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Please visit one of the following pages: Anti-aircraft Warfare, V8 Supercar ... or visit any of the pages related to from aircraft to racing cars and beyond on this site.
Rallying ... From then on, racing in Europe (apart from Italy) would be on closed circuits, initially on long loops of public highway and then, in 1907, on the first purpose-built track, England's Brooklands...
Daytona Beach, Florida ... The city is historically known as having a beach where the hard packed sand allows motorized vehicles to drive on the beach in restricted areas. This hard packed sand made Daytona Beach a mecca for motorsports, with the old Daytona Beach Road Course having hosted races for over 50 years...
Off-road Racing ... On August 14, 2010, a modified Ford Ranger pickup truck, racing in the MDR sanctioned "California 200", careered off the track into a group of spectators, killing eight, and raising questions about the future of offroad racing on public lands... Short course racing Short course off-road racing has races on a circuit of less than five miles (such as Crandon International Off-Road Raceway), which are sanctioned by CORR (or its predecessor SODA), and by World Series of Off Road Racing (WSORR)... Another format made popular by the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group was called stadium racing, where offroad racing vehicles were used in a temporary offroad racetrack was constructed inside a stadium...
Arabian Horse ... The Arabian developed in a desert climate and was prized by the nomadic Bedouin people, often being brought inside the family tent for shelter and protection from theft. Selective breeding for traits including an ability to form a cooperative relationship with humans created a horse breed that is good-natured, quick to learn, and willing to please...
Hillclimbing ... It is one of the oldest forms of motorsport, since the first known hillclimb at La Turbie near Nice, France took place as long ago as 31 January 1897. The hillclimb held at Shelsley Walsh, in Worcestershire, England is the world's oldest continuously staged motorsport event still staged on its original course, having been first run in 1905...
Racing ... Forms of racing Further information: List of forms of racing Running a distance is the most basic form of racing, but races may be conducted in vehicles, such as boats, cars and aircraft, or with animals such as horses or dogs... In a relay race members of a team take turns in racing parts of a circuit or performing a certain racing form...
Motorcycle Racing ... Sidecar racing has many sub-categories including: – Sidecarcross (sidecar motocross) – Sidecar trials – F1/F2 road racing True road racing See also: Isle of Man TT See also: North West 200 True road racing is run on tracks built from closed public and/or park roads and sometimes extra pieces of purpose built track... In the past true road racing was very commonplace but today few races have survived and even fewer have been added... Only one truly international championship exists at present by the name of "International Road Racing Championship" (IRRC)...
Greyhound Racing ... In other countries (particularly Australia, Ireland, Macau, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US), greyhound racing is part of the gambling business, similar to although far less profitable than horse racing... In Florida, where 16 tracks survive, the handle, or amount wagered, on racing has dropped from about $620 million to $300 million in 10 years... The first recorded attempt at racing greyhounds on a straight track was made beside the Welsh Harp reservoir, Hendon in 1876, but this experiment did not develop...
Thoroughbred Racing In Australia ... Racing industry Racing in Australia is administered by the Australian Racing Board, with each state's Principal Racing Authority agreeing to abide by, and to enforce, the Australian Rules of Racing... Important races Public interest in Thoroughbred racing, especially during the main spring and autumn racing carnivals, has been growing in recent years with over 100,000 attracted to the running of the Melbourne Cup, the Victoria Derby and the VRC Oaks race meets...
Ice Racing ... In the late 1960s ice racing was staged at a number of rinks in Scotland but the machines used were rally based machines with all season tires Tires Ice racing tires are either studded or non-studded... Through 2008, Menard's Racing in Wisconsin manufactured and sold studded racing tires for cars, and they were required in many ice-racing classes... Motorcycle ice racing Ice racing includes a motorcycle class which is the equivalent of Speedway on ice...
Enduro ... Certainly part of the confusion stems from the fact that rallies and enduros share two pronounced qualities; they are usually lengthy compared to most forms of motorsport racing and they cover varying off-road terrain, usually without repeating any section of the terrain in the course of an event...
Auto Race ... Since then the sport has very much gone its own way to develop into a form of motor sport exclusive to Japan, although in the 1990s, there was non-betting series featuring flat-track motorcycles on paved ovals in the United States, the Motorcycle Asphalt Racing Series...
Harness Racing In New Zealand ... The New South Wales bred, Lawn Derby, racing un-hoppled, was the first pacer to break the two-minute barrier in Australia or New Zealand when he recorded 1:59.4 at the Addington track in New Zealand in 1938...
AMA Supercross Championship ... In 1972, racing promoter Michael Goodwin staged what he called the "Super Bowl of Motocross" inside the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California... Modern Supercross races are sanctioned and governed by motorcycle associations, the main series being either the American Motorcyclist Association which is the oldest and most prestigious cycle racing organization (in America), or the Monster Energy series of Supercross Championship events that are in part the work of Clear Channel, who in 2004 contributed expertise in filming on-track gate event competition for Supercross... Supercross racing classifications were governed by the displacement of the motorcycle's engine until 2006...
Supermoto ... Races are commonly held on road racing or medium sized go-kart tracks with an off-road section in the infield... This type of racing is also very portable in that an entire track can be constructed anywhere there is a large area of open asphalt and an availability of dirt... Riders also wear a combination of road race and offroad equipment, normally road racing leathers and motocross helmets and boots...
Historic Motorsport ... Championships range from "grass root" Austin Seven racing to the FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship for classic Formula One chassis...
Thoroughbred Racing In New Zealand ... During the 2008-09 racing season 19 New Zealand bred Thoroughbreds won 22 Group One races around the world...
Further Reading: Aircraft
History Of Ballooning ... There is also some speculation, from a demonstration led by British modern hot air balloonist Julian Nott in the late 1970s and again in 2003, that hot air balloons could have been used by people of the Nazca culture of Peru some 1500 to 2000 years ago, as a tool for designing the famous Nazca ground figures and lines. The first documented balloon flight in Europe was by the brazilian priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão...
Zeppelin ... The advantage of this design was that the aircraft could be much larger than non-rigid airships (which relied on a slight overpressure within the single gasbag to maintain their shape) because the light-alloy used for the structure, (usually Magnesium or Aluminium alloys), enabling Zeppelins to lift heavier loads and be fitted with more engines and/or more powerful engines...
Aerial Victory Standards Of World War I ... Allies of World War I Belgium Enemy aircraft had to fall within friendly lines in a nation partially occupied by the enemy, or be seen by friendly ground troops falling within German lines, to be counted...
List Of World War I Flying Aces ... Historically, a flying ace was defined as a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat... The term was first used by French newspapers, describing Adolphe Pégoud as l'as (the ace), after he downed five German aircraft... An enemy aircraft that crashed in enemy held territory obviously could not be verified by the victor's ground troops...
Aircraft ... Although rockets and missiles also travel through the atmosphere, most are not considered aircraft because they do not have wings and rely on rocket thrust as the primary means of lift... Consequently the history of aircraft can be divided into five eras: Pioneers of flight, from the earliest experiments to 1913... When the weight of this is added to the weight of the aircraft structure, it adds up to the same weight as the air that the craft displaces...
Interrupter Gear ... Introduced during the First World War, the gun synchronizer was a significant development in the history of aerial warfare and remained in operational use until the Korean War, after which the universal adoption of propeller-less jet aircraft rendered such gears unnecessary... The other, true interrupter gear stops the firing of the machine gun when some part of the aircraft is in the way...
Anti-aircraft Warfare ... However, in some countries, such as Britain and Germany in World War II, the Soviet Union and NATO's European Command, ground based air defence and air defence aircraft have been under integrated command and control...
History Of Aviation ... The first form of man-made flying objects were kites. The earliest known record of kite flying is from around 200 BC in China, when a general flew a kite over enemy territory to calculate the length of tunnel required to enter the region...
Strategic Bombing During World War I ... The advent of air raid warnings, sirens and shelters can be dated to World War I, as can the design of dedicated anti-aircraft artillery and the role of interceptor aircraft... Many of the advocates of strategic bombing during the interwar period, such as Italy's Giulio Douhet, America's Billy Mitchell, and Britain's Hugh Trenchard, had commanded aircraft during World War I... The improvements in aircraft technology during and after the war convinced many that "the bomber will always get through", which affected planning for strategic bombing in World War II...
Alberto Santos-Dumont ... Designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for "bird of prey"), the flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft witnessed by the European press and French aviation authorities to take off and successfully fly...
Observation Balloon ... Historically, observation balloons were filled with hydrogen. The French colonel Charles Renard developed a mobile system with a trailer in 1880...
Fokker Scourge ... Its main advantage was that the pilot was now able to take aim by pointing his aircraft at his target, a very simple and intuitive procedure, especially for the pilot of a single seat aircraft... This aircraft and its successors - also commonly known as the Eindecker (German for "Monoplane") for the first time supplied an equivalent to Allied fighters...
Bloody April ... There were initially only five German Jastas (fighter squadrons) in the region, but this rose to eight as the battle progressed (some 80 or so operational fighter aircraft in total)...