Let’s Green Up Motor Sports Now

Originally car races were a marketing tool.

With the growth in concern over energy use, oil imports, ecological impact, and the state of the economy, is racing cars really relevant any more? Car racing was born of the inevitable crossover from racing of horses amongst breeders and stable owners proving their animals superior, to car manufacturers proving thier brand superior. What won on Sunday sold on Monday, and all of that. In the early phases of the automobile, it was necessary to prove the durability of the technology, the performance it was capable of compared to incumbent horses, etc.. Racing made sense in these terms.

Horse racing proved breeder quality

As the sport progressed, more and more brands emerged to use racing as a proving ground. At the same moment, racing offered a fun pass-time for thrill seekers, a new way to tempt fate. Adrenalin junkies could not resist, and the sport ballooned, then exploded. By the mid 1960′s, motor-sport became the single largest spectator sport in the world, a position it maintains today. Further, motor-sport also became one of the largest amateur sportsman activities, and a large portion of the national economy. Even today, aftermarket race and automotive modifications parts is a multi-billion dollar industry, hosting some of the largest trade conferences, and employing hundreds of thousands of people at every level.

The issue here is not whether motor sport exists, or whether it is of a certain size. The question is whether it can continue to remain relevant in the face of global energy issues, environmental concerns, and the changing economic landscape. Another question may be: Is motor sport a responsible hobby?

Certainly, if one considers the waste created by worn tires every weekend, oil dispensed, fuel consumed in cars adn tow vehicles, the energy consimed to build and maintain the cars, pave and maintain tracks, transport hardware, and house those involved at events… the impact and cost to the environment is certainly worth considering.

Can motor sport be cleaner? Absolutely. Technology is readily available to convert all racecars to strict use of renewable, carbon neutral fuels, to specifiy long lasting tires, limit configuration and modification of race vehicles to more sustainable construction, to reduce the pollution and waste generated from fuels burning and lubricating oil use. In reality, motor sport is only dirty to save a few dollars in the near term, while all efforts to reduce energy use and environmental impact would produce long term cost reduction of the sport as a whole. Only short sightedness and institutionalized thinking hold the sport back from making real progress in this area.

Racing can be a LOT greener than it is now, and a lot cheaper for everyone.

While some may contend that racing cars is irrelevant and needs to be banned outright. This ignores human reality. Humans need recreation and sport, that is as much a part of our existence as eating, choosing mates, and hanging out at Martini bars. Attempting to stop this will fail, miserably. Motor sport is part of this fabric, and includes more than people driving cars in circles or down a straight line. Behind every car is innovation born of the midns of creative thinkers in a wide range of disciplines. At the amateur level, the recreation of technological creation is alive and thriving. At the professional level, motor sport remains a test bed for leading edge ideas, and a training ground for the future’s leading edge transportation thinkers. The recreation of motor sport is no different than any other, and binds social groups as tightly as any other activity, thus remain part of the fabric of humanity.

But, not all is well here. Motor sport is rapidly becoming technologically irrelevant, founded on the acts of the participants and short sighted rules makers. NASCAR vehicles are no more than refined 1970′s cage cars, with the same carbureted, gasoline guzzling big displacement push-rod V8′s of the ancient past. These cars weigh over 3600 pounds, and consume more tires in one weekend than a family does in a lifetime. F1 cars are an insane mix of high technology and old school waste, burning gasoline, consuming rubber, oil, tires, and energy with aplomb.  Sportsman racers are even more archane, often competing in vehicles that were obsolete before being converted to racers, or build on obsolete technologies, based solely on short sighted, myopic ignorance of the real impact of their actions. The concept of drifting and drag racing both appear to be nothing more than contests of who can consume the most fuel to burn up the most tires in the shorest period of time. All of motor sports is struggling with costs of racing and sagging participation, yet ignore the basic tenants of conservation (and the saving this will bring) based solely on arguments of one-time conversion costs.

For motor sports to survive and thrive into the future, those in charge and participating must recognize that the world is changing, and that past practice cannot continue and return satisfactory results. Cars must become cleaner, a LOT cleaner. The consumption of tires must be reduced substantially. Fuels must be renewable and carbon neutral, and limited in consumption. Oils must last longer. Cars and parts must be made more durable. In other words, the total cost of racing must be reduced at every level. Without this, legislation and intrusion of environmental controls, on top of escalating costs of wasteful behavior, will trim auto racing down slowly, until it is seen as irrelevant to the general population, who may choose to simply outlaw it except at the professional level. Robust participation at the amatuer level is necessary to the sports health. The only way to build this interest is to address the sport in modern terms, and to make it comply, kicking and screeming if necessary, with modern concerns and needs. Failing this, there will be a time when motor racing will indeed become irrelevant for the most part, dwindling to a few annual large events like the Kentucky Derby is to horse racing, generally ignored by the general public, a vestige of horse racings once central role as a sport around the world. That will not be much fun for us gearhead types who really enjoy automotive prusuits, who would like it even more if racing cars were at least as technologically sophisticated as a 10 year old economy car.