Auto racing

Auto racing:

Auto racing (also known as automobile racing, autosport, or motorsport) is a sport involving racing automobiles. Auto racing began in France in 1895,[1] and is now one of the world's most popular spectator sports.[2]

History:

The beginning of race cars:

Racing began soon after the construction of the first successful petrol-fueled autos. In 1894, the first contest was organized by Paris magazine Le Perit Journal, a reliability test to determine best performance. But the race was changed to Paris to Rouen 1894. Competitors included factory vehicles from Karl Benz's Benz & Cie. and Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach's DMG.
In 1895, one 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 took place in Chicago on November 28, 1895 over a 87.48-km (54.36 mile) course, with Frank Duryea winning in 10 hours and 23 minutes, beating three petrol-fueled and two electric cars.[1] The first trophy awarded was the Vanderbilt Cup.

City to city racing:

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.[citation needed]

Categories:

Single-seater racing:

Single-seater (open-wheel) racing is one of the most popular forms 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.
The best-known variety of single-seater racing, Formula One, involves an annual World Championship for drivers and constructors of around 18 races a year featuring major international car and engine manufacturers such as Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz (McLaren), BMW (Sauber), Toyota, Honda, and Renault in an ongoing battle of technology and driver skill and talent. The sport is one of the top five watched sporting events in the world, alongside the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, the Super Bowl and the UEFA European Football Championship. Formula One is, by any measure, the most expensive sport in the world, with some teams spending in excess of $400 million per year. Formula One is widely considered to be the pinnacle of motorsports, with the F1 Drivers' Championship being one of, and the oldest among, only three World Championships awarded each year by the FIA (the others being the World Touring Car Championship and the World Rally Championship).
In North America, the cars used in the National Championship (currently Champcars and the Indy Racing League) have traditionally been similar though to a lower level of sophistication as F1 cars with more restrictions on technology aimed at helping to control costs. Other single-seater racing series are the A1 Grand Prix (unofficially often referred to as the "world cup of motorsport"), 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 Palmer Audi and Formula Atlantic.
There are other categories of single-seater racing, including kart racing, which employs a small, low-cost machine on small tracks. Many of the current top drivers began their careers in karts. Formula Ford represents a popular first open-wheel category for up-and-coming drivers stepping up from karts.
Students at colleges and universities can also take part in single seater racing through the SAE Formula Student competition, which involves designing and building a single seater car in a multidisciplinary team, and racing it at the competition. This also develops other soft skills such as teamwork whilst promoting motorsport and engineering.
In 2006, producer Todd Baker was responsible for creating the world's first all-female Formula racing team. The group was an assemblage of drivers from different racing disciplines, and formed for an MTV reality pilot which was shot at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
In December, 2005 the FIA gave approval to Superleague Formula racing, set to debut in 2008. This will be open-wheel, single-seat stock car racing around Grand Prix racetracks. The teams will be owned and run by promenent sports clubs such as AC Milan and FC Porto. The race weekend will follow the GP2 format of Saturday qualifying and two Sunday races, one featuing a reverse grid.

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, BTCC, 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, along with a European Touring Cup, a one day event open to Super 2000 specification touring cars from Europe's many national championships.
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 the United Kingdom. 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:

Stock car racing, the North American equivalent to touring car racing, is the most-popular form of auto racing (in terms of viewership) on that continent. Usually conducted on ovals, the cars may slightly resemble production cars but are in fact purpose-built racing machines which are all almost identical in specifications. Early stock cars were much closer to production vehicles; the car to be raced was often driven from track to track. The modern car however is far removed from the production model which it represents, making the term "stock car" somewhat incorrect.
The main stock car racing series is NASCAR's Nextel Cup, and among the most famous races in the series are the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400. NASCAR also runs the Busch Series (a feeder league), the Craftsman Truck Series (pickup trucks), and the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (stock car series in Canada).
NASCAR also runs the "modified" cars which are heavily altered from stock, with powerful engines, large tires, tubular chassis and light bodies. NASCAR's oldest series is considered by many to be its most exciting.
There are also other stock car series, such as ARCA and NASCAR 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 organized by local promoters and all drivers are registered with BRISCA and have their own race number. What classes exist depends on the promoter, so events in Scotland at Cowdenbeath can be very different from an event at Wimbledon Stadium in London.

Rallying:

Rallying, or rally racing, involves two classes of car. The modified Group A, but road legal, production based cars and the Group N Production cars compete 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 'special stages' of any terrain, which entrants are often allowed to scout beforehand at reduced speeds compiling detailed shorthand descriptions of the track or road as they go. These detailed descriptions are known as 'pace notes'. During the actual rally, the co-driver reads the pace notes aloud (using an in-helmet intercom system) to the driver, enabling them to complete each stage as quickly as possible. Competition is based on lowest total elapsed time over the course of an event's special stages, including penalties.
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, Rally Argentina, Rally Finland and Rally GB. 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 motor sports.

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 often 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 GT1, GT2, and two prototype classes, LMP1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) and LMP2. Manufacturers such as Audi and Acura/Honda field or support entries in the Prototype class. 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 endurance series the Rolex Sports Car Series.
Famous sports car races include the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of