Indy Car Racing example essay topic

Automobile Racing Automobile Racing, one of the most popular sports in the world, have races run with wide coverage on television - before millions of fans. It tests the skills of the drivers, the speed capabilities of the vehicles, and the endurance of both. The first racing cars were motorized versions of horse-drawn carriages and wagons. The first race was a reliability demonstration from Chicago to Waukegan, Illinois, in November 1895, while the first American oval-track race, held at the Rhode Island State Fairgrounds in Cranston in 1896, was won at an average speed of 43.1 km / h. Racing in the United States became popular two years later, with the opening of 4-km brick-surfaced Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana. Later on, the speeds of the cars increased and the condition of road improve as well, so cars designers began designing cars specially to be raced.

Racing cars now fall into two broad categories. First are open-wheeled vehicles, in which the wheels are not under fenders. The other categories of racing cars are closed-wheeled with an enclosed cockpit. Automobile racing was seen only in the United States and continental Europe until the 1930's. Then the popularity of the sport began to spread. As the European countries wanted to show off their empires, races were held in Italian and French African colonial outposts, such as Tripoli, Libya, and Casablanca, Morocco.

Smaller nations, such as Monaco, San Marino, and Macau, also wanted the prestige and status by being part of racing. Throughout the mid-20th century the sport continued to grow, with interest in the F 1 races (strongest outside the United States), and interest in Indy car racing strongest within the United States. In the 1950's sports car racing became increasingly popular. By the 1980's, many automobile races were televised, and by the 1990's automobile racing was ranked as one of the major spectator sports in the world. Today automobile racing is a major sport in most large nations and in some countries, such as England, it is also a major industry. (In England, a majority of the single-seat, open-wheeled F 1 race cars are built in the United Kingdom, contributing significantly to the British economy.) Concerning the relation between the two major racing cars: F 1 and Indy car, Formula racing, which is governed by FIA, is involved.

The organization is located in Paris, France, and is the international governing body for most of the worldwide automobile racing, including almost all racing outside the United States. Formula One (F 1) racing-the most important form of racing outside the United States-is considered the highest form of single-seat racing cars, because of its special construction and ultimate speed. Go through automobile racing history, there were no restrictions on technological development, so F 1 cars were the most sophisticated, most technologically advanced racing vehicles possible. Also, the F 1 result determined the winner of The World Championship of Drivers each year.

In 1958, an F 1 Constructors' Championship was established to rival the World Manufacturers' Championship, a competition held in sports-car racing. These championships are based on race results, but reward the companies that build race cars, rather than rewarding drivers. Alternatively, one reason F 1 racing fails to have the same appeal in the United States as it does elsewhere in the world, is that there is a rival form of single-seat racing in the United States, called Indy car racing, which were developed after the establishment in 1911 of the Indianapolis 500. The cars used in Indy car racing are no only operated at the Indianapolis 500 race, but also at a series of Indy car races in the United States, and occasionally at overseas races.

Today, the Indy car design is somewhat changed to be more like to F 1 cars designs, and soon Indy car races became races on both, the oval circuits and road courses. Because of these changes, Indy car designs became as sophisticated as any F 1 car. The biggest problem in automobile racing is the costs of racing competitively. Drivers receive large sums of money from team owners, and the cost of building a car capable of winning is often massive, up to several hundred thousand dollars.

To win a racing series, in the Indy car championship or the Winston Cup, requires several million dollars-for salaries; construction; engine-rental, and maintenance payments, and other related costs. With revenues from large corporate sponsorships, the sale of television broadcast rights, and the selling of public stock and other financial procedures, creating a team capable of winning is possible. Another issue is the dizzying ly fast rate of technological change possible in automobile racing. Early in the sport's development, race cars changed gradually, often with years intervening between significant innovations. Over time, however, technological change accelerated, as it became increasingly common for competitors to actively seek technological superiority under a limited time span.

This search is legal, but costly, as research, technical staff, and implementing change itself (requiring the physical construction of new cars or components) add a great deal to the cost of running a race car. A good competition car preparation starts in an armchair, or a bath tub, or wherever it is that the racers do their best thinking, because thought and planning are probably the most important elements of successful and enjoyable participation in any form of car racing. Although car racing may seem to be a short process of cars competing around a racetrack, excitement, a need for speed and concentration is also involved. Each bend and every round, tests the skills of the drivers, the speed capabilities of the vehicles, and the endurance of both.