Top 6 Most Extreme Motorsports

There’s motorsports, and then there’s extreme motorsports. And while competing in any kind of sport which is powered by an engine is dangerous to a certain extent, some of the more extreme ones introduce a whole new level of jeopardy into the mix. From navigating city streets at extremely high speeds to climbing twisty mountain roads to flying through the air on a motorcycle, the potential for mishap is high with these sports, but for participants, that only seems to push them to ever faster and higher and more outrageous attempts.

 

 

Here’s an overview of six of the most extreme motorsports competitions:

1. Offroad Rallies and Desert Racing:

The Dakar Rally, one of the world’s most dangerous offroad races (it’s technically a ‘rally raid’, not a rally), epitomizes the extreme side of motorsports. Competitors originally raced from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal, across extremely challenging terrain and through all kinds of weather, pushing the limits of offroad racing. First run in 1978 as the Paris-Dakar Rally, the event has been held in South America in the last couple of years, and the name changed to Dakar Rally. The race categories include motorcycles, cars, and trucks, most of which have quite a bit of modification in order to compete in the race’s extreme conditions. Another similar race, perhaps even more well known, is the Baja 1000, which is run on the Baja peninsula south of California.

2. Street Circuit Racing:

Anytime you take a vehicle made to race at high speeds and put it on a course of public roads, the danger and excitement levels skyrocket. Drivers in races like the Monaco or Macau Grand Prix push their cars (or sometimes motorcycles) through street circuits with narrow lanes and tight corners, taking turns at speeds up to 150 mph. Sometimes these races take the form of time trial racing, such as the famous Isle of Man TT, considered one of the top motorcycle races in the world.

3. Jet Powered Cars:

Having a jet engine in the back of your drag racer sounds like a recipe for disaster, but that doesn’t stop people from building them. With speeds topping 70o miles per hour in some cases, jet powered vehicles certainly qualify as extreme, and yet their usual competition is the clock, not other drivers. Jet dragsters and other jet-powered contenders for fastest land speed records also don’t measure their fuel efficiency in miles per gallon, but rather in gallons per mile, which is another reason to call these types of vehicles ‘extreme’.

 

 

4. Endurance Racing:

Events such as the 24 hours of Le Mans stress not only the ability of the drivers and the crews to maintain speed and efficiency over the long haul, but also the reliability of the vehicle itself. Over the course of 24 hours, participants drive several thousand miles, at race speeds, which can put just about any component over the edge to failure.

5. Hill Climbs:

Racing as fast as you can to the top of a hill is a familiar childhood game, but that same type of race holds a great fascination to car and motorcycle drivers, as witnessed in the popularity of such events as the Mt Washington Climb to the Clouds and the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. Both events feature twisty roads at high speeds, with the added element of the possibility of extreme weather along the course, and while they don’t feature extremely long courses, the excitement of watching these drivers push it to the limit almost always makes for a popular event.

6. Freestyle Motocross (FMX):

Of all of these extreme motorsports, freestyle motocross stands alone for a couple of reasons. One, competitors are not racing each other, and two, they tend to go airborne on purpose, and not as a result of a mishap. FMX riders put their bikes through a routine of a series of complex tricks to earn the acclaim of judges, and they also compete in ‘big air’, which involves big jumps with judges rating them on the difficulty and style of the tricks they pull off while in the air.