proving racing is a sport

[Benn Herr]

[Chad Stapleton]

you dont have to be an "Athlete" to be a sportsman.
there are many different divisions of "sports", some requiring extreme fitness ( Marathon, Tour cycling, boxing, F1 GP, etc) others requireing much less physical ability. but higher specialised skills ( shooting. diving, darts, drag racing etc)
Various branches of motorsport cover the whole spectrum of physical, skills and mental demands
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Chad
"Those of you who think you know everything are annoying to those of us who do !!"

[Greg Wright]

[Jim Derrig]

[joseph hollinger]

[charles hunter]

Smell my driving suit and wring out my undies after the main. I played high school football and didn't work as hard.
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swampwater smyth concurs "If you aint first, yer last."

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[chad garofalo]

Great topic, I could go on forever. Along what has been said there are a few that I would like to add:

1) Competitiveness: The drive to be better than EVERYONE else.
2) Coordination: Some might not see golf as a sport but rather as a game but there is a tremendous amount of coordination and skill to do what they do.

I believe what some think is a sport is more like a game. This is an arguement that will go on forever.

Racing is a sport in my book.

[Matt McCauley]

this subject is always hard to argue to normal stick and ball game fans. i usually bring up the fact of G forces, mostly in F1 because it is the highest, 4G lateral side to side and decelleration. Also how much pure water is lost from the body in this 2 hrs of racing. Something like 2 gallons. Also brake pedal pressure in a f1 car is pretty amazing making it very hard to be precise . Depending on the circuit its around 150kg needed on the pedal, thats about double the drivers weight, so "standing on the brakes" is spot on. To train f1 drivers use an excercise which has there head and neck out over a bench with a weight of 30kg on the top of their head they do reps to strengthen their neck. Also not sure about all f1 drivers but most are working out 6-8 hrs per day, to stay physically fit, that doesnt happen in baseball or even football. If most of these things can't even start to get your audience to understand it really is a sport, well then its useless. On a side note almost every athlete i have brought to an indoor kart track has not been able to last more than 30 mins total, and they usually complain how physically it is to drive

[Matt McCauley]

[Jim McMahon]

On a physical level, I would explain racing as wrestling with someone twice or three times your weight/strength, but with a lot more body parts under
simultaneous loads, for 20-30mins and no pansy breaks every couple of minutes either! Okay you get a couple of few second breaks on each lap, but you get what I'm saying.

Find the "top" athlete at your school, strap on a logging heart rate monitor (Can be done <$60) then stick him an indoor kart for 20 mins. Graph the heartrate. Then maybe overlay this over his HR readings football match or whatever sport they have proportedly mastered.. If that doesnt work, but the bastid in a shifter

Lookup the top gear where the hamster drove an F1 car. They had him go though the fitness regime and it didnt work out too well for him. This might cover it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUZJVY-sHo

Actually, its this video of Needell, 3:50 onwards: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERUbPbAsjkY&feature=related
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[joseph hollinger]

Okay, being devil's advocate here. Watch this:http://www.73q.com/video.php?vid=1401

It's Prost and Senna beating the stuffing out of each other in karts. Watch the end, because when they take the helmets off, they look fresh as daisies. What gives?
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A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. -- Winston Churchill.

[Chris Sigua]

Mallory

If this doesn't persuade them, I don't know what will. Here's the abstract on an article published back in 2002 in the Journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. One of the authors is Dr. Olvey who was in charge of Champcar's trauma unit.

Chris

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http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2002&issue=12000&article=00033&type=abstract

Physiological responses to high-speed, open-wheel racecar driving.

Jacobs PL, Olvey SE, Johnson BM, Cohn K.

Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, Department of Neurological Surgery, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33101, USA. pjacobs@miamiproject.med.miami.edu

High-speed auto racing has been demonstrated to produce accelerated heart rate (HR) during competition. However, it has not been determined whether the increase in HR was due to physical work efforts or a result of emotional stress.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this investigation was to examine the physiological responses associated with open-wheel automobile driving at competitive speeds.

METHODS: Oxygen consumption and HR were assessed in seven professional automobile racing drivers during two incrementally paced driving sessions. A portable metabolic analyzer and EKG were directly attached to the subjects as they participated in driving tests on an oval speedway and a roadway course. Maximal physiological responses of the subjects were also determined during a graded treadmill test.

RESULTS: During treadmill testing, maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) ranged from of 42.0 to 59.7 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1) (mean +/- SD = 47.6+/-8.1). The road course and oval speedway testing at competitive speeds elicited mean VO2 values of 38.5 and 21.9 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1), respectively, which correspond to 79% and 45% of VO2max. Road course driving produced mean HR values of 152 beats x min(-1) with 142 beats x min(-1) recorded when driving at competitive speed on the speedway course.

CONCLUSIONS: Professional open-wheel race drivers possess cardiorespiratory capacity similar to athletes participating in sports such as basketball, football, and baseball. The VO2 and HR responses to road course driving were similar to those previously reported in traditional sports settings. The findings of this study suggest that professional open-wheel racing drivers should be regarded as athletes that encounter significant physiological stresses.
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[Mallory Davis]

Chris Sigua
thanks for the article, that will be great evidence for my speech

thanks all who have commented on this thread. it has been of great help in my project
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Mallory Davis

[jeff grose]

On the Mental side sure, FOCUS and PATIENCE, the driver has to realize he or she cannot win the race on the first lap. A driver has to pick and choose his battles, when to pass and stay out of trouble. It does no good to be the fastest kart on the track when he or she drives stupid. Staying ALERT to what and who is around you. Remember racing is a competition not just following inline. Trust me, I have a 16 yr. old who wants to get out there and just tear up the track. I always have to remind him about FOCUS and PATIENCE, do that and finish the race without killing himself or others and its a good race no matter where you finish

As far as the physical aspect, I was 52 yrs.(in fairly good shape ) of age when I tried out my son's sprint kart, I made a few laps in the kart at speed, brought it in , got out, my son says "Well Dad what do you think" and I say " Son you're on your own", next day I could hardly move, sore everywhere.


This is of course just my humble opinion

jeff
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#31 Gillard/PDBAmerica
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[Mallory Davis]

big day today. giving the speech!

thanks again for all the help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

some of the main things i took from this forum for ideas were for the simulation of driving during the speech, Perdue University Grand Prix, G-forces, and the Hemmingway quote

also added a video from mid-ohio since it is my love of a home track
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Mallory Davis