Steve Simpson - How To: Be a Race Fan

In recent years, being a race fan in America has been synonymous to being a NASCAR fan. It's the NBA, NFL and MLB of auto racing (though, personally I think it's more like the NHL). Those “ball” sports machines are all-American; American sports with American athletes for American audiences. Each has an export version like CFL, WFL, Japanese baseball. But the core of the sport is American. NASCAR, though, is an attempt to American-ize a sport with a worldwide heritage.

With a 40+ week schedule and oodles of TV coverage, being a NASCAR fan is relatively easy. Being a fully developed race fan takes a little more work. As a guy who follows -- to one degree or another – six or seven major racing series, along with some of the ladder or feeder series, I've developed a few strategies for boosting my enjoyment. Here are a few ways for a non-fan to improve casual forays into racing, or for the interested to go a little deeper. This is not a step-by-step guide. Rather, it s a look at racing's characteristics, and ways to follow them.

Many people know racing like they know politics. The pol's sound byte carries no context, no real meaning. So, too, is the news clip of a race or the shot of the winners. They are devoid of the true sense of a race or an entire season. It seems the only in-depth coverage comes during a scandal or fiery crash.

Dig deeper and racing can have the action of football, the long-arching strategy of baseball and the back-and-forth rhythm of basketball.

Speed

This might seem like a no-brainer. But it truly deserves our attention. Racing is about going fast, no doubt. But it's equally about when NOT to go fast. Oval racing is fast racing with fast turns; throttles hold close to 100%. Road racing is all about the turns. And turns are all about going fast as long before a turn as possible, working the turn, then exiting as fast as possible. Turns can provide some of the best action as speed changes.

Speed also depends on the type of machines racing. Indy racing cars can fly at more than 230 mph, completing a lap of the 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 35 to 40 seconds. NASCAR vehicles will climb to just over 200 mph. The CR06 and DBR9s Aston Martins of American Le Mans will jump into the upper 100s.

Most racing series include a single type or class of vehicle, so speeds are fairly evenly match. A couple series (American Le Mans and Grand Am in this country) run multiple classes of cars at the same time. High-speed prototype cars mix it up with lower speed street-style cars.

Technology

Race cars are the packaging of engines, tires and chassis in combinations dictated by race series authorities. A few series pit identical cars against each other, such as IROC and A1GP. Most offer a set of vehicle weight, engine displacement and design parameters to guide car development. Legends are created when a manufacturer or team gets the combination just right. Ferrari, Porsche, Ford, Subaru, Toyota, Honda, Jaguar all have worked the adage “Race on Sunday. Sell on Monday” to perfection.

Specialists like Shelby, McLaren, Jim Hall's Chaparrals, Panoz, Scarabs and others innovated to race. They made their mark by focusing on racing for the sake of racing.

Currently, manufacturer’s battles are fought at the front of Formula 1 (Ferrari, Renault, Mercedes/McLaren), American Le Mans (Audi, Porsche, Corvette, Aston Martin) and NASCAR (Chevy, Dodge).

The IRL provided an engine battle between Chevy, Toyota and Honda until 2006 when Honda became the sole provider of powerplants. In this case, chassis and chassis configurations (or setups) became the battle ground. Even that battle,though, was tempered as the Dallara chassis won favor over the Panoz superstructure.

Fuel, oddly enough, has become a new feature of racing. In 2007, the IRL will run on 100% ethanol, doing away with the traditional methanol/ethanol blend. The switch is a posthumous tribute to Paul Dana’s efforts on behalf of the Ethanol Board, whose untimely death at Homestead in early 2006 kept him from seeing the all-ethanol field. And, the American Le Mans Series has announced that they’ll run on an ethanol blend starting this year.

Diesel has popped up as another new fuel for racing. Long thought be a non-op for racing because of its lower output, particularly at lower revs, diesel may well be the next technological battleground. Audi fields their R10 TDI (turbo diesel) race car in American Le Mans racing, taking their class. After dominating the series for seven or eight years with “regular” fuel, they turned more than a few heads by jumping to the front under diesel power. Peugot follows suit in 2007. I also read recently that a diesel-powered speedster is competing on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Teams and Owners

Racing is a team sport. To the casual observer, that’s not always evident. Sure, we see the pit crews during stops. But, it reaches beyond that. It often encompasses several drivers of various skill levels, even several racing series. Some series have so-called “factory teams”, literally fielded by the automobile manufacturers. Scuderia Ferrari in Formula 1, Audi Sport North America in ALMS, Subaru World Rally Team in World Rally are all developed, backed and managed by the vehicles’ manufacturers. The opposite of the factory team is the privateer. Red Bull fields Ferraris in Formula 1, Alex Job runs Porsches in ALMS and Stobart Motorsports owns Fords for World Rally. Some series feature strictly privateer entries, such as Champ Car and IRL.

Many teams carry the team owner’s moniker, many of which are household names like Penske, Andretti-Green, Newman Haas (as in Paul Newman), Foyt, Rahal Letterman, Childress. Others carry more “corporate” names like Prodrive, Pescarolo and Red Bull.

Roger Penske, a personal favorite, started owning and managing teams after a brief racing career. In recent years, he has fielded teams in IRL, ALMS and NASCAR. In 2006, his IRL and ALMS teams took top honors with Sam Hornish taking the IRL drivers title (and the Indy 500), and Penske’s Porsche partner cars taking class titles in ALMS.

Teams take on a new meaning when you look at series that run multi-driver races. Two, three and four drives share the responsibilities for winning a race. They drive in “stints” of an hour or two, switching places, and swapping their seat cushions. It can make for some interesting pit stops.

Venues

The location of each races lends itself to the excitement. And each venue consists of three elements: the overall physical track, individual sections or aspects of the track, and the setting around the track. Tracks fall into several broad categories: ovals, road circuits and city circuits.

Ovals refer to tracks that are ovals, or closely refer ovals. Larger ovals, often called “super speedways”, have four distinct corners with “short chutes” between the first and second, and third and fourth turns. Long, flat straightaways let the cars really open up. The 2.5 mile oval at Indianapolis is said to be one of the toughest race courses anywhere, despite its rather simplistic appearance. Smaller ovals typically reduce race speeds, with some featuring just a single turn on each end of the raceway. Races are often conducted among tightly packed cars, sometimes running 3 or 4 wide in turns, as little other opportunity to pass exists. “Short track” ovals, typically a mile long (give or take a quarter mile) provide near-constant turning. The tri-oval modification provides effectively three straightaways and 3 turns of varying degrees.

Road circuits provide a break in the “turn left” syndrome endemic in recent American racing, and have deep roots in racing, as well. Purpose-built road courses provide a permanent, fixed route for races. Some are cut into the local terrain, like Germany’s mammoth 14-mile Nurburgring or Wisconsin’s narrow Road America. Others are laid over manufactured dips and rises, like Utah’s Miller Motorsports Park or Bahrain’s new Formula 1 course. Portions of these tracks carry descriptive names. Road America’s tree-lined Thunder Alley. At Nurburgring, it’s the harrowing Green Hell. Or, my personal favorite is Laguna Seca’s Cork Screw, a pair of quick ess turns that start at the top of a hill from a blind curve, and descend two stories.

City courses are temporary tracks laid out over city streets. Host communities roll out the red carpet and line their streets with concrete barricades topped with chainlink fence. Monte Carlo and Long Beach are two well-established city circuits, each with their own flair. The biggest challenge to this type of course is the roadbed itself. Manholes, differing pavements and uneven surfaces wreak havoc on race cars.

Converted venues, like Sebring, Homestead and Belle Isle, fall somewhere between the purpose-built and city street circuits. Sebring, for example, has been running races at an abandoned airfield for the last 40-odd years.

Drivers

At the end of the race, it’s the driver who drinks the milk, pops the champagne, kisses the girl, climbs the fence, spins the tires, does a backflip and wears the laurel wreath. Drivers are, arguably, the best known part of racing. Their winning, their driving, their fits, their flairs, their antics and their tempers. Some of their names are household, sometimes legendary. Foyt, Unser, Andretti and Earnhardt have each given us multiple generations of drivers. Gordon, Schumacher, Tracy, Bourdais, Castroneves and Rice have give us memories in recent years.

One of the quick criticisms non-fans lob is that racing isn’t a sport so drivers aren’t athletes. This ignores a simple reality; professional race drivers are among the most fit, highest endurance athletes in any sport. One of the annual Top Athlete competitions usual has a driver at the top of the competition. They’re accustomed to holding a shaking, bouncing vehicle rock steady for hours at a time. Many shed 10 to 15 pounds in fluids every race. They do it all without a change of downs or innings, without a stretch, heck, even without a halftime! These guys and girls are world-class cyclists, long-distance runners and power lifters.

OK, now that that’s been put to rest, let’s consider the drivers’ appeal. Some are popular for their sheer ability to win; it’s easy to love a winner. Others are outwardly competitive, ready to risk it all for a win. They aren’t afraid to mix it up or even rough up an opponent to gain ground. The flip side are the “gentleman drivers”, the ones who drive hard but never at the expense of others. Then there are the one who seem to love the fans and love the race.

Michael Schumacher, Paul Tracy, Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves are contemporary examples of each style. Schumacher took seven straight Formula 1 titles on his own technical merit and the merit of his Ferrari-powered ride. There’s no doubt that Schumie is a talented driver. Paul Tracy lives the “others be damned” attitude in the way he drives. He’s earned his “Bad Boy” title at the expense of others. Tony Kanaan drives hard, drives fast and drives clean. It’s evident in his 2004 IRL season when he finished every lap run. Then there’s one of my personal favorites Castroneves. He loves what he does and want to help others, including the fans, enjoy it.

The up-and-comers also provide a reason to keep up on things. Once you start following a series, you can begin to identify tomorrow’s stars. They qualify well, set speed records or are always in contention. Like Danica Patrick and Marco Andretti in Indy cars. Like AJ Allmendinger or Justin Wilson in Champ Car. Keep an eye on them now, and you might be able to look back to say “I remember when...”.

Now Start Following Racing

Football's easy to follow. Turn on the TV any Saturday or Sunday in the fall and choose your game. Cross-check box scores within games to get "your team's" score if they're not being broadcast. Tune or log on to any sports channel or Web site for all the news you can handle.

Following auto racing requires a little more effort. NASCAR aside, very little of the racing worlds gets live air play. It's growing, for various reasons. But, you'll have to work at it. Check the broadcast schedules for a few of the series listed here. I try to keep a current calendar of my favorites on this site. Just check the Calendar section. Here are a couple ways to help you get the most out of watching fast cars.

First, watch for the racing, not the accidents. It's human nature, but we want to see the pile up or crash. This mentality gives race promoters reasons to "pump up the action." That's fine for hockey or Pro Wrestling. At 200 mph, though, it's deadly. Please don't feed this "need for greed". Support true "need for speed" by cheering those teams, drivers, series and venues that promote safe driving.

Next, learn the basics of racing. Develop a working understanding of braking and cornering, of tires and traction, and of race strategy. Keep in mind that, in some racing, driving slow well is as important as driving fast well. The ability to brake at precisely the right moment and cut through corners at precisely the right arc makes or breaks a driver's day.

Video games actually provide a good way to get a feel for the principles of racing. Take a little time to read the instructions for racing. For example, the Licensing sections of Gran Turismo games provide a great tutorial on racing.