Opposite Direction on Nascar Tracks?

Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have they ever been driven the other way around? -- Thief In The Night

>"Thief In The Night" <[email hidden]> wrote > Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Havethey ever been driven the other way around? I've seen early footage of dirt stock-cars in America after the war racing clockwise. A major reason why they race this way is that a bigger portion of crashes are done on the right side of a car, so it's less dangerous since he's driving on the left side. That's also probably the reason why they race clockwise in Australia, since cars are mostly right-siders. IIRC. -- -- Fran�ois M�nard <ymenard> -- May the Downforce be with you... -- http://www.WeRace.net -- People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.

Oval racing for cars originated *way* back in the early 1900's (maybe even earlier- ?Milwaukee?) and was run on various horse racing tracks. For some strange reason, North American horses only like to turn left (open Foghorn Leghorn : its a joke ,son. /Foghorn Leghorn)so the cars ended up being run counter clockwise out of habit. NASCAR is far too conservative to buck a solid tradition so they run that way too which possibly explains the confusion of many a NASCAR racer when confronted with the 2 clockwise road courses :) David "Thief In The Night" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Havethey ever been driven the other way around? > > -- > Thief In The Night

urrr in a forin county boh! (A. J. Foyt answering the same question to Nigel Mansel) "Thief In The Night" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Havethey ever been driven the other way around? > > -- > Thief In The Night

ymenard wrote: > A major reason why they race this way is that a bigger portion > of crashes are done on the right side of a car, so it's less dangerous since > he's driving on the left side. Hmmm...never thought of that -- but most road courses are run clockwise, and except for the UK, OZ, Taz, NZ, and Japan (who'd I miss?), two - and four - place road and race cars have generally been left-hand drive. I thought it was just tradition to turn left. Think the F1 cars running the wrong way at Indy will tear up the asphalt or anger the gods? I do... BB

Most stock car racing in the UK is done clockwise, he's absolutely correct. The central seated cars race anti the same as the US though, -- Tim, [email hidden]|[email hidden] http://legends.sports-gaming.com/forums.shtml FREE forums for your league... http://legends.sports-gaming.com Sim racing website loosely based on gpl... Barton Brown <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > ymenard wrote: > > A major reason why they race this way is that a bigger portion > > of crashes are done on the right side of a car, so it's less dangerous since > > he's driving on the left side. > > Hmmm...never thought of that -- but most road courses are run clockwise, > and except for the UK, OZ, Taz, NZ, and Japan (who'd I miss?), two - and > four - place road and race cars have generally been left-hand drive. I > thought it was just tradition to turn left. > > Think the F1 cars running the wrong way at Indy will tear up the asphalt > or anger the gods? I do... > > BB

There are many good answers here, but they are mostly only partially true. It started with horse racing. After the Revolutionary War (US and UK for those of you who weren't there), there was strong sentiment against England. We raced counter clockwise (anti clockwise for you Brits) for the same reason we started drinking coffee instead of tea. It was the opposite of what the English did. After WWII and our strong alliance with GB, some tracks changed direction, but it never really caught on. It's hard to change once you've been doing something for almost 200 years. -- Slot (student of trivia) www.slottweak.com Tweaks & Reviews "Thief In The Night" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have they ever been driven the other way around? > > -- > Thief In The Night

Ah, so that also explains your spelling of centre, neighbour, aluminium, etc, and the rather baffling pronunciation of "solder", then...(not to mention "dove" as in "dived", or "pled" as in "pleaded"...), it's because we did it a different way! It all becomes clear.....now I REALISE... -- Colin Harris Bomber Racing: Http://fullspeed.to/Bomber ICQ 25485061 GTX_SlotCar <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:VtDq5.8716$[email hidden]... > There are many good answers here, but they are mostly only partially true. > It started with horse racing. After the Revolutionary War (US and UK for > those of you who weren't there), there was strong sentiment against England. > We raced counter clockwise (anti clockwise for you Brits) for the same > reason we started drinking coffee instead of tea. It was the opposite of > what the English did. After WWII and our strong alliance with GB, some > tracks changed direction, but it never really caught on. It's hard to change > once you've been doing something for almost 200 years. > > > -- > Slot (student of trivia) >

On Mon, 28 Aug 2000 23:23:47 +0100, Thief In The Night <[email hidden]> wrote: >Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have they ever been driven the other way around? It probably has nothing to do with the real reason, but this places the driver on the inside of the track, where you would like to concentrate more weight on an oval. ~daxe

In article <HKBq5.215418$[email hidden]>, [email hidden] wrote...

Quoted text (12 lines)

> >"Thief In The Night" <[email hidden]> wrote > > Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have > they ever been driven the other way around? > > > I've seen early footage of dirt stock-cars in America after the war racing > clockwise. A major reason why they race this way is that a bigger portion > of crashes are done on the right side of a car, so it's less dangerous since > he's driving on the left side. > > That's also probably the reason why they race clockwise in Australia, since > cars are mostly right-siders. IIRC.

Cool. That makes a lot of sense...

My thoughts exactly! daxe wrote:

Quoted text (11 lines)

> > On Mon, 28 Aug 2000 23:23:47 +0100, Thief In The Night > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have they ever been driven the other way around? > > It probably has nothing to do with the real reason, but this places > the driver on the inside of the track, where you would like to > concentrate more weight on an oval. > > ~daxe

-- Philippe "Philster" Sergerie SNS1 Champion http://members.home.net/n3-shootout/

On Tue, 29 Aug 2000 01:14:25 GMT, daxe <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted text (8 lines)

>On Mon, 28 Aug 2000 23:23:47 +0100, Thief In The Night ><[email hidden]> wrote: > >>Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have they ever been driven the other way around? > >It probably has nothing to do with the real reason, but this places >the driver on the inside of the track, where you would like to >concentrate more weight on an oval.

What about CART racing, where the drivers are in the middle of the car? -- Thief In The Night

On Tue, 29 Aug 2000 14:43:23 +0100, Thief In The Night <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted text (10 lines)

>>On Mon, 28 Aug 2000 23:23:47 +0100, Thief In The Night >><[email hidden]> wrote: >> >>>Why are all Nascar oval tracks driven in an anti-clockwise direction? Have they ever been driven the other way around? >> >>It probably has nothing to do with the real reason, but this places >>the driver on the inside of the track, where you would like to >>concentrate more weight on an oval. > >What about CART racing, where the drivers are in the middle of the car?

The question was "Why are all *Nascar* oval tracks driven...", so that's the question I answered. Also, since NASCAR predates Cart, one might presume Cart was simply following suit since all the track stuff was already pointed counterclockwise. Maybe it's so the spectators heads can follow a normal left to right movement as used in reading. Maybe it's so as not to interfere with the earth's rotation. Maybe it mimics the lanes one drives in on two way streets? Running high puts you in the "right" lane and therefore not in the path of oncoming traffic. I dunno. ~daxe

daxe wrote: > Also, since NASCAR predates Cart, one might presume Cart was simply > following suit since all the track stuff was already pointed > counterclockwise. Ahhh...NASCAR as an organization certainly predates CART as an organization, but single-seat racing cars were turning left at Indy and elsewhere under the aegis of CART's predecessor, USAC, and USAC's predecessor, AAA, long before Bill France ever even ran a gas station. BB