page_title: Road racing
section_title: Road racing proliferation
hierarchical_section_title: Road racing / Road racing proliferation
caption_attribution_description: Le Mans 2009
context_page_description: Road racing is a form of motorsport racing held on a paved road surfaces. The races can be held either on a closed circuit or on a street circuit utilizing temporarily closed public roads. Originally, road races were held almost entirely on public roads however, public safety concerns eventually led to most races being held on purpose built racing circuits.
  Road racing's origins were centered in Western Europe and Great Britain as motor vehicles became more common in the early 20th century. After the Second World War, automobile road races were organized into a series called the Formula One world championship sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile while, motorcycle road races were organized into the Grand Prix motorcycle racing series now called MotoGP and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme. The success and popularity of road racing has seen the sport spread across the globe with Grand Prix road races having been held on six continents. Other variations of road racing include; sports car racing, touring car racing, stock car racing, superbike racing, truck racing, kart racing and endurance racing.
context_section_description: The popularity of Formula One and motorcycle Grand Prix racing led to the formation of road racing world championships for other types of vehicles. In 1953, the FIA sanctioned a world championship for sports car racing which combined the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Mille Miglia, the 12 Hours of Sebring, the 24 Hours of Spa and the 1000km of the Nurburgring. NASCAR held its first road race in 1957 at the Watkins Glen International circuit with Buddy Baker as the winner. The FIA launched the European Touring Car Championship in 1963. 
  The FIA created the International Karting Commission (CIK) in 1962 and, in 1964, the first CIK Karting World Championship was won by Guido Sala. Karting has become a significant step in the development of road racers including Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton. The European Truck Racing Championship was founded in 1985. A Superbike World Championship for road-going production motorcycles was created in 1988.
  As road racing grew in popularity it eventually expanded across the globe with Grand Prix road races having been held on six continents. Expansion of the Formula One and MotoGP series has resulted in dedicated tracks being built in Qatar in the Middle East, Sepang in Malaysia, and Shanghai in China.
caption: Sports cars negotiating curves during a road race
exif: {"Image Make": "KONICA MINOLTA", "Image Model": "DYNAX 7D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:06:17 18:21:41", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 6, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "368", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "978", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5532", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1250", "EXIF FNumber": "13", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:06:13 17:33:34", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:06:13 17:33:34", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "39/4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "497/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "300", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1504, 1000, 3008, 2000]", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1936", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1528", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "852", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "450", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}