The Sport of Auto Racing

The Sport of Auto Racing
Frank Duryea drove in the first American automobile race on Thanksgiving Day, 1895. The race covered 54 miles and Frank's winning average speed was 7.5 miles per hour. At the 2007 Indianapolis 500 the winning average speed was 151.774 miles per hour and the car was driven by Hélio Castroneves. The events that occurred in the years between 1895 and 2007 that have brought auto racing to the sport that it is today are sometimes just amazing.

Actually, France dominated car racing in the early years. The French Automobile Club staged several races. There was no enclosed race course as we know today. The races usually began in Paris and ended in another European city. The event that brought these city-to-city auto races to a close was when Marcel Renault was fatally injured in a car race from Paris to Madrid on May 24, 1903. The death of Marcel Renault as well as eight other race drivers caused the government of France to stop the car races and ban open-road racing altogether.

During the 40 years between 1910 and 1950, the automobile industry underwent some drastic changes. High-dollar automobiles like the Delage and Mercedes-Benz were transformed into pure racing vehicles.

Today, there are all kinds of auto racing venues. Racing cars that are built specifically for racing is one, but there is also stock car racing as well as off-road racing, among others. There are even legal drag races as opposed to the drag races that occur illegally on the streets.

Car racing never has been and never will be a "safe" sport, but it is now and has been from its inception a popular sport. And as equipment gets better, there are fewer injuries being suffered in the sport today than there were in the past.