Olympic Auto Racing - my idea:

[FenderFree]

After hearing some (SOME, not ALL, so forgive me if this was covered) of the ideas on WindTunnel, here's a relatively straight-forward method of including auto racers, who are 'official athletes' now, in the Olympics.

With all due respect to American sprint cars and short tracks, High-performance go-karts on a road course are the idea apparatus for Olympic drivers.

Go-karting is a global form of amateur motorsport, and road courses are more common than ovals worldwide, yet there is plenty of US talent already involved in that discipline. Most of the world's drivers cut their teeth in karting which is fairly standardized before graduating to specialized motorsport like open-wheel, sports cars, or touring cars (possibly NASCAR for Americans).

What better way to announce oneself to prospective professional teams than to win an Olympic Gold Medal in karting, the top prize of amateur motorsport.

What are your thoughts?

P.S., I put this thread here on the biz board to be noticed by various racing fans here on TF.

[Disciple]

I think it's a spectacular idea and I'd support it 100%.

[Sean O'Gorman]

But who needs Olympic motorsports when we already have IROC!!!!!!!!1111!!!!!!1!!!!11!!!

[Outlaw]

If you are going to have motor racing why can't you have more than one discipline? There are more than one type of running, swimming, and even volleyball. It seems there should be ovals and road racing.

You could send a team of drivers much like the gymnastics team. Some are oval racers some are road racers there is a team competition and then individual.

I also think that all of the carts should be built by the home country.

Outlaw

[Indyknut]

Originally posted by Outlaw
If you are going to have motor racing why can't you have more than one discipline? There are more than one type of running, swimming, and even volleyball. It seems there should be ovals and road racing.

You could send a team of drivers much like the gymnastics team. Some are oval racers some are road racers there is a team competition and then individual.

I also think that all of the carts should be built by the home country.

Outlaw

Since this is about the only place in the world that cares about oval racing, why would they add it? Just how many participants would even enter from other country's and just where would they train there? There are plenty of Karting RR circuits around the globe for the racing participants to train on, not so if you were talking about ovals.

[Dan77]

Originally posted by Outlaw


I also think that all of the carts should be built by the home country.

Outlaw

Spec Kart/spec motor/spec fuel/spec tires (rock hard)/spec weight (so someone isn't slow because they weigh more than 90lbs)/ spec course designs (with variations over several days of racing)/spec'd out 2 years before the games and usable for the world cup of karting 2years after/ and subsidized by a major sponsor so that people anywhere could afford it.



I'd get into that!

[Sean O'Gorman]

What country would fund anything more than karting?

Olympic motorsports, the only Olympic sport where you can buy your way onto the team. I can see it now, "Representing

[stroughz84]

Bah, all they need to do is bring back Chariot racing. The original Motorsport!

[tbyars]

Originally posted by Sean O'Gorman
What country would fund anything more than karting?

Actually, Sean, if any kind of motorsports was ever incorporated into the olympics, I think that is probably the exact kind of thing that would get any interest. Funding is only one reason. Ability to enforce the rules is another. Individual skills is the largest.

Could be an interesting sport.

[roach]

Uh, regarding technological developement in Olympic competition, can anyone say "Bo-Dyn"?

jcr

[D Byrd]

racing is a team sport, so olympic racing must be a team sport.

go-karts are the way to go.

the way i conceive it is each participating country gets a kit supplied by the IOC. everything needed to assemble the kart and put it on the track is in the kit. and of course, all kits are identical.

the gun sounds and the teams open their boxes. they assemble the kart and get it on the track. the first team to complete 100 miles wins.

that way, it is not just about the drivers. it's the entire team.

olympic trials in individual countries would be conducted the same way, and each country sends one team to the olympics.

[silva2]

I think this is a great idea....for the X Games.

[Lee]

If at all, I have to agree that it would the X-games.

Honestly, I don't think that motorsports belongs in the Olympics. While I do consider race car drivers to be athelets, (sp) the original intent of the games was human competition. one might try to argure bicycle racing, but a bicycle is powered by human muscles, not by a gas-powered, mechanical engine. I do not agree with "professional" athelets, such as the men's olympic basketball team, using NBA players, to be in keeping with the intent or purpose of tghe games. It should be for amatures only. If auto racing were to become an Olympic sport, I could not agree with drivers that race in any of the professional series being allowed to compete. So you would have a bunch of kids that no one had ever heard of, no Jeff Gordons, or any other professionals! I just don't hink racing would go over well as an olympic sport. It is a unique intidety, unto itself.

[Roninho]

Jacques Villeneuve actually talked about adding karting as a olympic sport a few years ago (i think during the '96 games, but not sure).

Unfortunately politics are a major issue in the IOC-world, and 1 thing is for sure: the FIA does not care about anything else but F1. So they are not interested in helping karting to become a IOC-member.

[FenderFree]

Originally posted by Lee
If at all, I have to agree that it would the X-games.

Honestly, I don't think that motorsports belongs in the Olympics. While I do consider race car drivers to be athelets, (sp) the original intent of the games was human competition. one might try to argure bicycle racing, but a bicycle is powered by human muscles, not by a gas-powered, mechanical engine. I do not agree with "professional" athelets, such as the men's olympic basketball team, using NBA players, to be in keeping with the intent or purpose of tghe games. It should be for amatures only. If auto racing were to become an Olympic sport, I could not agree with drivers that race in any of the professional series being allowed to compete. So you would have a bunch of kids that no one had ever heard of, no Jeff Gordons, or any other professionals! I just don't hink racing would go over well as an olympic sport. It is a unique intidety, unto itself.

I agree 100% about amateurs vs. professionals. That could be solved by national registrations that bar anyone who has competed more than 50% of a recognized pro racing series season.

[Sean O'Gorman]

Originally posted by FenderFree
I agree 100% about amateurs vs. professionals. That could be solved by national registrations that bar anyone who has competed more than 50% of a recognized pro racing series season.

I don't think it would matter. Do you really think that the established pros in car racing would be the front runners in karting, taking into consideration the fact that karting's relatively lower budget opens it up to so many more drivers who never had the opportunities to move up?