Another reason NA$CAR looks sissy.

[avenue]

http://www.radiolab.org/2011/aug/23/

here's a interesting, longer, listen about games (or racing, in the context of this thread).

point being, the speech in the VS commercial and the passion of the chess player from RadioLab applies to all games/racing/sport, even nascar/rally/martial arts/lawnmower racing and, yes, chess.

 

[TeeCat]

I think bicycle racing is incredibly exciting. I'd guess most folks on the forum, and in general, find watching dudes in funny clothes riding bicycles for 6+ hours to see who crosses the line first is a waste of time. But, the motor race and the bicycle race have a lot in common.

They both involve complex tactics, teamwork, patience, drafting, pacing, perfect timing, energy conservation, alliances amongst opponents, and hopefully sportsmanship. Too, they both involve drama, unexpected mid game changes, and even similar commentary. Adding up all these variables makes for an exciting race. But, it only makes sense if you know what you're watching.

VS. gets it. This commercial gives goose bumps.

avenue. Former USAC Mid-Atlantic District crit, time trial, and track rider here. And I think bbillington on here may still be competing, actually. I raced for five seasons and gave it up when it got to be too much like a job, but I still have too many machines. Gotta start riding for fun again this year, though.

Anyway, I agree... lots of similarities with motorsport road racing.

TC

 

[avenue]

I raced for a few seasons and hope to get back into group riding for fun, too. Racing to simply get a Cat. upgrade took some of the fun out of TuesdayNight/Weekend Worlds type rides.

I draw the bicycle/motorsport parallel to show that nascar, while it might be boring to me and others, probably has way more to spark interest than left turns for others. Just like the never ending Harley VS. The Others argument, it seems arguing for one style of racing over another never really has a widely accepted resolution.

different stokes.

 

[jd750ace]

NASCAR sucks because it is basically billboard racing. Car of Tomorrow standards, that's Communist racing (sameness). The manufacturers have not had a part of a STOCK car going around the track since about 1987, Speed Channel is absolutely POISIONED with the "behind the scenes" crap all week long. Who the hell can get excited to watch, what, 37 friggin races in a season? what do they get paid now? 135,000.00 to place 30th? It's as theatrical as wrestling, the original homo-erotic soap opera!
Pay the top 5 drivers, and only 10 deep for points. Less than 105% of top lap time don't run, and drive a REAL DAMN CAR that normal human beings can buy.
The numbers are a bit off, but production based motorcycle racing, AMA, WSB, and Supercross, are the best shows going. The manufacturers of stuff you can BUY are out there racing, improving the product, and they want to win. WRC would be better with more brands, and F-1 is about budgets.

That's all I'm sayin. Ride Safe

 

[1974jh5]

I must say the absolute worst crap I have ever watched was that damn world poker championship stuff. I refuse to dirty my brain with that junk ever again.

jd750ace mentioned the COT. Here's the deal in road racing: there are spec classes and no I don't mean Spec Miata (also known as Smash Miata or Spec Pinata). I'm thinking like the old Formula Ford etc where the cars are rigidly controlled. The best part of that is you remove the dollars and cents from the equation and now it's sheer driver skill, if you are 'in the know' it's fascinating and thrilling to watch. Formula Vee is very popular in SCCA for that reason.

 

[Downeaster]

What you said, jd750ace, what you said.

BTW, does the "jd750" part of your handle refer to The Greatest Compact Diesel Ever Built? (Why, yes, now that you ask, I DO have one... )

 

[jd750ace]

I must say the absolute worst crap I have ever watched was that damn world poker championship stuff. I refuse to dirty my brain with that junk ever again.

jd750ace mentioned the COT. Here's the deal in road racing: there are spec classes and no I don't mean Spec Miata (also known as Smash Miata or Spec Pinata). I'm thinking like the old Formula Ford etc where the cars are rigidly controlled. The best part of that is you remove the dollars and cents from the equation and now it's sheer driver skill, if you are 'in the know' it's fascinating and thrilling to watch. Formula Vee is very popular in SCCA for that reason.

You can have a spec class. Hell I enjoyed the BMW cup in AMA immensely a couple years back. All bikes equipped and tuned exactly the same. You could twist on the boingers, mess with the tire pressure, and move the controls around. That was it, and the racing was superb. That being said, nobody was trying to convince anyone that they were anything other than very talented riders on same spec bikes.

 

[jd750ace]

What you said, jd750ace, what you said.

BTW, does the "jd750" part of your handle refer to The Greatest Compact Diesel Ever Built? (Why, yes, now that you ask, I DO have one... )

Actually jd750ace comes from a picture caption of me with my 1999 Honda 750 ACE that someone posted. It was supposed to be JD's 750 ACE, but got typed just as my screen name.
I don't know how much of this place is "down east", but I'm currently working in Auburn, but live in Texas. Heading back this afternoon for a week, but maybe when I get back, we can find each other for a cold one and check out your project.

 

[Poverty]

 

[1974jh5]

Yeah, I find that surprising too. The fans will stay in the stands but the cars come off the track. Once the rain stops, then the track has to be dried with that jet dryer that Juan Pablo nailed; only then can the racing begin again. I guess that's because they don't have wipers.

Someone said once (dunno if it's someone on this forum) that it was because there was no way to make a 3500 pound 750HP car handle in the rain. Yeah. Right. Tell that to the Aussie V8 Supercar guys.

 

[ReycleBill]

When I was a kid my Daddy and uncles dragged me and my cousins all over the Southeast to NASCAR races from the late 1950s until the 1970s. We met and talked with guys like Lee Petty (Richard Petty's daddy) Jr Johnson. Fred Lorenzin, Fred Turner, the Allison Brothers, Cale and Leroy Yarborough (not brothers) Ned Jarret, David Pearson, Fireball Roberts and dozens of others. I saw the very first race at Talladaga.

I played in and on their race cars which were, for the most part very haphazardly constructed. Sometimes Daddy and my uncles would get drunk and pull the family station wagons onto the track with them. Once he even outrun the racers but they wouldn't give him the prize 'cause he hadn't paid an entry fee.

The no racing in the rain thing actually goes back to NASCAR's earliest days in the Southeastern US when most of their races were on red clay dirt tracks that would become so sloppy they were impossible to drive on in just a few laps of rain (Ever seen mud boggers with racing slicks? Me neither.) and would cover the fans with tons of mud (bad for business). Radiators would clog with mud and overheat the engines until they literally exploded or seized up. Remember, those old tracks were mostly 1/8 to 1/4 mile around and dug out like an oval farm pond. (Some might have been farm ponds before they were race tracks as I've actually seen cows wander onto the track.) The tracks and infields literally flooded with every thunderstorm and would have to be evacuated.

Eventually NASCAR learned about pavement and drain tiles but they never learned how to put on a set of rain tires.

Rightly or wrongly, old habits die hard. My lifelong interest in NASCAR pretty much died with restrictor plates and when it went national and all the races were sanitized for the TV viewing audience.

 

[1974jh5]

Red clay is definitely nasty when wet. It can be impossible to stand on, let alone drive, and on dirt bikes the knobbies would pack so quickly they immediately became slicks. It wasn't unusual to come out of a tight woods section onto a dirt road, take off wide open and get smacked in the back of the head by huge blobs of red clay flinging off the spinning rear wheel. Let's not forget the huge chunks sailing up from the front tire, that usually happened at 40 MPH or so. Loved getting that crap on my goggles, tearoffs and Roll Offs (my favorite) were a must.

It also sticks everywhere. One top off road racer weighed his bike after a nasty red clay race, it had picked up 35 pounds of mud. On a bike/rider combined weight of ~500 pounds, that is a significant amount. We used to spray that PAM cooking oil under the fenders, wax the tops of the fenders so they'd be slick, hose the tires down with Armor All or silicone spray, stuff dense foam into the gaps between the skid plate and engine along with anywhere else that might collect mud all in an effort to cut down on the buildup.

But about asphalt racing in the rain: with all the money they rake in you'd think NA$CAR would have gotten around all that by now. Oh, well.

 

[ReycleBill]

But about asphalt racing in the rain: with all the money they rake in you'd think NA$CAR would have gotten around all that by now. Oh, well.

So you would have thought. Like I said, "old habits die hard." And rarely for good reasons.

 

[hooktool]

They do race the road courses in the rain-IF it rains. They have tires and windshield wipers.

John

 

[1974jh5]

Okay, so why don't they run the ovals in the rain? Seriously, want to know. If they have the eqt and tires for road race in the wet, why can't they transfer that know how to the ovals? before anyone says anything, remember that the 24 hour Daytona sports car race runs rain or shine and they use part of the banked oval.

 

[ReycleBill]

Okay, so why don't they run the ovals in the rain? Seriously, want to know. If they have the eqt and tires for road race in the wet, why can't they transfer that know how to the ovals? before anyone says anything, remember that the 24 hour Daytona sports car race runs rain or shine and they use part of the banked oval.

Because old habits die hard and rarely for the right reasons.

 

[pregrid]

In the spirit of the title of this thread: Ran across this picture of Kyle and Richard obviously from some time ago. I'm still a Nascar fan but not so much as I used to, but this pic had me gigglin'. Makes you wonder 'bout Kyle's leanin's, if you get my drift......

 

[1974jh5]

 

[No_Harley_Here]

AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! That's awesome, I'm not into nasacar but I have been to a race and after the 3rd lap it got boring. To a certain extent I like drag racing but mainly between street cars, 4cyl, V6 and V8's. Was big into the illegal street racing until I was caught not racing one night but I was a "spectator". I was filed as one and next time they would take my car. That same night they confiscated 23 cars between racers and second offense spectators. So needless to say I got out of it soon after that.

 

[Poverty]

Hahahah I got a 200$ spectator fine once not 15 mins after my last run .. I was happy with that vs getting nailed on the line .. I have since moved on to canyon running .. off in the distant nowhere ..