Sunday
In these days of modern motoring safety features, racing - either F1 or other genres - is not as dangerous as it used to be, when fatalities were common and some racers, such as the Austrian racer Niki Lauda, suffered terrible burns. I am glad the sport has got safer because the close racing of last year, when Lewis Hamilton famously won by a whisker in Brazil, can be just as exciting even when you know that the cars are so well made, the circuits so well designed, that death is not such a close presence on the track. The idea that we need the risk of death to spice up a sport is not a view I share.
One sport that remains bloody dangerous, in my view, is downhill ski racing. Anyone who has skied on a difficult, icy slope in Europe or North America, say, will know what I mean. I have tried to imagine what it must be like to ski at 90mph or more down an icy race track such as the famous one at Kitzbuhel, Austria. It frightens me just to think about it. Here is a story showing what I mean.
Anyway, considering my work commitments and the low value of sterling, I cannot really afford to hit the slopes this year. Next year, maybe.....
And I was so sure you were going to say Isle of Man Tourist Trophy.
Posted by Bruce Hoult at January 25, 2009 10:15 PM
Phew! For a moment, I was expecting you to declare that it was the Americans, or the Arabs, or possibly even the Welsh.
Posted by Slartibartfarst at January 25, 2009 11:11 PM
Hear hear, and I'd add downhill ice skating races also - I just watched such a thing here in Quebec Saturday night, and I think I'd rather be going 200mph with a nice sturdy roll cage overhead than 80mph on skates wearing a flimsy looking helmet.
Of course, lovely as Canada is, it exposes the spectators to a little bit of danger too, standing next to a track outdoors at -9F for four hours.
Posted by MikeD at January 26, 2009 01:43 PM
Hear hear, and I'd add downhill ice skating races also - I just watched such a thing here in Quebec Saturday night, and I think I'd rather be going 200mph with a nice sturdy roll cage overhead than 80mph on skates wearing a flimsy looking helmet.
Of course, lovely as Canada is, it exposes the spectators to a little bit of danger too, standing next to a track outdoors at -9F for four hours.
Posted by MikeD at January 26, 2009 01:44 PM
"Possibly the most dangerous race in the world"
That'd be the Scots. Without the 'possibly'.
(shame Slarty got there first)
Posted by Dave H. at January 26, 2009 02:01 PM
In all of direct-competition motor sports (not counting things like Bonneville), it's NHRA who has the most of my respect. In the whole endeavor, they're the only ones dedicated to nothing but going faster. That's all they do.
Skiiing: it was just last night that a friend and neighbor of mine tore up the ACL in his left knee. The guy's 48 years old. He was a racing ace in his youth, but hasn't kept in shape lately. I haven't a clue in the world what he thought he was doing. I'm ready to help him in any way I can, but I told him, "I don't feel sorry for you. You remind me of me on motorcycles back in the day: you're acting like an idiot and you really should stop it."
Posted by Billy Beck at January 26, 2009 03:15 PM
"... Bode Miller posted the fastest time as he raced down the Streif course in 1 minute, 55.95 seconds to beat last year’s winner Cuche by 0.26 seconds. .."
There is a saying here in the White Mts of NH. If you can ski here you can ski anywhere in the world. "Boiler Pate" is the norm.
Rob Z
Posted by Rob Z at January 26, 2009 07:12 PM
F1 is the most boring motorsport on the planet- even autotesting is exciting compared to the dull playstation gimmicks of F1.
Now, if you want interesting - its MotoGP, and if you want dangerous - its equestrian - horses are 12 times as likely to kill you as a motorbike!
If you want exciting - its the IoM TT - that really is the pinnacle of motorsport - 102 years of man and machine - I hope they never ban it - it will be a very bad day for freedom!
Posted by F0ul at January 26, 2009 08:33 PM
Here's(Link) the motor sport the world is waiting to see. Faster and more dangerous than any other, and inevitably fatal it there's an accident.
Posted by Laird at January 26, 2009 11:59 PM
Did you watch the video, Laird? The first words on the screen were "Imagine groundbreaking"
If I'm racing rockets, 'ground breaking' is the last thing I want to be. Somebody there must have a twisted sense of humor.
Posted by Midwesterner at January 27, 2009 01:35 AM
Yes, but somehow I missed that!
Truthfully, I do think the RRL is a pretty exciting concept. I'm no fan of "motorsports", but I'd like to see it someday. I hope it does well.
Posted by Laird at January 27, 2009 03:02 AM
Regarding downhill ski racing and danger, it depends to some extent on how you define danger. Fatalities are rare in downhill, much rarer than in even modern F1 (to say nothing of the "old days" of F1). Injuries are fairly common, though.
But comparing downhill to F1 does bring up one important point: the actual velocity, per se, is not the issue. What makes any sport involving speed exciting is watching someone masterfully control a challenging situation, whether that be taking a curve on a superspeedway at 300 kph, on the Isle of Man at 200 kph, or on the Lauberhorn at 100 kph (and, in some cases, passing someone else while doing it). It's control and mastery that make these things sports, and that make them exciting to watch.
Posted by Tedd McHenry at January 28, 2009 04:12 PM
"What makes any sport involving speed exciting is watching someone masterfully control a challenging situation,..."
{nod} Franz Klammer, Innsbruck, 1976. I will never forget that. It's one of the most thrilling things I ever saw, because he was never more than a thousandth of a second away from complete disaster through almost the entire run. I'm convinced that he deliberately risked his life on that mountain that day. It has to be one of the all-time great moments in sports.
I still get goose-bumps just thinking about that.
Posted by Billy Beck at January 30, 2009 03:35 AM
Franz Klammer, Innsbruck, 1976
Definitely. I was an alpine ski racers in my teens, and I remember that run vividly. I had a poster of Klammer on my wall for many years after that.
Posted by Tedd McHenry at February 15, 2009 07:13 PM
