What's The Biggest Reason You Cheer For A Driver?

[AFColt]

When you're cheering for a driver to do well, what's the biggest reason? Talent? Personality? Sponsorship? Team Affiliation? Just curious to see why people cheer for who they cheer for.

I know you can have multiple reasons to cheer for any driver; try to select the biggest one, in your opinion.

[irloyal]

Color of his/her helmet and whether they drive one of my lucky numbers.

[3Paige14]

Personality. I like rooting for drivers with likable personalities.

[nezy37]

driving style. I like watching drivers that are agressive and go for the win rather than play it safe and settle for points, talent matters too because some like Viso just crash out all the time.

I also like drivers that I like personality wise. With racing, and other individual sports I usually don't get too tied up in who wins or not. I just like a good race, fight, or tournament, but guys with aggressive styles make for an interesting race.

[open wheeler]

Talent. Don't mind if they have an abrasive personality. Adds to the sport. Love AJ but, can't say I like him.

[Dave Mc]

Talent. I think TK is the best all-round driver but lacks the cars.

Personality has its effects, too.
I'd probably like Dixon more but he comes across as a bit snobbish, so it's hard to appreciate him.
I forgive Helio for stuff because he's just a nice guy.
But he's a nice guy who has the talent to win races.

If it was just personality, Hinchcliffe would be my hero.
His mom must have warmed bottles in a microwave next to his crib.
That boy's just different.

[porscheman]

I chose personality but really it's attitude which of course is a large part of personality.



Porscheman

[uncommonsense52]

There's a lot of things that factor into what drivers I like.

My favorite driver is Will Power. The first reason is not going to make me many friends around here, but it's because I feel like he was loyal to ChampCar, which was my favorite series. (I'm not looking to start a split debate. I liked ChampCar better is all I'm saying here. Whether at the point Power was in the series it was superior or not isn't what I'm after.)

Plus, I'm a sucker for a good pun, and Will Power is about as awesome as it gets for a racecar driver.

Actually, I'm pretty much loyal to all drivers who stuck it out in ChampCar.

Also, likeable personalities. Simona and Hinchcliffe are just fun to watch and fun to hear talk.

People I don't like are the older drivers that left CART for the IRL back in the early 2000's. Again, not looking for a split debate, just how I feel and how I choose my favorites. Both Ganassi guys (and Chip himself), Castroneves, Penske, etc. etc.

Kanaan is exempt from the "left CART" rule because he's fun. =D

[Big Mo]

Funny. I voted personalities as the biggest factor. And yet, my favorite driver in another series that I barely follow is one Kyle Busch. Ha ha ha ha ha. I guess it's a sadistic like; those race fans hate him so I therefore like to see him get everyone so upset. Kinda like that about Paul Tracy.

[Mikefive]

Talent can be appreciated. But I can't cheer for someone who is a ****. I voted Personality.

There's another factor that wasn't brought up... Obstacles. When a driver has more to overcome than most to achieve success, I am drawn to cheer for them. The females are good examples.

Edit... For the record, the ****'d out word is t-u-r-d. The censors are harsh!

[cheeseczar]

Talent. Don't mind if they have an abrasive personality. Adds to the sport. Love AJ but, can't say I like him.

Well THAT explains a lot.

[RogerRamjet]

Somebody better vote nationality or all the talk about American Drivers over the past 2 decades will look like a bunch of hot air

[Big Mo]

Somebody better vote nationality or all the talk about American Drivers over the past 2 decades will look like a bunch of hot air

Not necessarily. That would be my second highest rated factor in choosing a driver. But a Wheldon is going to beat out a Buddy Rice in my own druthers. An American with a great personality? That's my choice.

[Z28]

Color of his/her helmet and whether they drive one of my lucky numbers.

You must have fun betting on the horse races.

Of the choices I took personality, which I hd to add driving style into. They all have talent and if you can decide you has more you're the winner. Everybody sees who wins but is there a great driver in a lousy car or could somebody be holding back a great team? It comes up in almost any discussion, boy if that driver was in one of the red cars he'd be great, yeah they'd all be great but would the drivers of the red cars with with anybody?

Sponsorships used to be around longer and change teams more often, now they seem to be more short term and too often unheard of companies and products. Part of that leads to drivers changing teams often, even though the big 2 have kept the same guys of late, through the field though the cards get shuffled more for sponsor reasons than driver skill.

I'd like to say other is a contender but when I try to put myself in the same shoes as the Japanese, Brazilian and Canadian fans I don't mind using nationality as a reason. I like to go to races in my country, I like to wave my country's flag, see sponsors from my country on cars and see drivers from my country win races. If fans from other countries are allowed to have those strong feelings and say those exact same words , so am I.

[goldie19]

I didn't see "she's freaking hot", so I picked other!

Actually, I like a combo of talent and personality...but even personality varies. I like Dario, Danica, Viso, Graham....but it's safe to say they have different personalities.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

[RogerRamjet]

Not necessarily. That would be my second highest rated factor in choosing a driver. But a Wheldon is going to beat out a Buddy Rice in my own druthers. An American with a great personality? That's my choice.

Ya, I agree.
What would seal the deal for me would be a Canadian driver with talent & personality, couldn't care less about the team or sponsor

[TexManZero]

I root for Simona for a really ridiculous reason; she and I were born on the same day (noticeably on different parts of the globe). I also like to watch the Lotus team because of their color scheme and because TK is a really fun driver and personality to watch.

[carter71]

Personality is the main factor for me, although I won't cheer for a nice driver who causes problems on the track.

[RogerRamjet]

I also must say that I have a soft spot for the women in the series, simply because I like women

[uncommonsense52]

Somebody better vote nationality or all the talk about American Drivers over the past 2 decades will look like a bunch of hot air

Good. The less Xenophobes the better.

[KnockOff]

Looks

totally

especially a nice big B*TT

[Doc Austin]

I like drivers that race clean and fair.

[Hitokiri]

Somebody better vote nationality or all the talk about American Drivers over the past 2 decades will look like a bunch of hot air

#1 - Nationality - There's a reason why why I support Graham Rahal, Josef Newgarden, and Sage Karam each having their own part in the Road to Indy or the IICS. I also tend to pull more for North American drivers even if they come from Canada or Mexico. I am a Bourdais fan and was a De Ferran fan in the past but I do favor drivers from the USA more typically.

#2 - Talent - If the driver comes from North America and has talent, then more to cheer about. Talent overall can win me over easily though or at least make me respect the driver.

#3 - Personality - This is odd because personality is something that you figure out as the years go on so while it make be #3 initially it quickly becomes #2 or even #1 depending on the situation and who it is.

#4 - Team - I use to be a hardcore Newman Haas fan is still am to an extent but this was big for me a few years back. Not so much no more. I do have a distaste for Penske and TCGR though.

#5 - Sponsorship - This may help but I could really give a crap. It would be cool to see a driver sponosored by Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup though..

[PHJIndy]

Driving ability first and personality a distant second. That's why AJ and Kinser are my favorites!

[BizzyV]

Talent is the qualifier. I don't care how nice of a girl Milka Duno is, I'm not rooting for her. Personality is what gets me rooting for you and the dollars that follow though. Fave drivers are Tracy, Hinch, and Simona for that reason. I guess I also root for Americans, or more precisely, American names... probably the only reason I ever root for RHR, Rahal, and Marco.

[Josh Knight]

I tend to follow drivers that i have met that wasn't douchebags

[railroad]

I tend to follow drivers that i have met that wasn't douchebags

Must be a lonely pursuit, Josh.

[Josh Knight]

Must be a lonely pursuit, Josh.

This year i was lucky enough to met Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

I'm not saying Dario and Scott are not nice guys but Helio and Dan was awesome with the crowd and had time to chat and laugh. I may have cort Scott and Dario at the wrong time though. But i spoke to Helio and Dan several times during a couple days

So go Helio

Oh and Dan for next year. He told me he more or less has a ride (And could of had a full-time ride this year aswell but the deal wasn't right he said)

[railroad]

This year i was lucky enough to met Dan Wheldon, Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon.

I'm not saying Dario and Scott are not nice guys but Helio and Dan was awesome with the crowd and had time to chat and laugh. I may have cort Scott and Dario at the wrong time though. But i spoke to Helio and Dan several times during a couple days

So go Helio

Oh and Dan for next year. He told me he more or less has a ride (And could of had a full-time ride this year aswell but the deal wasn't right he said)

I've only ever met a couple of nascar drivers.

[fbs7]

I hate driver A because he does this and driver B because he doesn't and....

... wait... a thread asking why I actually cheer for a driver?

... you mean why I don't hate driver A but hate all the other ones, right? or why I think driver C is less of a wanker than all others?

It's so disturbing a thread that is not asking me why I hate the cars, or the rules, or the drivers, or the tracks, or the fans, or the traffic jam, or the food, or the 30-years old guy that didn't get an autograph.

I need to prepare psychologically to answer... cheer like... actuallly cheering? like those baseball fans?

/sarcasm off

I-cheer-for-Victor-because-he's-a-really-nice-guy.