInternational competitiveness, testing the capabilities of specially designedautomobiles and the skill of their drivers, over tracks and courses of differinglengths and construction, this is automobile cannonball along. The first car raceconsidered is the one held in France in July 1894, in which the winner averaged24 kilometers per hour, when 100 automobiles set out from Paris to Rouen. Thefirst race in North America was held in Chicago, Illinois, in the year 1895.The excitement generated by the possibility of driving at higher and higherspeeds has made automobile racing one of the worlds major spectator and histrion sports. Early races were held in two forms pure speed races and theothers tested engine reliability, which later became known as rallies. Inrallies, cars attempt to achieve and maintain a set speed between points. Thefirst races were held on public roads, but with increasing concern for spectatorsafety, special closed-circuit tracks were built for ral ly racing. The closelycommon racing track is a paved oval with banked corners, from 200 m to 4000 m inlength. The difference between road and track racing ultimately led also todifferent vehicle construction four major types of racing cars are now built.Pure racing machines, such as those used in Grand PrixFormula 1 and in Indycar,are built for power and endurance at speeds of more than 320 km/h (200 MPH). Inthe quondam(prenominal) stock cars used to be production automobiles modified for track racing,but are built now solely for the purpose of racing. Sports cars used for racing,such as rallies, may be either rebuilt production vehicles or pure racingmachines. Drag racers are cars built to accelerate rapidly to high speeds over very(prenominal) short straight tracks, or drag strips, generally about 400 m (3 mi) long.The race most popularly associated with the sport is the Indianapolis 500, socalled because contestants mustiness cover 500 mi (about 805 km) it has been heldannuall y on Memorial Day weekend since 1911. With crowds averaging 400,000, itis the best-attended single-day sports event in the world. This year the Indy500 will not overwhelm most teams from IndycarCART, Championship Auto RacingTeams, the regulatory body which is now being opposed by the IRL, Indycar RacingLeague, whose owner also owns the Indy 500 track. The elite group Grand Prix races areheld at various international sites, such as So Paulo, Brazil, and Johannesburg,South Africa, and through the streets of Monte Carlo, Monaco. Points scored bywinners of these races are amount to establish the world champion driver.