‘More than 90% of American racecar drivers are oval track specialists,’
says racer-blogger Stephen Cox.
A brief review of active racetracks indicates that in the United States, ovals outnumber road courses by a margin of a little more than nine to one. Of course, racetracks open and close frequently, car counts vary, and a few competitors race on both types of courses. But generally speaking, the numbers don’t lie. By an overwhelming margin of more than 90%, the average American race...
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CALDER’S BMW BATMOBILE ART CAR: AMELIA ISLAND
BMWs first Art Car, Alexander Calder's 3.0 CSL Batmobile GT racer, will headline
2014 Amelia Concours' Batmobile Class.
BMW's Art Cars debuted to the public in Paris at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at the Louvre in May 1975. It was an elegant creative alliance of racer and art auctioneer Herve Poulain and American sculptor Alexander Calder mixed with the foresight of BMW Motorsport chief Jochen Neerpasch. Calder started with a scale model of the Batmobile, cloaking it in broad swat...
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CAMARO Z/28: MAY THE (DOWN) FORCE BE WITH YOU!
Chevrolet mates racecar downforce with its ultimate road & track Camaro.
When it comes to keeping its tail on the track, the ‘14 Camaro Z/28 manages airflow like few other production vehicles, generating downforce like a racecar for high-speed stability and greater cornering capability. Numerous modifications were made to the exterior, compared to the Camaro SS, with new and revised content developed to improve aerodynamics, powertrain cooling and brake-system cooling. They help the Z/28...
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SLOT CAR RACING: AMERICA’S LOST HOBBY!
Stephen Cox has figured out what’s wrong with America’s youth today: They don’t race slot cars anymore!
Racing HO scale Aurora AFX slot cars with the greatest man I’ve ever known – my Dad – in our garage in the summer of 1969 taught me pretty much everything I needed to get through life. After slot car racing, formal education was anti-climactic. Because of slot car racing, I could identify a Mustang, Camaro or Corvette on sight. I knew Trans-Am from Can-Am. I learned that the Indy 500 is...
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SHORT TRACK RACING: MIDWEST MAYHEM!
Stephen Cox chats with National Short Track Championship promoter,
Gregg McKarns.
For 48 years, race fans have sojourned to Rockford Speedway in northern Illinois to watch the finest short track stock car drivers in the world compete for the national title. Rockford is the ultimate bullring. Built in 1948, the speedway remains the oldest continuously operated sports venue in the region. Rockford's quarter-mile, high-banked oval has graduated as many racing greats as any racetrack on th...
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POLE SITTERS: DON’T GET RESPECT ANYMORE!
Race series could prevent so many of their own problems if they would simply allow the pole sitter to do his job, blogs Stephen Cox.
Every driver's meeting across the country is plagued with endless speeches dictating what the drivers must do at the start of the race. Here are a few of the pre-race instructions I've been given just over my past twenty races or so:
•You can accelerate once you reach the white stripe on the asphalt.
•You must accelerate simultaneously – as if you could driv...
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WINCHESTER SPEEDWAY: WORLD’S FASTEST HALF-MILE!
Stephen Cox blogs about one of our great racetracks you’ve probably never seen.
In the spring of 1914, Indiana farmer Frank Funk had an idea. This whole newfangled automobile thing seemed to be catching on. Lots of folks were racing them. Carl Fisher had recently built a big oval near Indianapolis and scads of people were paying to see his 500-mile race every year.
Funk had made good money in farming. He had plenty of acreage, and his fields, just west of the small town of Winchester, did...
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RACING WISDOM: FIVE EASY PIECES!
Words of wisdom from blogger-racer Stephen Cox that he’s never forgotten.
Number Five - “Wanna win? You need a trailer like that.”
So said a racing friend in the summer of 1986 at Bloomington Speedway. We were walking past a huge semi-trailer loaded with two spare chassis, half a dozen engines and a crew of ten mechanics. It belonged to some teenager named Jeff Gordon who was supposed to be the next big thing in racing. We all know how that turned out!
Nevertheless, I was a slow learner....
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INDYCAR & LUCA FILIPPI: A BRIGHT NEW STAR!
Stephen Cox blogs about what Luca Filippi means for open-wheel racing.
Perhaps I'm the lone voice in the wilderness on this, but I was very impressed with Luca Filippi's IndyCar debut at Mid-Ohio last week. He was fantastic in qualifying. Had he not been penalized, Filippi could have had a starting spot in the first three rows; been a genuine threat on race day.
He ran a conservative, nearly mistake-free race and moved from dead last to as high as 11th during the event. Nearly all of his p...
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MILWAUKEE MILE: WORLD CAPITAL OF RACING?
You may not have heard about this track, but just about every great American driver in history has raced here!
Most enthusiasts have seen the Milwaukee Mile on TV, even if you haven't been there in person. But The Mile deserves a spot on my list (10 Greatest Race Tracks) because there's something special about driving on a racetrack that has hosted every great American driver in history. The Milwaukee Mile is virtually alone in staking that claim.
Indy can't make that claim. Built in 1909,...
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