The yearly motor racing calendar is full of events of different types all over the world, but there are none like the ones were about to tell you about. There are motor bike racing but none like the Isle of Man TT; Formula 1 races is a yearlong event but none like the Monaco Grand Prix and The Indy 500 (Indianapolis 500). These take you from the azure Mediterranean to across the Atlantic to the dusty Indiana.
ISLE OF MAN TT
If you are a Motor bike racing fan you will be familiar with the Isle of Man TT. Unlike the well planned and design circuits of MotoGP, the Isle of Man course is natural ordinary road use by every day motorist throughout the year. The TT competitors use 200 miles of this road for the event, which weaves through the undulating Manx countryside, inches from residence fences, hedges and other agrarian partitions. The Isle of Man TT allows you to get close the riders as they wiz past at 200 miles an hour.
The Isle of Man TT is a manic and deadly week of racing, which averages about two fatalities per year; now this is scary! "Get it wrong and you are dead", said one competitor. With about 250 corners and 40-odd hills, competitors have to spend time learning the course some up to a year or more. "If you are not prepared, if you don't know what the course is doing and where you're going, you're going to end up coming home in a box", said a rider. Riders flock the competition because of the buzz and natural feel of the course, "it takes you away from going around tracks".
MONACO GRAND PRIX
Roaring through the streets of majestic Monte Carlo, the Monaco Grand Prix is the jewel in Formula 1 yearly racing events around the world, one that any driver would like to have on their CV. Like the Isle of Man TT the course is use by the public as their normal route to get where they are going, but adapted for racing on the Formula 1 weekend.
On race day drivers fly through the harbour area of the principality, inches from barriers, mere feet from landmarks. "It's an absolute assault o the senses. It's quite incredible. The noise, the people, the adrenaline is gripping, and obviously the glamour is on another level. It is so surreal and so detached from reality the you start to lose grasp of what sort of money is around you as you go from one super-yacht to another." said one reporter.
The race takes drivers through the heart of Monaco and along the harbourside. "The great thing about the Monaco is that it's such a personal circuit because the public is so close, you can see them as you drive past", said three times winner Sir Stirling Moss.
It's hard to convey just how tight the circuit is compared to others on the F1 calendar, but driver can hear the sound of their engines echoing off nearby buildings, and if you are lucky enough to be able to watch from inside the world-famous tunnel, you can "feel your ribcage rattling as the cars go through".
THE INDY 500
While the twists and turns of Monte Carlo are considered the jewel in Motorsport's European crown, it's a very different story with The Indianapolis 500, here the sports has always been something more guttural, more frantic than Formula 1.
The Indy 500, is five-hundred miles around an oval circuit, at an average speed of over 220mph. It's a gruelling race, as hard as any F1 circuit. "some of that is the length of the race, some of that is the nature of the track. Physically, it is not that difficult in comparison to another race, you're not under the same G-loading as you'd be on a road or street course, but mentally, it's incredibly tough", said two-time Dario Franchitti. "The speeds are so constant - on a lap your average speed will be about 225mph, your highest is about 230, and the lowest you probably get is about 220 in the middle of a corner. You've got to position that car with pinpoint accuracy for three and a half hours".
The Indianapolis 500, is seeing as one of the greatest spectacle in racing, where you sit with a crowd of over 350,000 people with over 100 years of history.