Popular Racing Competitions
The 10 most important car events
Choosing the ten most important car events is complicated. Many races or automobile events are disputed on the professional scene so it is not easy to choose. Sand, sweat, gasoline, rubber, resistance, effort, mysticism … But if they have something in common all of them is the epic push for triumph.
The Dakar: The Queen of the Desert
Undoubtedly, the Dakar Rally, known for a few years simply as Dakar, is the toughest car competition on the planet. Two weeks in which machines and pilots give the maximum of themselves stage after stage in many cases reaching exhaustion and sometimes, unfortunately, death.
Despite being born with an amateur character, the hardness and fame of the Dakar attracted the attention of the big brands and in recent years the efforts of Mitsubishi, Volkswagen or BMW have put the Dakar back on the radar of all fans. Every January, the Dakar becomes the first major sporting event of the year.
24 hours of Le Mans: to Arrive First, you Must First Arrive
A new example of how machines and pilots are taken to the limit. You could say that the race played in the semi-permanent layout of La Sarthe is a 24-hour sprint in which only those machines and equipment that are capable of overcoming any impediment, win.
56 participants, divided into four different classes, fighting against their rivals and against themselves. But the difficulties do not end there on the road. If something characterizes the 24 hours of Le Mans is the competition in the middle of the night that turns every overtaking and every dubbing into a risk situation. It is useless to run meaningless as one of the rules establishes that in order to be classified, it is mandatory to cross the finish line.
500 Miles from Indianapolis: The Great American Event
33 riders rolling at almost 400 km / h. That’s how simple the 500 miles of Indianapolis are played in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Indy500, as it is also known, is an appointment that until the arrival of the crisis normally lasted a month. During the first three weekends, the pilots sharpened their weapons and tried to qualify to finally play it in the race.
As a curiosity, this circuit still maintains a yard, the brickyard, of its original brick layout which serves to delimit the finish line. In 2011, the centenary of the first edition was celebrated, back in 1911, the 95th edition of the Indy 500 being played.
Monte Carlo Rally: When Snow and Asphalt Come Together
Without a doubt, the most famous rally in the world. Created in 1911 by the president of the Sport Club Velocipedique et Automobile de Monaco, Anthony Noghes (also creator of the Monte Carlo circuit), the Monte Carlo Rally was born as a test that linked different parts of Europe with the capital of the principality. In those first editions, the one that first arrived did not cross the finish line, but other factors such as the state of the vehicle were taken into account.
After many editions being one of the stars of the World Rally Championship, the prohibition of running at night made the rally lose part of its charm. Even disappearing from the World Rally calendar (in 2010 and 2011). Luckily someone within the FIA has realized that rallies without Monte Carlo are not the same and Monte Carlo returned to the World Cup this year.
Monte Carlo Grand Prix:
Glamor and Formula 1 in the streets of the principality created by Anthony Noghes, the Monaco Grand Prix, is the only event in the Formula 1 World Championship that has been present in each and every edition. The Monegasque came up with the fantastic idea of creating a race on the narrow slide that make up the streets of the Principality of Monaco. For the pilots the Monaco Grand Prix is a must in their careers, but once enjoyed, the narrowness begins to be uncomfortable.
The Monte Carlo circuit is also one of the most complicated of the season. It does not allow a single error and when these occur, it means goodbye. Winning is one of the maximum glories for a Formula 1 driver, but to get it first you have to suffer. We continue with the review of the 10 competitions that every great fan, who boasts of being, the world of competition should love, follow and vibrate. If in the first part we focused on the best-known races, now it is the turn of others less known but that represents milestones within the car season.
Daytona 500: the NASCAR Show
The 24 hours of Daytona are the first race of the North American automobile calendar but it is another test disputed in the same circuit, the Daytona 500, the one that takes good part of the fame. The category is to blame since the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the competition with most North American fans.
43 vehicles rolling in the fastest pure oval on the planet, along with Talladega.
A mixture of emotion that usually ends up deciding in the last laps as long as a Big One, a big accident with many vehicles involved, does not avoid it. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Michael Waltrip, Richard Petty are some of the great NASCAR drivers who have won the Daytona 500. But Daytona also has its black history since Dale Earnhardt passed away there in 2001.
24 hours of Nürburgring:
Surviving the Green Hell Sir Jackie Stewart baptized the northern ring of Nürburgring, also known as the Nordschleife, as the Green Hell. A roller coaster of 20 kilometers in length whose asphalt is full of graffiti as if it were a high end of a cycling stage. If 24 hours is the most famous endurance race on the planet, the 24 hours of Nürburgring are the toughest, both for machines and pilots. A hell full of traps as more than 200 cars start the race which makes the best spend a good part of the race surpassing rivals on a track that does not allow any kind of error.
Pikes Peak:
The race to the clouds The mountains of Colorado, USA, serve as the setting for one of the most particular tests on the motor planet, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. A mountain pass that begins at 2,866 meters above sea level to reach 1,435 higher, up to 4,301 meters. A special of 19,983 meters in length and 156 curves that since 2012 is disputed only on asphalt (until now mixed asphalt with gravel).
Another feature of Pikes Peak is the vehicles that participate in them. Without limitations of any kind, the candidates for the victory in this test far exceed 1,000 CV. All so that the ascent, and the lack of oxygen, does not limit the performance of the vehicle in the least. Until this year, the test record was located above the 10-minute barrier but the arrival of the asphalt has made those times a thing of the past.