History of Sports Car Racing

Sport cars are typically cars made up of two seats, often with a closed cockpit and bodywork that covers the wheels. These cars are designed for maximum speed not only on straightaways, but also through a series of corners and S-curves (two turns in a row that together form the shape of a letter S). Sports cars differ from the more popular stock cars in that stock cars are more like the typical American-built sedans and coupes that are seen on the road every day. Sports cars are often exotic looking, usually low-slung with a rounded body style, and they are frequently built outside of North America. Ferrari, Porsche, Lotus, and Jaguar are the best-known sports car automakers and are popular throughout the world. 

The cars have traditionally featured lightweight, aerodynamically tuned, and smooth-cornered bodies that surround the driver in a cocoon of protective roll bars. In the early years, the engine was placed in the front of the car, but by 2004, most sports cars were either mid-engine or rear-engine models. The new Daytona Prototype that was introduced to the Rolex Sports Car Series featured state-of-the-art sports car design, with a specially built, closed cockpit and, typically, a Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Maserati, or BMW engine.

Georges Faroux, a joint-creator of the first 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1923, claims that sports car racing was not born until after 1919 or before the First World War.

The cars used in endurance racing and Grand Prix were indistinguishable in the 1920s. They both have fenders and two seats if a mechanic is needed. But in the 1930s, the legendary Alfa Romeo Tipo A Monoposto sports car started the evolution of the true single-seater sports car.

In the later 1930s, French constructors withdrew into primarily domestic competition with large-capacity sports cars such as Talbot and Bugatti’s because they were unable to keep up with the progress of the Mercedes Benz and Auto-Union cars in GP racing.

Roadgoing sports or GT cars started to emerge through the 1920s and 1930s, as distinct from fast tourers and sports cars. 스포츠중계

In the 1950’s, open-road endurance races across Europe which often run on dusty roads like Tour de France and Targa Florio still needed fenders and mechanics. Many Italian cars and races defined the genre until it came to be known as Gran Turismo. It is because long distances had to be travelled instead of running around on short circuits. After the Second World War, sports car racing was regarded as almost important as Grand Prix competition. Major car companies started to invest their efforts in their works to supply cars to customers. Some of these companies were Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar, and Aston Martin.

In the 1950s and 1960’s, a breed of powerful hybrids appeared and raced on both sides of the Atlantic featuring European chassis and large American engines. The combination of British chassis and American V8 engines made Can-Am series popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The 1960’s and 1970’s were the times sports car racing evolved, rise, and declined.

But when the 1990s came, sports car racing was revived. A number of GT series sprung up at national and European levels. Prototypes and other similar cars started to be raced in Europe as the 1990s progressed.

In 2000, the SpeedVision television network debuted in the US and it brought a renaissance of interest in sports car racing. In 2010, some major reformatting was done to sports car racing in the United States.