Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/05/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> In the USA motor sport is a "blue-collar" sport, NASCAR and > Drag racing, in other countries it is a "white-collar" sport... It's more complex than that, Frank, as I'm sure you know. Road racing -- both sports cars and open wheel -- has always attracted middle-class and upper-class drivers and fans. That remains the case, whether we're talking about professional series, like AMLS, Rolex Grand-Am, and IndyCar (ever since it's included road and street courses), or amateur SCCA racing and vintage/historic racing. Series that race on ovals -- whether open wheel cars or full bodied, whether on dirt or pavement -- have for various reasons tended to attract, as you say, blue collar drivers and fans. Drag racing, as well, is quite blue collar. Paradoxically, it's also by far the most integrated by race, ethnicity, and gender. My guess is that the class differentiation has its roots in the relatively high financial entry barriers to sports car racing and road racing. Early oval track and drag racers either built their own hot rods or modified inexpensive stock cars. It's telling that road racing in the US got started, in a serious way, with the Vanderbilt Cup. (Yes, those Vanderbilts.) Stock car racing got started with moonshiners. --John ****************************** John Edwin Mason, Photography: http://www.JohnEdwinMason.com Charlottesville and Cape Town