Roping Roper
Patrick Smith enjoying second world title
Rodeo star Patrick Smith had quite a 2010 season.
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NASCAR-THE NASCAR-NASCAR RACE
NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1948 and began its first and most important series of races (known as the Grand National Division from 1950, the Winston Cup Series from 1971, and the Nextel Cup Series since 2005) in Charlotte, N.C., in 1949. Other major NASCAR events include the Busch and Craftsman Truck series. Stock cars are standard production passenger vehicles modified in various ways to be faster-they often exceed 200 mph/320 kph-and more powerful than regulation assembly-line automobiles. Typical modifications include larger engines and specialized suspensions, chassis, brakes, and safety equipment. Today NASCAR sanctions more than 1,500 races throughout the country and several in Canada and Mexico. The majority are concentrated in the SE United States and held on paved oval tracks, and the most important are sponsored by major corporations. The largest and most presigious NASCARrace is the Daytona 500, a 500-mi/805-km Florida race that was first held in 1959 and 20 years later was the first to be nationally televised; it now attracts more than 200,000 fans and is widely covered by the media.
The Origins of NASCAR
The concept of touring (stock) cars competing against each other was nothing new to the racing scene. But NASCAR brought excitement to this equation emphasizing on normal drivers with a proletarian background racing their own self-tuned cars rather than on glamorous professional racers driving factory-built performance cars. The early history of NASCAR is related to a social and political phenomenon of the first half of the 20th century: the Prohibition. The 1920 Volstead Act outlawing the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages is known to have had undesired consequences, such as the rise of organized crime and a profitable black market of alcohol. It is now a consented reality that early stock car racers were involved in alcohol smuggling. They had fast cars to escape police forces and the fact that they soon began to compete against each other is in the very human nature. With their huge profits, the runners would modify their production cars in order to create faster, more maneuverable vehicles to evade the police. Their high-speed chases and their driving skills soon became urban legends in many cities across the U.S. These romantic outlaws of the beginning of the century gathered on daylight in places such as the Daytona Beach, which became a Mecca for speed enthusiasts, or the Bonneville Salt Flats. Numerous land speed records were set of these two locations in the 20s and 30s. Even though President F.D. Roosevelt lifted the prohibition on alcohol in 1933, most drivers and car owners carried on racing for glory and for the prizes at stake.
Despite the rich heritage of stock car racing, the first NASCAR race only took place after World War II. Based on the growing popularity of stock car racing, visionary entrepreneur William 'Bill' France Sr., a former mechanic and Daytona racer himself, had the idea of creating a sanctioning body, standardized regulations and a championship in the early 40s. His plans were delayed by the attack on Pearl Harbor and consequently by the United States' war declaration on the Japanese Empire. After serving in the army, Bill France Sr. resumed racing in Daytona as early as 1946. Along with drivers and race promoters, France formed the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing in February 1948. Named the "Strictly Stock Division", it first featured pre-war family sedans with very little or no modification. Ropes and aircraft harnesses were used as seat belts. Roll bars - which were mandated in 1952 - were neither required nor often installed. One thing the strictly stock designation encouraged was a great diversity of manufacturers on the track. The first official Strictly Stock Division race held in 1949 on a three-quarter mile long dirt track in Charlotte, North Carolina, had nine makes come to the line (Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford, Hudson, Kaiser, Lincoln, Mercury and Oldsmobile). Jim Roper, driving a Lincoln, went on to win this race after initial winner Glenn Dunnaway was disqualified after a post-race inspection revealed that his car was fitted with non-stock rear springs to improve traction. Alabama-born Robert 'Red' Byron eventually became NASCAR's first champion, winning two out of eight races.
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The NASCAR is one most popular events even now a days.
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