Has auto racing gootten boring?

[slam105]

Quote:

Originally Posted by darth dino sadly i used to watch this stuff on speedvision, before Fox took over . . . in their first two years with the new formula, racing side by side, the new 4 stroke MotoGP bikes were faster everywhere on the track than the two stroke "zenith" GP bikes they were replacing . . . from day 1. this year they lost almost 200cc (80% the displacement), but are even faster yet just like F1, the technology increases every year. those old 2-strokes look like dinosaurs compared to the new machines. i was sad when they changed the rules . . . until i saw the first race with them running together

[MaxSport]

Worst-ALMS,Champcar

OK- Formula-1, Indycars

Good-FIA GT,LM Series, GT Open (Europa) Grand Am,NASCAR (the road course events rock!)

Best-DTM,Superstars (Italia)
V8 Supercars (OZ) ,WTCC,BTCC,
World Challenge Touring (and WCGT, although a Cadillac vs Audi RS4 vs Mercedes C63 vs Lexus IS-F vs M3 V8 touring car series would be even better).

[don hodgdon]

Certainly some strong opinions here about what's good and bad in motorsports

It's a bit like music, there is a little something for everybody and no one is going to like everything out there.

Personally, being brought up on the road/street/airport circuits of Southern California, I'm a road racing fan. While I can appreciate the strategy and the skills involved, ovals don't really do it for me, although some of of the best racing I have ever witnessed has been USAC midgets on the paved oval at Irwindale.

American open-wheel racing is a mess. While I remain a fan of Champ Car, it is getting increasingly more difficult to watch the slide into mediocrity. I find myself watching more and more motorcycle and sportscar racing on television and attending vintage and club events to get my racing fix.

Don

[Mr. C.]

I think it is great that we can each have his/her opinion and favorites and even find some thing to watch or participate in. All racing appeals to someone or it would survive.

[Pat Braden]

Boy, the responses are all over the board on this one. I've watched, enjoyed, and participated in various aspects of racing over the time I was married to Pat and previously, which is probably generational as far as what was available and what I was exposed to. I'm sure as a woman my perception and taste will be much different than some of yours.

I can remember coming home from church as a youngster and on Sunday afternoons watching the jalopy races with my grandparents sponsored by Cal Worthington before he had ten trillion midnight dealerships, his dog "Spot," was eating bugs to sell cars at any cost, any non-disclosed interest rate etc. I liken these races, which my grandparents thoroughly enjoyed, to watching the Thunderbird antics in pre-determined roller derby games or the pre-determined wrestling matches of the day.

Then I was exposed to drag racing because one of my uncle's school buddies, Tom "Mongoose McEwen" was racing with the NHRA and had made a name for himself as well as become a hall of famer. It kind of gets in your blood and stays. I was aware of women participating in this sport with Shirley Muldowney being one the first to get her license to drag race.

By the time I could drive I treated the streets where I lived like a race track as I drove through the city -- long before exhibition of speed tickets and all the other fines and laws now for driving other than as expected on a city street. This was promoted or egged-on by the group of guys that I worked with that also had sports cars; I was a novelty, a girl that could and would drive like them. My mother hated it and was sure I would wreck the car or kill myself so I learned to be a little more discreet about it. While my family appreciated as a whole auto racing to different degrees, to them it was a spectator sport and not one I should be trying out. I bought my first sports car from a friend of my uncle who was also involved in racing. You can see the "bad" girl image growing here as far as my family was concerned in the car vein.

Anyway, that seed that had been planted really never died but kind of was buried for a while; then along came a next door neighbor that I ended up marrying that was into Alfas. He recognized early on that I had the guts and the intuition to drive, my problem was planned control instead of having to react to mistakes at high speed, whether mine or someone else's. Pat had the control and better driving skill and the ability to understand the physics and dynamics of the situation --- if I do this, this will or should happen. I just drove. Had you been able to put my guts, intuition, and ability to take the opening with his skill it would have been a win-win situation. He bought the Giulietta Spider to race prepare for me to drive. We were both excited about it, but life and choices took us on another path. My biological clock was running, he was older, and I/we made a conscious choice that with just he and I, if I made a fatal mistake it would be far less significant than making that same mistake with three children and leaving him a widower once again.

So I loved spending time in the hot pits, at the corner turns, riding with others at high speed, and as I've mentioned I've ridden with some under those conditions where I couldn't wait to get out of the car, and learned to enjoy racing from a different perspective. That need or urge or I can do it is always there, I just know better and respect what others have put into their cars that a mistake on my part could destroy.

Anyway, I never got into Nascar...don't particularly enjoy watching it, but Pat and I did watch the Indy 500 every year. I agree it's boring to watch the same cars circle lap after lap, the reason we never went to see it in person where you are stationary and see one aspect of the race only. Actually, that's not exactly true, as the cars are involved in accidents and their race day is ended, you're not watching the same cars circle endlessly. It was better to watch it on TV where you could see the whole track and instant replays were wonderful. Pat and I would sit and discuss the replays and what had gone wrong as well as dissect them as to what could have prevented it. I look at it more retrospectively as far as rule changes over the years, but still maintaining the original traditions. I agree that yesterday's race was not a race with the rain, not as good as previous years where there was actually skill required in working up through the positions. With the implementation of more and more rules, the race has become more one of strategy than actual racing to the finish. That is not to discount that there is still skill required or every "Tom, Dick, and Harry" would be out there racing that could come up with the money required. Safety is another big item that has promoted the rules changes and the way the race has changed from all out racing to the finish to one of strategy as well as the safety equipment required to be worn by the drivers and used in the pits etc. I was young, maybe 12, but remember the firey crash the year Eddie Sachs was killed. At that time you had to view it via closed-circuit at movie theatres.

Lots of memories of the past for me involved in racing in general.....Pat got Lee into watching motocrossing and tractor pulls in addition to auto racing. Racing was and is still a part of my life just from a different perspective.

[dretceterini]

What bothers me most is that the cars have become so generic. In the 50s and 60s and earlier, cars within the same series would be much more different from each other than they are today.

[George J]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dretceterini What bothers me most is that the cars have become so generic. In the 50s and 60s and earlier, cars within the same series would be much more different from each other than they are today.

[darth dino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slam105 Fox now uses 'Speed Channel' to pimp its NASCAR coverage! I have a bad feeling that they'll be dropping F1 next...

[Pat Braden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dretceterini What bothers me most is that the cars have become so generic. In the 50s and 60s and earlier, cars within the same series would be much more different from each other than they are today.

[Geezer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat Braden I can remember coming home from church as a youngster and on Sunday afternoons watching the jalopy races with my grandparents sponsored by Cal Worthington before he had ten trillion midnight dealerships, his dog "Spot," was eating bugs to sell cars at any cost, any non-disclosed interest rate etc. I liken these races, which my grandparents thoroughly enjoyed, to watching the Thunderbird antics in pre-determined roller derby games or the pre-determined wrestling matches of the day.

[dretceterini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pat Braden I guess that's what technological advancements brings us along with the change in times, industrial spying where everyone knows what everyone else has; maybe all the "big" differences have been exhausted and we're now down to subtleties of tweeking to make cars perform better, weigh less, or last longer while also taking into consideration that not every driver drives the same and gets the same performance so that is still a variable that has to be recognized and accommodated in design and performance. As the world has moved forward with technology, inventions, and so forth so must auto racing......we wouldn't want it left behind in the dust, now would we?

[jrclem]

"I forgot the narrator's name, Jack something..."
Whooo Nellie! You're talking about Dick Lane. He was the voice of Jalopy racing at Ascot as well as Roller Derby & Wrassalin... a hall of famer!