The first races took place shortly after the internal combustion engine had been dropped into a car. The first race was organised on April 28 1887 by the cheif editor of publication in Paris. It ran for 2km and was won by Georges Bouton. But because he was the only person who took part, it is difficult to call it a race.
What is considered to be the first competitive race took place on July 22 1894. It was organised by the Parisian magazine Le Petit Journal and ran from Paris to Rouen. 102 people took part in the race each paying a 10 franc entrance fee.
69 cars started the equivilant of a qualifying event, and only 25 were selected for the actual race. Count Jules-Albert de Dion was the first to enter Rouen, but because the race was judged on speed, handling and safety characteristics, the official winners were Peugeot and Panhard. De Dion cars needed a stroker which was forbidden.
The first regular auto event took place in Nice, France in late march 1897 as a "speed week". Most of the types of racing we now today were invented here. Examples are Circuit, Drag racing, Sprint and Time trails.
The first purpose built racing tracks were built in in the early 1900's. The Milwaukee mile is the oldest race track in the world even though it started life as a mile long horse racing track. Brooklands in Surrey, England is was the first ever purpose built race track, opening in 1907. It featured a 2.75 mile concrete track complete with high speed banked corners. Unfortunatly damage caused to the track during WW2 meant that it was never re-opened.
Between 1910-1950 saw manufactures such as Mercedes, Bugatti and Auto Union transform standard road cars into purpose built race machines, producing in excess of 612hp. 6 times the amount of the average road car today. To comply with the 750kg mazimum weight rule, extensive use of aluminium alloys were used. In more exteme circumstances, paint was removed leaving the bare body panals. This saw the introduction of Mercedes famous silver arrows. Nascar also came to be in the 1930's. It became a motorsport as civilians of the southern American states decided to put their Moonshine to better use, and use it to fuel the cars they modified to outrun the police. This led to races at purpose built tracks.
After the second world war, motorsport really took off. with the FIA or
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, sports cars own championship. Nascar's own championship was also renamed to the "Grand National" division. Over the next decade, modification to car performance and especially safety were granted. Improving the safety was to ensure that a crash like the 1955 le mans tragedy never happaned again. 84 people including the driver died as the car broke and sent debris into the packed stands. Between the 1950's and 1960's powerful hybrid cars began to appear. These were usually European bodied with high output American engines. Notable examples are the AC Cobra and the Lotus 19. This lead to the Can Am series. The beggining of NASCAR's golden age truelly began in 1972 when stricter rules were enforced and a reduction of race from 48 to 31 a year was implemented. In Europe the FIA started the world sports car championship, with cars generally being high performance closed cockpit prototype cars. But it was short lived as smaller manufactures could not afford the more high tech engines. Eventually fans lost interest in the one sidedness of the series and it collapsed before the start of the 1993 championship. Since the humble begginings of motorsport, their are now over 100 different racing events all around the world. The most famous being Formula one, World Rally Championship, NASCAR and the Moto GP.
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