The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Is motorsport really a sport? The debate goes on and on

10th January, 2011
Advertisement
Expert
10th January, 2011
75
9844 Reads
Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes

Bathurst 1000 action from the race at Mount Panorama on Sunday the 10/10/2010. Image: Simon Hodgson / SMP Images

When the Triple Eight V8 Supercar team was nominated for The Roar’s 2010 Australian team of the year, some readers took exception: a motorsport team had no right competing against proper sporting teams, it was insinuated. “Why is there a hobby on the list?” one commenter said.

Motorsport is used to such derisions.

It doesn’t fit comfortably into our definition of a sport. There’s no ball, running or physical contact (between bodies, at least). Competitors rely on engines and wheels to move, their success or failure is dependant on the quality of their machinery, and they even sit down when competing… for goodness sakes. We all drive cars, so what’s the difference between what they do and what we do?

This flawed logic has fostered the ‘not a sport’ argument, as people associate motorsport with an activity they do in their day-to-day lives – an activity we all take for granted.

But let’s strip this down and clear some of the misconceptions. A sport is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”

No question motorsport ticks the “individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” component. It is, after all, a competitive exercise to discover the fastest and most consistent individual and team over the course of the season.

It’s certainly for “our entertainment” as motorsport is the fourth most attended sport in Australia. No question it is popular enough.

Advertisement

So it comes down to the “physical exertion and skill” definition.

Here’s motorsport’s problem: we can’t jump into a V8 Supercar or Formula One car and take them for a spin, so the sensation of speed and the difference between race and road cars can’t be assessed; we can’t appreciate the difference in physical exertion required to drive a race car compared to a road car.

We can, however, relate to footy players chasing after a ball because we can relate to the psychical effort required as we’ve all had a kick around in the park.

The physical effort required to compete in motorsport is hidden behind cockpits, tin-tops, overalls and helmets. We can’t see the psychical exertion that the drivers and riders are going through. We can’t see the flexing muscles or gritted faces as we can in other sports. It’s invisible.

And how can it be a sport when portly fellows such as Nigel Mansell proved you didn’t have to pass skin fold tests to win? Age is no barrier either, with the likes of Mario Andretti, Peter Brock and Dick Johnson racing in competitive categories well into their fifties.

Michael Schumacher proved he could still cut it in Formula One at the age of 41. Even chain-smoking didn’t stop James Hunt and Keke Rosberg from winning Formula One world championships.

But don’t be fooled into believing the perceptions: motorsport requires an immense physical effort to cope with the g-forces of cars/bikes unimaginably more powerful and harder to drive than your Toyota Camry.

Advertisement

Heavy g-forces put huge severe pressure on a driver’s neck; psychical strength is required to drive the cars as steering force is multiplied at such high speeds; an immense amount of concentration is needed to focus in such a strenuous and highly pressured environment at high speed; and stamina is required to ensure a driver is as focused on the first lap as well as the last, ninety minutes or so after intense racing with no break.

But again, this is all invisible to the causal viewer.

We only see cars going around and around, seemingly without effort. This invisibility hurts motorsport’s ability to translate the psychical strain required to compete.

Former V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup showed drivers could cut it with their fellow sportsmen, finishing in second place in the Rexona Australia’s Greatest Athlete television show, beating out the likes of Steve Hooker, Lote Tuqiri, Ky Hurst, Brett Deledio and Joel Griffiths.

It doesn’t necessarily mean he is a fitter, better athlete than those competitors (the show was far from an exact science), but it did show motorsport competitors have a level of psychical fitness, strength and endurance the measure of their ball sport compatriots.

Also, just because there is an engine powering the drivers/riders, it doesn’t mean the drivers are mere passengers. The engine doesn’t drive around race tracks of their own accord; it’s still up to the drivers to apply the accelerator, brake and skillfully guide their cars around those tracks quicker than their opponents.

When you consider that fact, motorsport has every right to sit alongside horse racing or sailing as a sport. Just because there is a mechanical element driving the competitors, doesn’t diminish the effort required to compete in that sport.

Advertisement

There is still a psychical effort and skill requirement, it’s just different from our traditional view of a sport; usually involving a ball, posts and goals.

The perceptions won’t change, however; drivers will still sit and be propelled by engines, so the critics will still label it a sporting fraud.

The debate will go on and on.

close