Top 5 car races in the world

[nrand]

Lets see what this brings. What are your top five and in what order?
1. 24 Hours at Le Mans - ultimate combination of speed, endurance and glamour
2. Monaco Grand Prix, biggest total audience; the rich and famous and global TV
3. Indianapolis 500 - oldest
4. Dakar Rally - toughest on drivers and cars
5. Daytona 500 - one for the GOB's

 

[Bones]

What is a GOB?

 

[tcarp]

I always loved the original Cannonball Rally, which as I recal,l was started by Brock Yates from Car and Driver magazine in the 70's. It was a by-invitation-only, illegal, coast-to-coast run across the US.....bikes, hotrods, sleepers, any thing was permitted. No spectators, no TV or press, no fame or cash prize....just bragging rights for the winner. It was the event that inspired The Gumball Rally which featured Michael Sarazin and Raul Julia.

I believe currently there's an event by the same name, but it's merely a lame knockoff.

Tom

 

[LeDocteur]

What is a GOB?

Fine Olde Gentlemen?

 

[nrand]

Fine Olde Gentlemen?

me oui!

 

[flatout9]

Holy Hell! Don't forget the Chili Bowl... Best Midget racers assemble on an indoor track in early January in Tulsa. The most exciting racing I see all year long.

 

[LeDocteur]

I like your list, with the exception of Monaco.

From a glitz and glamor standpoint, yes. But the actual race is a procession there. From a pure racing point of view, The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps.

 

[Big John]

Neat thread nrand but I think the oldest is either the TargaFlorio in Sicily, the Milwaukee mile or the banked track at Brooklands ?, i'd still like to see the Indy500 one day though.

I would add:
The Nordschleife at Nurburgring - must be technically the hardest and still unfortunately claiming lives.
The Isle of man TT races
The old banked track at Monza
Definitely Monaco - for the spectacle, atmosphere, glamour that typifies F1
The Mille Miglia

Go Stirling !! ........

image removed

 

[jefrs]

Brooklands was certainly the first banked speedway track. It's a shame it no longer exists.

We are not allowed to race on public roads hence private circuits. The speedway idea was taken up left-pond and fell out of favour here. Whereas on the continent the Grands Prix (it's plural) races were run on public highway. The Ulster Grands Prix, TT and Isle of Man TT are exceptions because they are not on mainland GB. F1 is post war: the inaugural F1 Grands Prix was as Silverstone, a disused WW2 airfield, and which is still an excellent venue. However Thruxton is the fastest track in the UK, and most of the circuit can be seen from the start/finish stands by the pits and chicanes.

 

[Big John]

A lot of our (UK) circuits are ex WWII airfields and still show that familiar 'map of Oz' shape when viewed from the air although sadly many have been sanitized out of all recognition.
Our local is Snetterton with the aptly named 'Bombhole' corner a remnant of an air attack in the 40's, though now largely evened out it was almost a Laguna Seca style twist and turn as I remember it in the 60's when Anglia's, MKII Jags and Mini's used to race and roll through it.
The Norwich straight ran parallel with the A11 and only a few feet from it, many 'Sunday drivers' would get the shock of their lives as they are overtaken by a single seat rocket !
The current straight is the old BDRC drag strip where I remember Clive Skilton not stopping one Sunday and ending up doing an impromptu sugar beet harvesting display in the sub 6 sec. Castrol dragster, the first in the UK with the motor behind the driver a la Don Garlits.
Eeeeeeeee lad them were t'days ...... jumpers for goalposts, the smell of Castrol 'R' ....

The old Norwich straight is now a Sunday Market

 

[Ricky D.]

What is a GOB?

Good old boy.

 

[muchxs]

Meh. Formula 1 and sports cars are for teenagers who have posters of cars they can't afford on their walls. In between posters of unapproachable women...


My picks:

Eldora, The Dream. It's a rare opportunity to get to see Red Farmer race. You know it's a race when Kenny Schrader is in it.

Figure 8 racing at Toyota Speedway, Irwindale. Sponsored by the people who brought us The Runaway Prius. Real Men race Figure 8.

+1 on the Chili Bowl. Lunatics racing wildly overpowered little cars on damp clay indoors while snow blankets much of the aptly named North America.

Paradoxically I'd get behind the Daytona 500 if they'd use the road course. Big track racing is more fun to watch on TV. You do actually go and buy a ticket, don't you?!

Let's see, one more: Anything Top Fuel. Every musician needs to feel and hear Fuelers as a point of reference for what loud really is. NHRA has better car count, IHRA still races a full 1/4 mile.

 

[SimpleOne]

Destruction Derby at Ascot Raceway?

 

[BritishBluesBoy]

Scalextric!

 

[musicalmartin]

Good old Snetters .still my local track .I usually go to the F3 race every year .

 

[johnreardon]

I like your list, with the exception of Monaco.

From a glitz and glamor standpoint, yes. But the actual race is a procession there. From a pure racing point of view, The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps.

Fully agree. For me it's the most boring race of the F1 season.

BTW the Paris-Rouen race in 1894 is probably the first car race

 

[muchxs]

Top Fuel has it all over F1. 0-330 (mph not kph!!) in 4.3 seconds.

All those laps challenge my attention span...

F1 does crash nicely, though. Carbon fiber breaks up like crumb cake at those speeds.

 

[nrand]

BWOI Indy, Monaco, and Le Mans are known as the triple crown of racing and only one driver, Graham Hill, has won all three. Indy is the oldest of these three. I agree that Monaco is a procession, hence pole position is everything, making it a very different sort of weekend. F1 is light years ahead of all other forms at 600 million TV viewers per race, and I would love to have shares in F1 poster merchandising!

NB I still have a soft spot for NASCAR as my family is from the Southern states. My GOB credentials may seem a bit far fetched as someone in Australia, my maternal grandfather was from the Buzzards Roost TN area, near Jamestown - and my father's family were sharecroppers from Toccoa GA. We moved north to Indiana and AJ Foyt country when I was 5.

 

[getbent]

I'm a GOB.

all the ones I would pick involve Nascar!

the other "cars" look too much like go carts or alien spacecraft and sound like sewing machines.

The only race I think has to be on the list (other than nascar) is the Baja 5000...

 

[Squier Buyer]

"Top Fuel has it all over F1. 0-330 (mph not kph!!) in 4.3 seconds."

Yeah, in a straight line.....with a parachute!

"All those laps challenge my attention span..."

Well, you could always watch those guys who go real fast then turn left all day.