RACE CARS

Like any other sport in the year 2020 professional racing has changed. It's gotten bigger, faster, and more dangerous. With the advent of AV technologies and improvements in fuel the track of today is a far cry from the relatively safe courses of yesteryear. The tracks are longer with more straight-aways leading to hairpin turns. Cars can now reach an average speed of over 400 km/h. Accidents are common and fatalities high, but that's what brings the crowd. The cars too have changed. They are all equipped with laser communicators for instant sit reps, speaking to a team member sitting in an observation tower where he can see the whole track and give constant updates on track conditions, lap count, position, car stress and the drivers condition. The cars are also equipped with radar and ejection seats standard for safety purposes. Motorcycle races are no different, in fact they are deadlier, the only real improvements have been in speed and handling, its kind of hard to incorporate safety into a motorcycle, and deaths in the two-wheel arena are much more common.

The only thing that has stayed the same is the corporate sponsorship of these events. Now just as always they control the show, and endorsements are the name of the game. The media, however, takes a much more active role : they actually compete. In fact the Network 54 team won the last Indy 500. Their cars are mobile studios recording the whole race from the car itself and beaming live to your television or holo-projector via onboard satellite uplink.

People still come for the roar of the engines, the smell of burnt rubber, the rush of air as the vehicles pass, the thrill of the chase, and the speed of the cars. The drivers still do it for two reasons, the money (Andrew Bennet received 20 million eb in prize money alone when he won the world championship last year) and more importantly the chance to drive the fastest cars in the world.