Are Motorsports Unpopular?

I went with a friend of mine to an motorcross race in a town about 15 miles from where we live and I was shocked. The track was huge and there were tons of people there watching and racing. How come I've never heard about it in the news. Do local motorsports not count as sports or are they just unpopular?

Up here in PA the 5th mile dirt ovals are packed on a Friday night like a church on Easter ... still... if you didn't know it was there you wouldn't know it was there.

The newspaper in Minneapolis devotes a quarter of a page, once a week to all motorsports news (local, national and international.) If sticks and balls aren't involved they aren't interested.

walterj wrote: ... if you didn't know it was there you wouldn't know it was there.

And this year's Yogi Berra award goes to....

Yep, for the most part everybody "knows" that motorsports events exist, sort of like everyone "knows" not to get into a land war in Asia. However outside of NASCAR and occasionally Indy/F1 (when something exciting* happens) very few mainstream media outlets follow it.

*exciting = a racer dies, or nearly dies or is somehow involved in something scandalous or with some "celebrity"

I think the issue is that motorsports are shuffled off to the sports people's desks and they are usually too busy and/or too interested in following the stick and ball sports to bother with motorsports.

I've also seen motorsports handed off to the classifieds/advertising section and again they only understand NASCAR, Indy or F1 and use that to sell ads to people. My local bi-weekly paper used to do this, but also feature local auto events as well. Recently they moved to being once a week and dropped the "drivetime" section of the paper, so I don't get their paper anymore.

In the end, I think we're a victim of not conforming to some arbitrary set of rules involving sports and we're not quite weird enough to fit into the extreme side of sports.

Or, people don't consider motorsports "sports." I get that a lot when I tell people my favorite sports are motorsports.

My paper covers only NASCAR regularly. Once in a blue moon, I'll see a blurb about local oval-track racing, Indy, F1, and spectacular fatilites.

It depends mostly on the media. My local paper will cover almost any motor sport and if thy don't they will print a report of the event if it is sent to them. Thursdays is a full page on racing.

stuart in mn wrote: The newspaper in Minneapolis devotes a quarter of a page, once a week to all motorsports news (local, national and international.) If sticks and balls aren't involved they aren't interested.

I thought BOTH of those were involved in motorsport . . .

I've often wondered why autoracing doesn't get more attention around here. In the Cincinatti/Dayton area,we have a large population of gearheads with the auto industry, as well as aviation and other engineering intense industries.

As I think about it though - that's not always a bad thing. There is such a thing a too much attention. Keep things quiet, and the guys that want to race get to race without too many hasles.

There is a balance point. Keep the public informed enough that folks interested in racing know your there, and those opposed to anything that might be fun don't.

Mark

famous wrote: There is a balance point. Keep the public informed enough that folks interested in racing know your there, and those opposed to anything that might be fun don't. Mark

I guess that's true. It just seems like motorsports don't get no respect. Maybe too many people see it as a waste of time, money and resources. For me a car is more than just a means of transportation, but I know a lot of people don't give too much thought to their cars except when something is wrong with them.

I live near Charlotte, NC and the local coverage of all the short tracks is nonexistent. The only division of motorsports that gets any news coverage at all is the Cup Series and that's only twice a year. It bugs the living crap out of me how the media ignores motorsports. Nonstop high school football or college basketball, but who won Friday night's late model event? You'll never know unless you were there.