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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia\'s quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007) |
This article is about the speed competition. For the sport commonly referred to in the United Kingdom, as "racing", see horse racing. For the football clubs starting with Racing, see Racing Club
Offshore inflatable racing (Thundercat class) at Ilfracombe, north Devon, England.These boats can reach 60 mph |
Air racing:Hungarian aerobatics pilot Peter Besenyei at speed in his Extra 300 at an air race in England |
A race is a competition of speed. The competitors in a race try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed.
Running a distance is the most basic form of racing, but races are often conducted in vehicles, such as boats, cars and aircraft, or with animals such as horses.
A race may be run continuously from start to finish or may be made of several segments called heats or stages (stages are also known as legs). A heat is usually run over the same course at different times. A stage is a shorter section of a much longer course or a time trial.
Early records of races are evident on pottery from ancient Greece, which depicted running men vying for first place. A chariot race is described in Homer\'s Iliad.
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Using only the human body\'s own muscles:
Ostrich racing
Animals alone, or with human riders on the animal\'s back or in a conveyance:Machines powered by motors, on land:
Some races involve multiple modes of transport:
The word race comes from a Viking word. This Viking word arrived in France during the invading of Normandy and gave the word raz which means "swift water" in Brittany, as in a mill race; it can be found in "Pointe du Raz" (the most western point of France, in Brittany), and "raz-de-marée" (tsunami).
A race and its name are often associated with the place of origin, the means of transport and the distance of the race. As a couple of examples, see the Dakar Rally or the Athens marathon.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
