I have done some reasonably terrifying things in cars. I have ridden with Ken Block in a rally car hurtling though the woods at crazy speeds, I have been caught in weather so bad that I thought it was curtains for me, I’ve done that junk and it’s all 10% as mental as serious figure eight stock car racing. This is automotive bloodsport, right? Is that a thing we can admit? People are not at a figure eight race to analyze the setup of the cars, watch racers refine their line and lap times, or see people exact maximum performance out of their machines.
People are there to see titanic, destructive, completely bonkers wrecks. Wrecks where two cars heading in different directions at full throttle expend all of their energy into each other. I’m not being a jerk or talking about of school here. If I was, the video below would not show crowds reacting with obvious satisfaction and delight when exactly that happens.
This compilation of 1990s figure eight racing wrecks is absolutely brutal. We’re not sure that everyone involved was OK but there’s not graphic badness in terms of humanity so it’s just car-nage.
You’ll see a couple of classes here. Some of them look like low-buck sportsman style stock cars and some of them look like modifieds with massive plexiglass wings helping them to corner better. Neither of them are capable of occupying the same space at the same time though and that’s where the trouble is.
Figure 8 racing requires bravery from the drivers and it requires some mechanical blood lust from the spectators. Thankfully both of those things exist in spades, much to the delight of circle tracks all over America.
