Race Versus Racing

(thanks to BBC.co.uk for the picture)

Today on the Ile-Notre-Dame, perched within the St. Lawrence river in beautiful Montréal, Quebec, history of the highest caliber has been made: A black man has won a major-league auto race. 22 year-old Lewis Hamilton, whose grandparents came to England from the Caribbean island of Granada, has become one of the most popular athletes in the world because of both his skin color and his amazing ability to get into any car and drive the wheels off of it. Today, he reached a new level on his meteoric rise through the ranks of the world's greatest form of motorsport by winning the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada.

Let's make one thing very clear before I continue. I usually don't give a hoot about the issue of race as it applies to sports. I grow very tired of basketball players complaining about discrimination from refs, baseball writers talking about the lack of African-Americans on MLB diamonds, et cetera. Given the amount of attention given to the subject by ESPN and many other news sources, it has become akin to beating a dead horse. Quite frankly, I'm sick of it.

However, the one form of sport that is decidedly in need of a shot of color: auto racing. Consider, if you will, the United States' most popular form of motorsport, NASCAR. This sport got its start in the southeastern United States, the core of American racism for nearly the entire history of our nation, and one look at the competitors drives that fact home. Forty-two drivers at the start of every NASCAR Nextel Cup Series race are white men and there is one Columbian. In most traditional NASCAR markets, some of the fans have yet to come to grips with the fact that a Californian (Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson) is winning races. The best shot for a black person to make the series fizzled out a couple of years ago when Bill Lester's Truck Series career lost its steam.

International racers have been staples in other US-based racing series, most notably IndyCar and Champ Car. IndyCar has been dominated recently by Brazilians, a Briton, and a Scotsman, while Champ Car has been under the dynasty of Frenchman Sebastian Bourdais for the past three years. Both disciplines have also embraced the presence of women on the track (IndyCar: Sarah Fisher, Milka Duno, and Danica Patrick; Champ Car: Katherine Legge), while NASCAR has not had a female driver for several years. However, it has been a long time since a black man had a chance at American open-wheel racing, with Willy T. Ribbs qualifying for several Indianapolis 500s in the early 90s.

On the international level, there is still not much competition from drivers of African descent. You can look through the lineup for this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, which contains about 50 cars, each carrying at least three drivers, and you would be hard-pressed to find a black driver. Formula 1, the pinnacle of international motorsport, had not had a black driver in its history until Lewis Hamilton stepped into his McLaren at this year's Australian Grand Prix.

What makes Hamilton's presence so great for motorsports is that he is not just a publicity stunt. In the way that Tiger Woods was born with a natural ability to play golf, Lewis has a given ability to drive any vehicle to its max. The man could probably take a minivan and pound a great lap time out of it. When he was very young and still driving racing karts, he caught the eye of McLaren Formula 1 boss Ron Dennis, who became Hamilton's sponsor. Dennis' money turned out to be very well-spent, because Hamilton conquered every level of karting that he could before moving to real open-wheel cars. He then set about conquering a number of open-wheel series, culminating in his GP2 championship last year. That convinced Ron Dennis to put Lewis into the car vacated by Juan Pablo Montoya. Hamilton shocked the world by finishing third in his fist F1 race, and second in his next four races. Then, in his sixth Formula 1 outing, with veterans (relative to Lewis, at least) Felipe Massa, Kimi Raikkonen, and defending champion Fernando Alonso making key errors behind him, Lewis Hamilton drove a superb race to take the victory.

In his first Formula 1 season, Lewis hasn't finished lower than third, and is currently 8 points clear of teammate Alonso in the championship standings. It is possible that we are currently looking upon the greatest driver to ever step into a race car, and to have that driver be black will have a great effect on the social structure of motor racing. With the F1 circus coming to Indianapolis this Sunday, the United States will be exposed to the wonder that is Lewis Hamilton, and maybe this young man can raise a little interest in the sport amongst America's black community.


Notes: The Canadian Grand Prix was marred by several incidents. However, none of these were nearly as horrific as that involving BMW's Robert Kubica. Video can be found here. The nature of the accident (sweeping left hand turn, car going straight off and making hard contact) was eerily similar to Ayrton Senna's fatal crash at Imola in 1994. However, Kubica made it out with only an ankle sprain and a mild concussion. No details have been released as to whether or not he will be available for Sunday's US Grand Prix. A true testament to the safety that has been put into these racing machines.

In one of the stranger occurrences of the day, a beaver wandered onto the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. After dodging several race cars, the critter met its match in the Super Aguri of Anthony Davidson, who had to pit to get his car cleaned up and running properly.