The 2024 running motorsports thread

Yeah, I know. I’ll pass by it on 840 tonight going up to my parents’ house.

My thinking is that Cup races used to be death stars that altered the orbit of the roadways around them for many miles out. Thirty years ago, I wouldn’t dare be on the interstate over the weekend in Birmingham or even Montgomery if there was a race way over in Talladega. School systems would take the Friday before off as a planned holiday because it would be suicidal to send buses out into that traffic jam. The local news (itself an anachronism) would be full of stories about the race and the expected crush of visitors.

 

They didn't have enough to cover their asterisk.

 

Sort of like the LIV tournament a few weeks ago. It was in "Nashville" but at least 30+ miles south, closer to Spring Hill than Nashville at a course on the 840 bypass. I saw one billboard for it somewhere on I-65, I think south of downtown near the 440 exit. Maybe. It didn't stand out.

 

Motor Speedway: see Atlanta

or better yet, the defunct Atlanta Dragway

 

I've always found it a little amusing that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500 are actually in Speedway, Indiana, not Indianapolis. But unlike the other places mentioned - it's an enclave of the city now.

 

Or Road Atlanta, which is halfway between downtown and the South Carolina state line.

 

Dragway was east of that out in Commerce.

 

One of those datelines AP never gets right, like Notre Dame, Ind. and Stanford, Calif.

 

And Speedway was incorporated in 1926, 17 years after the track was built.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...ance-brain-injury-crash/74314441007/?tbref=hp

Drag racing icon John Force is walking with assistance less than two weeks after he suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in a high-speed crash at the NHRA Virginia Nationals in late June.

John Force Racing announced Friday that Force has been moved from intensive care to acute neurology care at a Virginia hospital as he continues to show "encouraging signs" in his treatment. His team said that Force has been able to "converse" with medical staff, friends and family members and is back on his feet.

Despite Force's "positive response" to treatment, doctors said the Hall of Famer has "a long and difficult" recovery ahead. His team said Force is "dealing with cognitive and behavioral symptoms from his TBI" and suffers "periods of confusion."

"The next step for the man whose career has spanned six decades likely will be a move to a long-term facility specializing in TBI and associated symptoms. A time frame for that move has not yet been determined," the statement reads.

 

IndyCar running the hybrid system for the first time at Mid-Ohio. First practice was mostly curtailed by rain. Will be interested to see what transpires when they actually get to use the darn things on a dry track. (EDIT: Apparently nobody can drive with that extra 100 pounds. Should be carnage on race day.)