Welcome to RacingPedia™ -- The Racing Encyclopedia
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Motorsports Racing
NASCAR teams begin layoffs; HoF eyes '09 cuts
18 Nov 2008 at 7:27pm
Hall of Fame Racing will cut its staff even if it secures sponsorship to run a full 2009 season. ...
Ganassi to switch to Chevy, ECR engine program
16 Nov 2008 at 11:43am
Plans are in place for Chip Ganassi Racing to switch from Dodge to Chevrolet and be a part of the...
Junior: Merger likely unneeded if father was alive
14 Nov 2008 at 1:33pm
Dale Earnhardt Jr. said he hopes good things come out of the merger between Dale Earnhardt Inc. a...
Gibson finalizes deal to be Newman's crew chief
14 Nov 2008 at 11:25am
Tony Gibson has finalized a deal to become the crew chief for Ryan Newman at Stewart-Haas Racing ...
Source: Trucks points leader Benson leaving BDR
4 Nov 2008 at 3:48pm
Craftsman Trucks Series points leader Johnny Benson is leaving Bill Davis Racing at season's end,...
Horse Racing
Finley: Skip Away, not Curlin, should hold earnings record
29 Sep 2008 at 9:47am
Shouldn't the top earner in North American racing history be the horse who has earned the most in...
Injury forces Grade 1 winner Zaftig into retirement
14 Nov 2008 at 5:21pm
The Grade 1-winning 3-year-old filly Zaftig has been retired from racing after tearing the suspen...
Bicycle Racing
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To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of the Sport of Racing.
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To be your source for the Sport of Racing related information. We will supply our visitors with up to date news, stories, and information in the Racing News Links section.
Types of Racing:
A race is a competition of speed. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed.
Running a distance is the most basic form of racing, but races are often conducted in vehicles, such as boats, cars and aircraft, or with animals such as horses.
A race may be run continuously from start to finish or may be made of several segments called heats or stages (stages are also known as legs). A heat is usually run over the same course at different times. A stage is a shorter section of a much longer course or a time trial.
Early records of races are evident on pottery from ancient Greece, which depicted running men vying for first place. A chariot race is described in Homer's Iliad.
Adventure Racing:
A combination of two or more disciplines, including orienteering and navigation, cross-country running, mountain biking, paddling and climbing and related rope skills. An expedition event can span ten days or more while sprints can be completed in a matter of hours. There is typically no dark period during races, irrespective of length; competitors must choose if or when to rest.
Adventure racing historically required teams to be of a specified size and to include both men and women, but many races no longer restrict team size and include single-sex divisions.
Aircraft Racing:
A sport that involves small aircraft and is practiced around the world. It is somewhat similar to auto racing; however, corporate sponsorship and broadcast media coverage occur at a much lower level than in auto racing.
Animal/Horse Racing:
Animals alone, or with human riders on the animal's back or in a conveyance.
Bicycle Racing:
Encompasses many forms in which bicycles are used for competition. Bicycle racing includes road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX racing and bike trials and cycle speedway.
Boat Racing:
Many forms of racing like motorized racing which take place on water rather than land.
Kinetic Sculpture Race:
An organized contest of human-powered amphibious all-terrain works of art. They are sometimes known as "Triathlons of the Art World" because art and engineering are combined with physical endurance for a race lasting hours or days.
Motorized/Auto Racing:
Also known as motor racing, or car racing) is a sport involving racing automobiles. Auto racing began in 1895, and is now one of the world's most popular sports.
Ski Racing:
Various alpine skiing competitions have developed in the history of skiing. Broadly speaking, competitive skiing is broken up into two disciplines: racing and freestyle.
Racing involves making fast turns around gates in an attempt to attain the fastest overall time down one or two runs of a race course. Elite competitive skiers participate in the annual World Cup series, as well as the quadrennial Olympic Games and the biennial World Championships. Slalom (SL), giant slalom (GS), super giant slalom (super-G), and downhill (DH) are the four racing disciplines, with downhill being the fastest event and slalom being the most technical. There is also a "combined" event that includes one downhill run and two slalom runs on a single day. In 2005, the FIS (Fédération Internationale de Ski) introduced a new event to the World Cup calendar called the super combined, or super combi, consisting of one shortened downhill run and just one slalom run. That year, the FIS also introduced an alpine team racing event at the World Championships in Bormio, Italy. Ski racing is controlled by a set of rules which are enforced by FIS. These rules include such things as regulation ski sizes, sidecuts, boot heights, binding risers and many other things which all ensure one particular skier has no advantage over another however these regulations are constantly being pushed by ski manufacturers using new technologies. Next year (2008) these regulations are set to be changed in order to make it harder for racers to complete a race course some changes include increasing the minimum ski length and also the sidecut which will make the ski turn less tightly
Freestyle skiing incorporates events such as moguls, aerials, and sometimes "new-school" events such as halfpipe, big air, slopestyle, and skiercross. Together with extreme skiing, new-school freestyle skiing is also sometimes known as freeskiing. Until relatively recently, freestyle competitions also included an event called ballet, later renamed "acro-ski."
In addition to racing and freestyle, other types of alpine skiing competitions exist. One discipline administered by the FIS but not usually considered part of racing is speed skiing, in which competitors strive to achieve the highest total speed in a straight line, with no gates or turns. Numerous non-FIS competitions have emerged over the years. More traditional events include gelandesprung jumping (ski jumping for distance on alpine equipment), and "powder 8" contests; among the more recent introductions are "big mountain" or "extreme skiing" contests, in which athletes start at the top of a mountain and ski a route down that involves wide, fast turns as well as cliff drops. The competitors are judged on the technical difficulty of their routes and any tricks they perform on the way down the hill.
Unassisted Human Racing:
Running is defined as the fastest means for an animal to move on foot. It is defined in sporting terms as a gait in which at some point all feet are off the ground at the same time. It can be a form of both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
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