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Welcome to RacingPedia™ -- The Racing Encyclopedia

Latest News Links:
ESPN.com has launched many new widgets that offer scores, stats, and news
28 Aug 2008 at 5:08pm

Visit the ESPN Widget Center.


Motorsports Racing
Logano to drive in seven Sprint Cup races this fall
27 Aug 2008 at 5:04pm
Joey Logano will drive in seven Sprint Cup races this fall as a tuneup before the 18-year-old sta...
Sorenson latest driver to bolt Ganassi Sprint team
26 Aug 2008 at 12:34pm
The pieces continue to unravel with the Sprint Cup organization of Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix...
Gibbs prez: Further penalties for Nationwide crew
22 Aug 2008 at 2:41pm
Joe Gibbs Racing plans to further penalize its seven Nationwide Series crew members placed on ind...
Mears to be named Childress Racing's 4th driver
22 Aug 2008 at 2:13pm
Richard Childress Racing has scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference for Saturday in which Casey Me...
Sorenson crew chief fined for Michigan violation
20 Aug 2008 at 3:08pm
Reed Sorenson's crew chief was fined $25,000 Wednesday for an improperly attached weight on the ...

Horse Racing
Finally showtime for Curlin at Spa
28 Aug 2008 at 4:25pm
Steve Asmussen said he would be excited to watch Curlin run even if he weren't his trainer. The N...
Louisiana adopts steroid limits
26 Aug 2008 at 4:45pm
The Louisiana State Racing Commission in a meeting Monday in New Orleans voted to adopt rules reg...
NYRA receives seventh extension
26 Aug 2008 at 4:46pm
A New York State oversight board has granted the New York Racing Association a seventh temporary ...

Bicycle Racing
New VeloNews RSS Feed: http://www.velonews.com/feed
8 Feb 2008 at 10:40am
Please update your RSS reader to view all of your favorite VeloNews articles. The news feed URL i...

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Our Mission:
To create the most complete and definitive source of information about the past and present of the Sport of Racing.

Our Goal:
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.

* Horse Racing - is an equestrian sport which has been practiced over the centuries; the chariot races of Roman times are an early example, as is the contest of the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology. It is often inextricably associated with gambling. The common nickname for horse racing is The Sport of Kings.

 

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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