The Biggest Motor Sports Events in the World for Adventure Travelers

Love adventure travel and motor sports? Why not combine the two by heading to the MotoGP or Bathurst this season? Just in case the adrenaline rush of the race on the tracks isn’t enough, there are plenty of adventure travel opportunities near the biggest motor sports events in the world. We recommend these biggest motor sports events in the world for adventure travelers.

Photo By: proby458

MotoGP

Photo By: Australian Superbikes

MotoGP is a series of elite motorcycle races that are held all over the world from Australia and Malaysia to Spain and Argentina. The season typically lasts from March to November and the race calendar takes you to incredible parts of the world that are worth exploring. For the rest of this year there’ll be MotoGP events in Austria and the Czech Republic in August so you can spend summer in central Europe, then the series heads to Great Britain, Italy and Spain in September so you can coordinate a western European tour around the motorcycle race. At this time of year, as it’ll be a bit cooler, we recommend rock climbing, kayaking, walking and cycling opportunities in Spain and Italy. In October the race criss-crosses Asia and Oceania with races held in Japan, Australia and Malaysia. The Australian event is help in the southern state of Victoria near Phillip Island where you can also watch the so-called penguin parade as these tiny fairy penguins sleep on the beach.

Indy 500

Photo By: State Farm

The Indianapolis 500 or Indy 500 as it’s more commonly known is held in what’s unofficially known as the racing capital of the world: the United States state of Indiana. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is home to plenty of aerial and road motor events like the Red Bull Air Races, the Angies List Grand Prix in 2017, the Crown Royal 400 at the Brickyard, and most famously the Indy 500. The next Indy 500 will be held on 28 May 2017. The Indy 500 is one of the world’s most prestigious elite car races and is held as part of the Verizon IndyCar Series and involves cars that are similar to the open-wheel formula cars found in the Formula 1. The distinction between the Indy 500 and Formula 1 is that in the Indy 500 drivers must use pretty much the same car, whereas in Formula 1 each maker (like Ferrari) brings its own car within a set of rules.

Daytona 500

Photo By: Nate

NASCAR organizes a whole heap of motor sports events in the United States. You can check out the calendar here. But probably one of the most famous is the Daytona 500. The Daytona 500 is a 805 kilometer (500 mile) long NASCAR Sprint Cup Series motor race held at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida. It’s the most prestigious and important event held by the team at NASCAR. Racing at the Daytona 500 involves the use of stock cars, which in the traditional sense were cars that anyone could buy and were used for racing, but have come to mean “normal” cars that have been strengthened for racing where cars can collide with each other and the increased power of the engine and so forth. NASCAR is the governing body for stock car racing, and the Daytona 500 is the sports’ crown jewel.

Bathurst 1000

Photo By: Robert Davies

Aside from the Formula 1 Grand Prix race event held in Melbourne each year, the Bathurst 1000 is Australia’s most important motor sports event. It’s a 1,000-kilometer touring car race held on the Mount Panorama Circuit New South Wales. Touring cars (similar in a sense to stock cars) are heavily modified road-going cars. The racing is not as fast as F1 but the cars are a bit more substantial so a bit of nudging between drivers is much more common. Like the Grand Prix’s race track, the Mount Panorama Circuit also follows public roads, which are closed for the event. Recently the race has become a pseudo-competition between car makers Holden and Ford in Australia.

Other motor sports for adventure travelers articles:
Weirdest Motor Sports

Best Grand Prix to See  for Adventure Travellers

A Brief History of Moto Cross