Q: Which do you prefer. im a course-racing fan myself. whats so so exciting in shifting gears and going straight? 1/4 miles tests the machine and reaction time, thats all. but in a course its all on the drivers skill. thats probably why i prefer drift and mountain racing. what about you guys? well i have driven in a moderately high powered car before, so thanks for assuming. i took care of my friends HKS-sponsored 94 Supra for a couple weeks, that averaged a little over 13 seonds when i drove it in palmdale. yes i know thats rather slow compared to dragcars, but if youre saying that dragstrip racing is tougher than drift and and rally, youre saddly mistaken. i guess its all preference. but im talking about racing in its purest form. for instance, it takes a lot more skill to enter and exit anyurn as fast as u can, than just going straight
A: If by 'course-racing' you mean road courses, why do I have to pick just one? They're completely different. All motorsports are team sports, you need both a competitive machine and a skilled driver. The only exception would be the late lamented IROC series, which tried to boil it down to driver skill only. I grew up around drag racing and still love it. There is nothing like the spectacle of 5000hp machines going from zero to 320 in just over 4 seconds. Crew chiefs steadily find ways to get one or two extra horsepower out of an engine. Drivers don't just need good reaction time, they have to modulate the clutch in dicey conditions (John Force is the absolute master of this) and -- in certain classes -- shift cleanly and quickly at exactly the right time. If you've only seen pro drag racing on TV, I can't begin to describe the breathtaking violence, the pure sensory overload, of the Top Fuel cars. Local grass-roots bracket racing is fun too. Again, it isn't just reaction time, and shifting with machine-like consistency; you have to adjust your dial-in according to changing conditions (usually, the air cools during the evening, and e.t.'s drop). If you don't think any of this takes driver skill, please show me a few of your winner's trophies from your local drags. Around these parts 75-200 cars show up for every Saturday race and there can be no question that the guy who finally leaves with the trophy is completely in the zone. But I also like open-wheel racing, on either ovals or road courses, and NASCAR too. I'll watch any kind of four-wheeled vehicles in a race so long as there is good on-track competition. I'd love to follow the WRC series if only it were televised where I live. Addendum: You lost me with the 'drifting', though. Last time I checked, that had more to do with 'looking cool' than with speed or e.t. So it's not a sport at all, but some kind of exhibition thing. Must be fun to do though.