Motorcycle sport is a broad field that encompasses all sporting aspects of motorcycling. The disciplines are not all races or timed-speed events, as several disciplines test a competitor's various riding skills.
Rallying is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests, navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. Rallies may be short in the form of trials at a single venue, or several thousand miles long in an extreme endurance rally.
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Prince Albert I, the rally was intended to demonstrate improvements and innovations in automobiles, and promote Monaco as a tourist resort on the Mediterranean shore. Before the format changed in 1997, the event was a “concentration rally” in which competitors would set off from various starting points around Europe and drive to Monaco, where the rally would continue to a set of special stages. The rally now takes place along the French Riviera in Monaco and southeast France.
Wales Rally GB was the most recent iteration of the United Kingdom's premier international motor rally, which ran under various names since the first event held in 1932. It was consistently a round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) calendar from the inaugural 1973 season until the rally's final running in 2019, and was also frequently included in the British Rally Championship.
Motorsport(s) or motor sport(s) are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific terms automobile sport, motorcycle sport, power boating and air sports may be used commonly, or officially by organisers and governing bodies.
The Safari Rally is an automobile rally held in Kenya. It was first held in 1953 as a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The event was part of the World Rally Championship from 1973 until 2002, before returning in 2021. It is historically regarded as one of the toughest events in the World Rally Championship, and one of the most popular rallies in Africa. From 2003, a historical event has been held biennially.
A speedometer or speed meter is a gauge that measures and displays the instantaneous speed of a vehicle. Now universally fitted to motor vehicles, they started to be available as options in the early 20th century, and as standard equipment from about 1910 onwards. Other vehicles may use devices analogous to the speedometer with different means of sensing speed, eg. boats use a pit log, while aircraft use an airspeed indicator.
The Mille Miglia was an open-road, motorsport endurance race established in 1927 by the young Counts Francesco Mazzotti and Aymo Maggi. It took place in Italy 24 times from 1927 to 1957.
The Carrera Panamericana was a border-to-border sedan rally racing event on open roads in Mexico similar to the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio in Italy. Running for five consecutive years from 1950 to 1954, it was widely held by contemporaries to be the most dangerous race of any type in the world. It has since been resurrected along some of the original course as a classic speed rally.
Targa timing is a system of timing used in car rallying. It was invented by John Brown, the Clerk of the Course for the Targa Rusticana, a road rally organised in Wales in the 1960s by Oxford University Motor Drivers Club. Targa timing became the standard timing method used on rallies for almost 20 years following its invention in 1963. However, it was eventually banned as it became widely abused—the standard method by which organisers could set very high average speeds in a manner that left no permanent record.
A cyclocomputer, cycle computer, cycling computer or cyclometer is a device mounted on a bicycle that calculates and displays trip information, similar to the instruments in the dashboard of a car. The computer with display, or head unit, usually is attached to the handlebar for easy viewing. Some GPS watches can also be used as display.
Motorsport marshals are mainly volunteer workers responsible for the safety of motor racing competitors. They are stationed at various points of danger around race tracks to assist them in case of any collisions, accidents or track problems. Marshals are also known as course workers, corner workers, corner crews, turn marshals, corner marshals, track safety workers, or rally marshals.
Classic rallying, or historic rallying, is a type of road rally suitable for most standard classic cars, with no special equipment needed. These rallies are more about enjoyment than speed, and can be a good introduction to historic motorsport. A classic road rally is not about speed; in fact, there are severe penalties for finishing too early. The idea of a rally is to travel from a point to another within a certain time, not too fast or too slow, trying to match a speed average set by the organizers.
The Silver State Classic Challenge is an authorized Open Road Racing event that is run since 1988 on a 90 mi (140 km) stretch of State Route 318 in Nevada, United States, which is closed for the occasion.
Open-road racing is a form of regularity rally carried out at high speeds on closed public highways, most commonly in sparsely populated parts of the Southwestern United States. Competitors attempt to set specified average speeds which can range from 80 to 150 mph or higher along courses ranging between 50 and 110 miles in length. At the lower speeds, unmodified production cars can be used, while straightforward safety modifications can permit powerful sports cars to reach speeds of 165 mph (266 km/h).
A special stage (SS) is a section of closed road at a stage rallying event used for timed speed tests. Racers attempt to complete the stage in the shortest time. A race on a special stage is coordinated such that each competing racer begins after a set interval, to reduce the chance of impedance by other competitors. Each special stage is usually between 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) and 30 kilometres (19 mi) in length. Some stages may be as long as 50 kilometres in length. A rally usually comprises approximately 15–30 special stages, over multiple days of an event. The driver with the lowest overall time for all special stages in an event is the winner.
The following is a glossary of terminology used in motorsport, along with explanations of their meanings.
The Chihuahua Express is a three-day stage rally or open-road race in Chihuahua, Mexico. The first edition took place in 2007 as a continuation of the Border Challenge rally (2005–2006). The Express comprises three daily stages: Chihuahua–Ciudad Madera, Chihuahua–Divisadero and Chihuahua–Ojinaga. There is also a qualifying stage on Thursday morning before the competition on Friday, Saturday, and Thursday. The starting order on Friday is determined by the order of finish in this stage.
The Silk Way Rally is an annual rally raid type of off-road race. The first Silk Way Rally was raced in 2009 from Kazan, Russia to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. From 2010 to 2013, the race has taken place in Russia. The 2016 edition had a Moscow-Astana-Beijing route, the 2017 edition starts in Moscow and finishes in Xi'an, China.
The 1/100 regularity rally is a typically European format of regularity rally often for classic cars. As with other regularity rallies, the aim is not to be the fastest but rather to stay on the prescribed time across all timed checkpoints. Accordingly, 1/100 regularity rallies carry a negligible risk of damage to the vehicles and participants.
