Actually, it goes back to the days when cars were really slow; races took a
*really* long time, and counterclockwise ovals with the drivers being on the
left side of the cars enabled them to get near the inside wall and their crew
could hand them a drink or a cigarette, or a sandwich or magazine or something
like that. At least this is what I read.
Andrew
> I have heard of a local race track flipping a coin to see which way they
> would run the oval that night. I forgot where I read that but thought it
> was interesting. It's very rare to run ovals clockwise. I think the reason
> in real life is the driver is on the left and it puts more protection
> between the driver and the wall.
> > After having overcome some of my prejudices of oval racing - thanks
> > to Dave Noonan's converter! - I just for fun changed my driving
> > direction in qualifying on one of those tracks. Luckily there was
> > not much traffic..., I anyhow become black flagged and disqualified ;-)
> > But that made me think: Are they always, really always, driving only
> > counterclockwise races on American ovals? Isn't there no series that
> > drives clockwise at least some races? Wouldn't that also be interesting?
> > I do know that for ex. the banked part of old Monza was driven clocwise,
> > but I have never heard of any oval clockwise race. In Viper Racing
> > you can do that, but how is it in real life?
> > Arto
