The Auto Racing Journal: cars

My wife Holly just sent me a Facebook video in which there's a wreck in a sports-car race, and one car winds up on another car's roof!

It was funny to see, particularly with the announcer shouting in French, but I'd actually seen something like that before. I had just gotten to the Charlotte Motor Speedway pressbox prior to a Cup race, and a preliminary Legends race was being held. There was a wreck, and one Legends car wound up on another car's roof.

I watched that sports-car wreck three or four times on Facebook just now but couldn't tell how that car got on the other car's roof. All I saw was the second car sliding onto the other car.

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More entries from TARJ

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

EDITOR@WORK blog entries

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

Entries from The Dog Blog

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• OOH! OOH! The stereophonic huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

More blog entries by Tom Gillispie

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

Anecdotes by Tom Gillispie

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer outta there!

CHEVROLET PHOTO

I've always thought it was interesting that they call it motorsports, and there are so many "Motor Speedways" (Indianapolis, Charlotte, Atlanta, Bristol, Las Vegas, Hickory and more).

Why? If it runs on a internal combustion engine (and uses gas or some other fuel), it's an engine; if it's electrical, it's a motor. An electric car runs with a motor. The thing that moves your windshield wipers is a motor.

So, generally, they have lots of engines and few (if any) motors under the hoods at most U.S. racetracks.

Maybe someone will someday open Electrical Motor Speedway; they could run electric cars. That would work. And I think EMS would be fun.

They'd just need a lot of electrical outlets and batteries.

UPDATE: You can find more about electrical racing here.