IROC

[polsongrizz]

Okay what is your guys opinion of this race? I am talking about the american version. Here is mine. This race is the biggest joke there is if you look at the name of it and the type of cars they drive. Lets call it what it is, a stock car race to make nascar drivers look good. It amazes me how they can even call this an even race. Why do they not race in all the different types of cars as they have drivers? The best driver is he who can compete the best in all types of cars, not just one. For me I believe the best overall drivers to be Rally drivers, and I have never seen one in person nor know anyone who competes. The least best; Nascar drivers who have never driven anything but stock cars.

[bisonguy]

I'd place F1 and Champ car drivers in front of rally car drivers. They have navigators sitting next to them telling them every nuance of the course. ;)

Rally drivers are definitely better than NASCAR drivers, though.

Back to the topic- IROC is a joke.

[polsongrizz]

Y A W N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N!

:boring:
Thanks for telling us why ralph :confused: :cool:

[TexasTerror]

Never was a big fan of IROC. I'm into NASCAR, but IROC just doesn't do it for me in terms of quality of racing. Very short races as well compared to others. I'd be not stretching if I said that I like CART better than IROC and I can't stand open-wheel racing.

[polsongrizz]

I'd place F1 and Champ car drivers in front of rally car drivers. They have navigators sitting next to them telling them every nuance of the course. ;)

Rally drivers are definitely better than NASCAR drivers, though.

Back to the topic- IROC is a joke.
I agree to a certain point. But think about this, Nascar teams hire road course drivers all the time to drive team cars and in the past to drive for their lead driver. Now these road course are not that difficult to remember, and they have spotters telling them exactly where they are and where they are going, as in F1 and Champ cars. And as you have stated Rally guys. Now think about it have you not been down certain country roads that yo know like the back of your hand but screwed up entering a corner too fast? My point here is just because you know where you are going doesn't make you a great driver, hence about 25-30 mediocre nascar guys going around in a cirlce that you have never heard of until they wreck, again.

[polsongrizz]

Auto racing is not a sport because the car does the major part of the work. I have expressed this before... :rolleyes:
Well for the car doing the work you aare completely wrong. I might have thought the same before taking a ride at school once. After only a few laps I could hardly move my arms any more and my whole body ached. As for what defines sport...
recreational or competitive activities that involve a degree of physical strength or skill. At one time, sports were commonly considered to include only the outdoor recreational pastimes, such as fishing, shooting, and hunting, as opposed to games, which were regarded as organized athletic contests played by teams or individuals according to prescribed rules. …

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?tocId=9108486&query=sport&ct=

[TexasTerror]

Auto racing is not a sport because the car does the major part of the work. I have expressed this before... :rolleyes:

And why does the car do the most work? Because you have skilled workers who change the cars week by week to meet the track's needs. Then you have a driver who skillfully uses how the car has been fixed up to make it's way to the top of the field. Those pit crew workers need to have great pit times and with a little luck, you can win an event.

You can say horse racing is not a sport too, eh? Cause the horse does the majority of the work?

[TexasTerror]

There's a big difference between a sport and a competition. I see a new thread coming.

Don't wish that upon us! So, do you think boxing and figure skating are sports? They have winners. However, decided by judges. I think neither is a sport especially in light of some of the controversies we've had in both over the years...

[bisonguy]

I agree to a certain point. But think about this, Nascar teams hire road course drivers all the time to drive team cars and in the past to drive for their lead driver. Now these road course are not that difficult to remember, and they have spotters telling them exactly where they are and where they are going, as in F1 and Champ cars. And as you have stated Rally guys. Now think about it have you not been down certain country roads that yo know like the back of your hand but screwed up entering a corner too fast? My point here is just because you know where you are going doesn't make you a great driver, hence about 25-30 mediocre nascar guys going around in a cirlce that you have never heard of until they wreck, again.

I hear you about the rally drivers. Guess I was just trying to state that in rally racing that the driver/navigator are more of a cohesive pair.

I have a friend that used to do some rally racing. I can understand the need for a navigator when you're doing 60mph in a corner, with a 150 open cliff on one side of the turn, and a whole bunch of large trees on the other side. :eek:

Champ and rally might be fairly close in driver skill, but F1 is still the cat's meow. It's somewhat hard to classify rally, because it's such a different animal (no laps, and the staggered starts). NASCAR is somewhere below GTR and GT.

[polsongrizz]

Although I love F1 I am really not sure wherre I would put them. Way above nascar for sure. But I think Champ drivers(not Irl) might be better for the simple fact that they do not have traction control like F1 does. And I think that really gives the drivers an edge that no other drivers have.

[Tribefan]

Ralph,

With all due respect, F1 Drivers are some of the most well conditioned athletes in the world. Michael Schumacher has a resting heart rate that's in the 30s. If you ever saw one of those guys, you would see that they are generally smallish incredibly fit people, with the exception Coulthard and Webber (who are both over 6 feet) who have massive necks in order to deal with the incredible G-Loads in the corners. When a team breaks in a new driver, he often can't do more than 20 laps a day because his neck muscles simply don't have the stamina.

Not to mention that the driver needs to make split second decisions with the fatigue, the noise, the heat etc. If you ever saw an F1 car at speed your mind would have difficulty accepting that there is a person in there, controlling all that.

Saying that racing isn't a sport is kind of like saying a QB isn't a true athlete because he has 5 guys blocking for him and the Offensive Coordinator is calling the shots.

As for IROC, it's basically a satellite NECKAR marketing platform. They let a couple IRL (Idiots Running LEft) drivers in and this year they Sebastian Bourdais from Champ Car and he won the last race. IROC stands for International Race of Champions. Only many of the drivers in the series have never been Champions. They are supposedly "Championship Caliber".

IROC wasn't always the joke it is now. Back in the day, they would get the F1 Champ, CART Champ, NASCAR, Trans-Am as well some other guys from the Sports Cars. They would race road courses and Super Speedways. I never saw these races, but it must have been cool to see Mario Andretti, Richard Petty, and Emerson Fittipaldi in the same race.

[Grizo406]

The only "Race" I like to watch is pols...at "Last Call". The man is unbeatable! :D

[polsongrizz]

The only "Race" I like to watch is pols...at "Last Call". The man is unbeatable! :D
Dam straight ;)

[ForShizzleGrizzle]

Some of the best drivers in NASCAR started racing open wheel. I bet if you put someone like Stewart or Gordon in a Indy car FULL time they would be excellent there as well.

[polsongrizz]

Agreed, but the fact is most are not that good of overall drivers. But it seems now there are starting to be more from the open wheel series (sprints) getting rides. But the basic stock driver as far as I am concerrned is still woefully inadequate compared to most other drivers.

[Tribefan]

Open wheel sprint cars are nothing like Open Wheel formula cars. They just drive in circles and have no gearbox. If anything they are tougher to drive than stock cars since they have a more impressive power to weight ratio.

[D1B]

What's the difference between Nascar and Hockey?

In Hockey the players don't have no teeth. In Nascar, the fans don't have none teefe!

Get a life you freaking gearheads! ;)