Major Motorsports?

Good to see some love for ALMS.

I tend to forget about it too, but I think you'd definitely have to rank NHRA as major motorsports, at least in the US.

 

Nothing American about that shot, PCLL. The "Le Mans" part is correct, though.

 

Whoops! You're right. I retract the "A".

 

;D

(And for those who haven't seen Audi's diesel race car: That picture is about as loud as the car itself.)

 

That will change next year. IRL will be a 1/3-third oval, road, street course split.

 

Anyone who doesn't consider NHRA to be major is likely someone who doesn't regularly cover or know the first thing about racing.

 

NHRA is definitely major, but it's also very easy to forget about because it's not in the forefront media-wise.

 

I can see this, because although NHRA is a major motorsport, a case can be made that winning an NHRA event is not winning a race. The rounds structure is totally different form other froms of motorsport.

 

An XM promo this morning was hyping Danica as the first woman to win a "major motorsports" event.

 

I say this as a major gearhead who watches about any kind of racing on TV: NHRA doesn't qualify as a "major" motorsport. TV ratings aren't there, national attention isn't there. Even with same-day coverage on ESPN2, it's not there.

Now, when the final rounds of the Pomona Finals, the US Nationals or the SuperNationals at Englishtown are live on network TV, then we'll talk. When major newspapers start assigning beat writers to fly to Denver and follow the Western Swing from there, then we'll talk. When Jeg Coughlin and Jason Line are being interviewed live on SportsCenter on a weekly basis to talk about being tied at the top of the Pro Stock points standings, then we'll talk. When the class champions get their pictures on SI at the end of the season and are the centerpiece of SI's coverage, then we'll talk.

Here's your major motorsports, US edition: NASCAR, IRL and ... no, that's it. Just NASCAR and the IRL. The NHRA is in the second tier with Grand Am and ALMS (and F1's level of prominence among American fans) as a niche market, but the factory involvement in the two sports car series (read: "money") greatly exceeds that in the NHRA.

 

Hard for me to not list F1 as major (not that I'm terribly objective on this). It's the top level of racing in the world and the USGP has the best attendance of any race on the schedule. It's certainly nowhere near the level of NASCAR in terms of US interest, but the interest exists.