Sports Car Racing

If you’re into cars and competition, there are a lot of reasons to like sports car racing. Aside from the technology, the innovation and the daring display of driving prowess, true sports car racing also exhibits a sort of refinement that isn't found in other series. Take for example this past weekend's Houston street circuit event. Not only was it not, in the words of one commentator, a follow-the-leader crash fest but it was actually more exhilarating that the weekends main event.

The true achievement of the weekend was not that throngs of people turned out to see twenty some exotic race cars do battle on the tight and uneven temporary street circuit, but that of those twenty cars none were involved in ANY sort of accident. Folks this is relatively unheard of for racing in general, much less for a constricted, Jersey barrier filled course. Sure this could easily be accomplished if no one tried to overtake another competitor, but in ALMS racing overtaking is an everyday affair. With four different classes running at different speeds, many promoters tout that there is more passing in one ALMS race than in an entire season of Formula 1.

So why is this such a spectacle? Primarily because the competing series Grand American doesn't enjoy such well mannered drivers. In any given race, Grand Am drivers will beat and bang their cars together like a bunch of NASCAR knuckle draggers. This is however incredibly ironic since many of the Grand Am drivers also drive in ALMS, and somehow avoid contact when driving those cars.

Of course that's not to say that ALMS doesn't have accidents, quite the contrary actually. However, most of the teams competing this weekend were bound for another event next week and Mid Ohio and Le Mans, France shortly thereafter. This doesn't leave a great deal of time to fix the cars, so drivers were on their very best behavior. Still, I think it's an incredible show of skill, and self-control that every team was able to survive the Houston event without major damage. It's good to see that there are still some gentlemen drivers in this world, even if they only exist in one series.