See also
 | This motorsport-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| 1960s .1970s in motorsport. 1980s |
| Other topics: N/A |
This article documents the events in motorsport that happened in the 1970s.
| | This motorsport-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track in the northeastern United States, located in Dix, New York, just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It is long known around the world as the former home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980). In addition, the site has also been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association, and the IndyCar Series. The facility is currently owned by NASCAR.
Robert Woodward Rahal is an American former auto racing driver and current team owner of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. As a driver he won three championships and 24 races in the CART open-wheel series, including the 1986 Indianapolis 500. He also won the Indianapolis 500 in 2004 and 2020 as team owner for Buddy Rice and Takuma Sato, respectively.
David Wishart Hobbs is a British former racing driver. He worked as a commentator from the mid 1970s for CBS until 1996, Speed from 1996 to 2012 and NBC from 2013 to 2017. In 1969 Hobbs was included in the FIA list of graded drivers, a group of 27 drivers who by their achievements were rated the best in the world. Hobbs was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009.
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is a multi-track motorsport venue located north of Bowmanville, in Ontario, Canada, approximately 75 kilometers east of Toronto. The facility features a 3.957 km (2.459 mi), 10-turn road course; a 2.9 km (1.8 mi) advance driver and race driver training facility with a 0.402 km (0.250 mi) skid pad and a 1.5 km (0.93 mi) kart track. The name "Mosport", a portmanteau of Motor Sport, came from the enterprise formed to build the track.
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida, under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive director of SCCA, and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France Sr. of NASCAR. Beginning in 2014, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier series resulting from the merger of Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. IMSA is owned by NASCAR, as a division of the company.
Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury, in the state's northwest corner. Built in 1956, it is the nation's third oldest continuously operating road racing venue, behind Road America (1955) and Willow Springs International Motorsports Park (1953). The track was owned by Skip Barber from 1984 to April 2021, a former race car driver who started the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975. Now, it is owned by Lime Rock Group, LLC. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Road Atlanta is a 2.540 mi (4.088 km) road course located just north of Braselton, Georgia, United States. The facility is utilized for a wide variety of events, including professional and amateur sports car and motorcycle races, racing and driving schools, corporate programs and testing for motorsports teams. The track has 12 turns, including the famous "esses" between turns three and five; and Turn 12, a downhill, diving turn. The track is owned by IMSA Holdings, LLC through its subsidiary Road Atlanta, LLC, and is the home to the Petit Le Mans, as well as AMA motorcycle racing, and smaller events throughout the year. Michelin acquired naming rights to the facility in 2018.
Elliott Forbes-Robinson is a road racing race car driver. He is known for his race wins and championships in many different series, including the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Super Vee, Trans-Am Series, CanAm, IMSA GTU, and the World Challenge. He is known in NASCAR circles as a road course ringer. He is also a founder of the Legends Cars of 600 Racing and he designed their original car.
Renger Adriaan van der Zande is a Dutch racing driver who currently competes in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Chip Ganassi Racing. He is the son of the 1978 National Dutch Rallycross Champion Ronald van der Zande. In 2016, Van der Zande won his first major sports car championship with co-driver Alex Popow and Starworks Motorsport in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship PC Class. Renger resides in Amsterdam with his partner Carlijn and their daughter.
James D. Davison is an Australian professional racing driver who drives an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 in the Blancpain GT World Challenge America. He has also competed in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and NASCAR Xfinity Series. He is sometimes also called JD Davison.
ESPN SpeedWorld is a former television series broadcast on ESPN from 1979 to 2006. The program that was based primarily based around NASCAR, CART, IMSA, Formula One, NHRA, and IHRA. The theme music is based on the piano interlude from "18th Avenue " by Cat Stevens.
This article documents the events that occurred in motorsports in the 1960s.
This page documents some of the events that happened in motorsport in the 1980s.
The Chevrolet Grand Prix is an annual IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race held every July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The race originated in 1975 and is currently a two hour and forty minute race in order to fit the event into a television-friendly package. Previous editions of the Grand Prix were part of the World Sportscar Championship, the American Le Mans Series and the IMSA GT Championship.
Lawson L. Aschenbach is an American professional racing driver. He is a four-time Pirelli World Challenge champion, and most recently, the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge GTS Champion. He is the 2006 SPEED World Challenge Rookie of the Year and became the first person to win the SPEED GT Championship in his rookie season. He is also the champion of the 2010 Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge ST Championship and 2014 Lamborghini Super Trofeo ProAM World Champion. Aschenbach first raced professionally in 2005. He currently races for Stevenson Motorsports in the IMSA Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
Shane Lewis is an American racing driver who has competed primarily in endurance sports car racing. He also competes in Unlimited Trophy Truck desert racing and short course SXS racing.
This page documents some of the events that happened in motorsport in the 1990s.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption to motorsport across the world, mirroring its impact across all sports. Across the world and to varying degrees, events and competitions were cancelled or postponed.
The new millennium saw many changes for motorsport. Not only were there technological developments, but also historic ones like NASCAR's severing of ties with the tobacco industry.