My favorite sport to watch is ...

Started by AstroMart, 04/07/2018 10:51PM

Poll Results:


0 Total Votes
Posted 10/05/2009 04:00PM #1
No bike racing?

Sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train.
--John Milton

Posted 10/05/2009 04:34PM #2
No Hunting, Fishing, Camping, Hiking, Climbing, Sailing....why limit this to coach potato sports?
Posted 10/05/2009 05:34PM #3
Christine Canelos Welsh said:

No bike racing?

I love cycling, had some fun doing a bit of racing myself but IMHO it's not well suited to Television...

My favorite Sport to watch on TV: World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. Those Winged Sprinters are totally wild on the banked clay ovals.

The cars themselves are unique and impressive. They are open wheel descendants the original Indy type cars. Besides the large wing that keeps them from flipping as they slide sideways through the turns, there are many less obvious features:

- No transmission, no differential... There is an in-out slider, the driver slips the box into gear and then the car is pushed until it starts.

- The rear tires are "staggered", the outside tire is considerable larger than the inside, this is necessary because there is no differential. The staggered tires are setup for full drive in the corner, the outside is traveling further than the inside as they spin away. Of course down the straight, it means at least one tire must be slipping, going straight in a Sprint Car is not so easy.

- Lots of power and not much weight... No flywheel, no clutch, just 410 cubic inches on alcohol, 17:1 compression and fuel injection, around 800hp+. Minimum Weight for a WOL Sprint car is 1375 lbs with the driver. Compare that to Nascar, the minimum weight with the driver is 3400 lbs, almost 3 times as much and they run about the same power when not restricted...

So, when you put all that together, a short 84 inch wheel base, a light weight car with a lot of horsepower on a banked dirt track the equation says there ought to be some hair-raising racing...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Outlaws

jon

Posted 10/06/2009 12:24PM #4
Yes, a lot more fun than watching NASCAR but you're still only turning Left and can't count higher then 4! :-)
Posted 10/06/2009 05:05PM #5
Too bad no air-racing. I love the Red Bull series.
POST

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Posted 10/07/2009 09:44AM #6
Michael A. Barlow said:

Yes, a lot more fun than watching NASCAR but you're still only turning Left and can't count higher then 4! :-)

And a lot more fun than watching F-1 or just about any pavement racing because there is actual passing and the cars are going sideways most of the time. F-1 racing, sure the cars are sophisticated and super fast but the driver on the pole generally is the first one into the first turn and that's it unless the car breaks. Talk about boring...

It is interesting that for all those turns in F-1, all the drivers take almost exactly the same line all the way around the track. In dirt track racing, car or motorcycle, there are only 4 turns but there are many different fast lines around the track...

For a bit of added excitement, add in a reverse start where the fastest qualifiers start at the rear. At Baylands in Fremont, CA, I watched Jimmy Sills start at the very back and go on to win the A main many times, he had to pass 24 cars in 30 or so laps...

I still remember watching Sammy Swindell make an inside pass coming out of turn 4, he just stood on it, the front end lifted about a foot off the ground and he went down the front straight on two wheels passing some poor dude. And I was standing on the rail about 20 feet away...

Oh well, to each his own...

Jon



Posted 10/07/2009 04:49PM #7
Sorry gang...
I honestly don't watch anything listed in the poll. shocked
I do enjoy the Olympics every 2 years though.
Does that count?
Linton
Posted 10/08/2009 01:33PM | Edited 10/08/2009 01:34PM #8
I particularly love Motocross, watching and doing... 8) (even though I have not done it in 15 years)
As a side note, yesterday I was watching Mountain Bike World Championship, and man, that was awesome!

Ivan Gastaldo 8)
Coconut Creek, FL

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Posted 10/10/2009 12:14PM #9
Bicycling on TV is great when done well...the Tour of Ireland most recently, and the Tour de France being good examples of very good coverage. I vote bicycling.