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The Motorsport Portal

Motorsport (also known as auto racing or motor racing) has existed almost as long as the automobile itself. It originated in France in 1894 with a "reliability test" between Paris and Rouen that was organised by Le Petit Journal. The following year saw the first stage race take place between Paris and Bordeaux and automotive competition was born.

Motorsport can take place on- and off-road on purpose-built closed road circuits, temporary street circuits, ovals, and special stages on asphalt, gravel or snow. The variety of machinery is even wider and ranges from vehicles that are derived from production road cars – such as touring cars and GT cars – to high-tech purpose-built formula cars and GP motorcycles. See the section on Racing disciplines below. Competition is not confined to conventional first-past-the-flag races, but can include speed contests (such as drag racing), time trials (such as rallying) and skill tests (such as motorcycle trials).

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The Maserati MC12 is a grand tourer produced by Maserati to allow a racing variant to compete in the FIA GT Championship. The car entered production in 2004 with 30 cars produced (five of which were not for sale). A further 25 were produced in 2005 making a total of 50 cars available for customers, each of which were pre-sold for €600 000.

Maserati designed and built the car on the chassis of the Enzo Ferrari but the final car is much larger. The MC12 is longer, wider and taller than the Enzo Ferrari, which has faster acceleration and a higher top speed. The top speed of the Maserati MC12 is 330 kilometres per hour (205 mph) whereas the top speed of the Enzo Ferrari is 350 kilometres per hour (217.5 mph).

The MC12 was developed to signal Maserati's return to racing after 37 years. The road version was produced to homologate the race version. One requirement for participation in the FIA GT is the production of at least 25 road cars. Three GT1 race cars were entered into the FIA GT with great success. Maserati began racing the MC12 in the FIA GT toward the end of the 2004 season, winning at the Zhuhai International Circuit. The racing MC12s were entered into the American Le Mans Series races in 2005 but exceeded the size restrictions and consequently paid weight penalties.

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Damon Graham Devereux Hill OBE (born 17 September 1960 in London) is a British former racing driver from England.

He was the 1996 Formula One World Champion. As the son of the late double Formula One world champion Graham Hill, he is the only son of a world champion to win the title.

Hill started his Formula One career in 1992 with the then uncompetitive Brabham team. He took the first of his 22 victories at the 1993 Hungarian Grand Prix for the Williams team the following year. In 1994, he won the British Grand Prix, a race his father had never won in his long and successful career. During the mid 1990s, Hill was Michael Schumacher's main rival for the Formula One Driver's Championship, finishing runner-up in the German's 1994 and 1995 title seasons. The two had a series of controversial clashes on and off the track, including the collision at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix that gave Schumacher his first title by a single point.

Hill took eight victories and eventually the world championship in 1996. Despite this, Williams decided in mid-1996 not to renew Hill's contract for 1997. He went on to record the Jordan team's first ever win at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, and came within a few miles of being the only driver to win a Grand Prix for the Arrows team and their Yamaha engine supplier at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix. He retired from the sport at the end of the 1999 season, after 122 race starts.

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Formula One's official safety car (also known as a pace car) behind which the field runs in dangerous track conditions

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Quotes

"The first time I fired up a car, felt the engine shudder and the wheel come to life in my hands, I was hooked. It was a feeling I can't describe. I still get it every time I get into a race car." – Mario Andretti.
"You do things, you f**k people, it's racing." – Niki Lauda.
"It doesn't matter if you're in a wheelchair or have healthy legs. If you have the will to do something, you can get it done. I race the same as anyone else does; I just don't use my feet. And, I never give up." - Evan Evans, the first paraplegic competitor to win a professional off-road racing title.

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Did you know...

...that NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. examined photographs and newsreels for three days before determining that unofficial 1959 Daytona 500 race winner Johnny Beauchamp had actually finished second behind Lee Petty?
...that American sports car racing driver Dick Thompson was known as the "Flying Dentist"?
...that Andy Papathanassiou, a former college football player who was the first person hired as a NASCAR pit crew coordinator, started use of trained athletes to cut pit stop times from 19 down to 13 seconds?
...that the Daytona Beach Road Course was the site of fifteen world land speed records, and the course was instrumental in the formation of NASCAR?

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News

Danica Patrick

April 20 – IRL driver Danica Patrick became the first American woman to win an Indy event at the Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi.[1]
March 30 – Touring car driver David Leslie and team owner Richard Lloyd have been killed in an aviation accident in Kent, England.
March 30 – Dani Pedrosa won the Spanish MotoGP race at Jerez. Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo finished second and third.[2]
March 30 – In the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Denny Hamlin took his first win of the season at Martinsville Speedway. Jeff Burton's 3rd place gave him the lead in the points standings.[3]
March 30 – Colin Turkington and reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi shared the race wins in the first round of the 2008 British Touring Car Championship season.[4][5]
March 30 – Scott Dixon won the first race of the new IndyCar Series season. The former champion started in pole position and led 67 of the 200 laps.[6]
March 17 – Jeff Burton won NASCAR's Sprint Cup race – the Food City 500 – at Bristol. It was the first 1-2-3 finish for Richard Childress Racing.[7] The Nationwide Series race was won by Clint Bowyer. Kevin Harvick still leads the standings.[8]
March 17 – Garth Tander won all three races in last weekend's V8 Supercars series round at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia.[9]
March 16 – Team Penske's Porsche RS Spyder won the 56th running of the 12 Hours of Sebring sportscar enduro and ended Audi's run of eight consecutive wins in the event, which is a round of the ALMS.[10]

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Racing disciplines

Formula One World Rally Championship NASCAR MotoGP

Formula racing refers to various forms of racing that use open wheeled single seaters, from Formula One to Formula Ford. Wherever there is motor racing, there will often be some form of formula racing. Some formulae use a single design of chassis and engine, while others allow a lot of technical freedom.

Stock cars race primarily on oval circuits and are very popular in the United States, where the major championships are run by NASCAR. The cars are built to very strict regulations with "silhouette" body shells that resemble production road car models. Major events include the Daytona 500.

Touring cars fall into two main categories of machinery based on production road cars. Some classes – such as the World Touring Car Championship – are heavily production-based with limited modifications, while others – like the DTM – use racing chassis and components with bodywork that mimics the equivalent road cars.

Sports car racing is synonymous with endurance racing, in which two or more drivers share each car during the course of a long race. Races in a series typically last around three to four hours, but there are many one-off events that can last for 12 or even 24 hours or cover a set distance such as 1000km. There are two distinct types of sports cars that often share events (each type being divided into classes). Sports prototypes have mid-engined chassis that are fully enclosed in aerodynamically efficient bodywork. Their cockpits can be open or enclosed in a canopy. Sports prototypes are most closely associated with the 24 Hours of Le Mans and notable examples include the Audi R10 and Porsche 962. GT cars (grand tourers) are production-based sports cars that may be mid-, rear- or front-engined. Notable examples include the Viper GTS-R, the 911 GT2 and the Maserati MC12.

Kart racing is the first step on the career ladder for most young aspiring drivers. They are constructed with a small, flat chassis, small wheels, a single seat and almost no bodywork. They are powered by small two-stroke engines. Most karting formulae permit entrants as young as seven or eight years old, who will hope to graduate into entry-level single-seater formula racing in their late teens.

Rallying takes place on closed roads of asphalt, gravel, mud, or snow. The vehicles are usually modified road cars or production-derived, often with 4WD. Events comprise a series of point-to-point time trials in which competitors begin each timed "stage" at intervals. The highest level is the World Rally Championship; notable events include the Dakar Rally.

Drifting is a relatively recent form of motorsport that originated in Japan. Competitors have to induce a controlled rear-wheel slide during their competition runs and are judged according to a number of criteria. Depending on the nature of the competition, the drivers may perform on track individually or compete together in a form of "race".

Drag racing is a performance contest between two competitors in similar or identical machinery on a straight drag strip of between 0.25 and 1 mile (0.4-1.6km) in length, on which they accelerate from a standing start. The leading category is Top Fuel, whose engines run on an alcohol-based mixture to produce over 8000bhp. They can cover a ¼mile in a little over 4 seconds with a peak speed in the region of 330mph.

Motorcycle sport is a widely varied category. On asphalt, it may take the form of circuit racing, such as MotoGP and the Superbike World Championship, road races like the Isle of Man TT, or even stunt riding competitions. Off-road competition includes Motocross, Freestyle, Enduro and Motorcycle trials. Equipment ranges from unmodified or production-derived machines to the high-technology bespoke racing bikes that are used in MotoGP.