"motor racing " A competition between land vehicles that are mechanically propelled and driven over closed-circuit tracks or on specified point-to-point routes. Separate timings are made in competitions where drivers race singly; where competitors race together, the winner is the first to finish the allocated distance, or number of laps of the circuit. Competition began almost as soon as the first petrol-driven car was invented, with timed trials in France in the later 1880s and the 1890s, and organized automobile races in Chicago and the East Coast of the USA in the 1890s.
Speed was the great attraction to competitor and spectator alike. In the USA, perhaps the most prominent single motor-racing event has been the Indianapolis 500-mile race, first held in 1911. In Europe, the first Grand Prix race was held in 1906 at Le Mans, France, won by the Renault company's vehicle, driven by its chief mechanic. Germany and Italy developed competitive vehicles and high profiles in the sport in the 1920s and 1930s, though British competitiveness was held back by its amateur ethos.
The European Grand Prix cycle of events was superseded by the Formula One competition in 1950, and consolidation and expansion of the sport in the television age guaranteed worldwide exposure, attracting competitors from Brazil and Argentina as well as the traditional European constituencies. The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), founded in 1904 in Paris, now with its administration in Geneva, Switzerland, oversees the sport. (As it stated on its website in 2009, it ‘brings together 221 national motoring and sporting organisations from 132 countries on five continents. Its member clubs represent over 100 million motorists and their families.’)
In 2008, a worldwide television viewing audience of 600 million was reported for Formula One, and despite the volatility of the global economy, the sport continues to attract manufacturers and sponsors.
In 2008, a worldwide television viewing audience of 600 million was reported for Formula One, and despite the volatility of the global economy, the sport continues to attract manufacturers and sponsors.
The sport has been rife, in the early 20th century, with controversy concerning the business interests of FIA personnel and their partners, and the unethical and even corrupt practices that have been revealed in the racing events themselves: these have included industrial espionage between rival teams, and ploys such as deliberately crashing to hamper or disrupt the racing progress of other drivers.
Despite such dubious morals on the track and in the boardroom, Formula One's winning formula of speed, glamour, celebrity, and cosmopolitanism sustains the sport's global profile. See also hot rod; Le Mans; NASCAR; Senna (da Silva), Ayrton.
How to cite this entry:
"motor racing" A Dictionary of Sports Studies. by Alan Tomlinson. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 11 October 2011
How to cite this entry:
"motor racing" A Dictionary of Sports Studies. by Alan Tomlinson. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 11 October 2011
