Racing cars began soon after the launch of petrol-fuelled cars in the nineteenth century. The first race was organized by a Paris magazine Le Petit Journal in 1894, to determine the best performers. A year later, the first real race was staged from Paris to Bordeaux, in France. International racing began with the Gordon Bennett Cup in auto racing. Chicago was the venue for the first auto race in the United States in 1895. It was the French who dominated the auto racing scene and the French automobile club ACF staged a number of major international races, usually from or to Paris, connecting with another major city in Europe or France. There are several kinds of auto racing the most well known being single-seater racing, in which specifically designed cars are used. In these cars, the wheels are not covered, and there are aerofoil wings in the front and rear to improve the grip of the car on the racetrack. These races are held on specially designed closed circuits or on special street circuits that are closed for the duration of the event. The top series is the World Rally Championship (WRC), but there also regional championships and many countries have their own national championships. There are also many smaller, club-level categories of rallies which are popular with amateurs, making up the ""grass roots"" of motor sports. The other kind of single-seater racing is kart racing. In this the small but powerful go-karts pick up speed quickly on the small tracks. So many racing drivers of today started by driving karts as it is the cheapest way to get into auto racing. It has made racing so much more accessible. Today, it is also a fully-fledged international sport in its own right. Touring car racing is a style of road racing that is run with production-derived racecars. The American variant of touring car racing is called stock car racing. In drag racing, mostly popular in the United States, the objective is to complete a certain distance, traditionally a quarter of a mile, in the shortest possible time. Whatever the kind of auto racing, the thrill lies in the speed. |
