Motorsports are a little different from other sports, aren’t they?
More than anything, the difference that equipment can make is huge.
I think every sport that uses equipment has some degree of difference between the tools people use. In swimming, it could be the difference in drag between swimsuits. In track and field, it could be the difference between shoes. In tennis, it could be the difference between rackets.
But in motorsports, that difference is just enormous.
Put the same driver behind the wheel of a dump truck and a Ferrari, and the lap times are going to be completely different.
In F1, for example, there’s also an element of technological competition. And since it’s basically a team sport, everything from developing the car to setting it up and even pit work is part of the competition.
Even in categories where you compete as an individual, if the result is affected by the performance of the car and the quality of the setup, then that’s part of your competitive ability too.
Personally, though, I don’t really see much of a sporting aspect in competing over the performance of the car itself.
Everyone has different tastes, so I’m sure there are plenty of people who would say, “That’s exactly what makes it fun!” And that’s perfectly fine.
I’m not trying to deny that at all.
It’s just that, in a way, that’s more like competing over a “piece of work,” isn’t it?
Like a painting or a sculpture.
There’s nothing wrong with competing that way. But when you ask me whether I see much of a sporting aspect to it, honestly, I don’t.
I really love driving on a circuit.
I’ve done quite a lot of it, but there are still so many things I can’t do properly. And there’s something really enjoyable about practicing something you couldn’t do before and eventually becoming able to do it.
After chasing lap times for ages and finally setting a new personal best, I got my first chance to ride alongside Kishishita-san, a former professional driver, in Takasu’s official 86.
And compared with the way he drove, I was once again painfully reminded of just how bad I was.
I was a little depressed about it, but at the same time, I could really feel that I still had plenty of room for improvement.
And honestly, I was happy about that.
Formula Gymkhana
There’s a student gymkhana competition in Japan called Formula Gymkhana.
And when I say “Formula,” don’t picture an open-wheel race car.
In this case, Formula means a set of rules, a common format, and equal conditions.
In other words, it’s a gymkhana competition designed to give every team as similar a car as possible, so that they compete not on differences in machine performance, but purely on driving skill and teamwork.
It’s a relatively new competition, having started in 2023.
Ishii-san from TOYOTA GAZOO Racing, who was one of the people behind the creation of Formula Gymkhana, said something like this in a video.
(When asked about his thoughts behind creating Formula Gymkhana)
“I’ve always loved motorsports, ever since I was in my university’s automotive club. In university activities, the biggest competition is the inter-university competition organized by the student automotive federation. But there, the strength of each team was inevitably determined by things like the university’s financial resources and its organizational structure, which had been in place long before we joined. And that ended up having quite a direct impact on the results, so even back then, I was thinking that I really wanted to do something about it.
That’s why I didn’t really participate much in the club’s activities. Instead, I kept entering events that I could compete in privately, like the Direzza Challenge, a time attack event organized by Dunlop. But even there, money was still an issue… I was a student competing against working adults. So that was difficult too.
After I got a job, I entered pretty much every JAF-sanctioned event I could: All-Japan Gymkhana, dirt trials, rally, Super Taikyu.
Having seen all those categories, I came to feel that this period of youth that students have should be something that can stand alongside other sports, like soccer, rugby, and baseball. But motorsports aren’t really in that position right now.
So if we’re going to make that happen, I want to somehow create a form of motorsports where differences in ability and results come purely from driving skill and the effort made by the students themselves.”
Translated from the original Japanese video.
Strictly speaking, even in baseball and soccer, whether you can win or not can depend on which university you attend.
That’s partly because they’re team sports. But even so, it’s not necessarily a huge difference created by financial resources or facilities, is it?
In motorsports, on the other hand, that aspect is far more significant than it is in other sports.
It’s not a matter of whether that’s good or bad. It’s simply a part of the sport.
But I think there are a lot of people who don’t like that and think, “I just wish I could compete purely on skill.”
There’s nothing wrong with making a car faster. That’s not what I’m saying.
It’s just that there are plenty of people who would rather compete on skill alone, and I think those people have spent a long time dealing with that complicated feeling and finding their own way to be involved in motorsports.
A Battle With Yourself
In my case, I’ve messed with the suspension on my MX-5 Miata to death, but the engine is still completely stock, from the air filter all the way to the exhaust.
I wouldn’t have touched the suspension at all if the stock setup had been easy to drive.
It wasn’t, so I changed it to make the car easier to drive. That’s all.
The tires were stock at first, too.
I upgraded them from there, but I’ve also downgraded them a few times.
Downgrading the tires makes the lap times slower, but every time I did it, I still found it really fun.
Because in the end, motorsports is about how close you can get to the limit of what a car is capable of. The absolute level of performance isn’t what matters.
Of course, a faster car can also become more difficult to drive.
So I don’t think lower performance is necessarily better, but it doesn’t have to be extremely high either.
I don’t think lap times should be slower, but they don’t necessarily have to keep getting faster forever.
In the end, whoever you’re competing against, sport is ultimately a battle with yourself, isn’t it?
If you’ve practiced hard and put in the work, then when it really matters, what you need to do isn’t “beat someone else.”
It’s to get everything you have out of yourself.
You might be able to win even if you’re less skilled by cheating so you don’t get caught breaking the regulations, or by using your financial resources to create a situation where you have a huge advantage over everyone else.
But that’s not fair, and there’s no respect for your opponents in that either.
What matters is whether you have the spirit of sport.
And I don’t think this is irrelevant to people who aren’t competing and are “just enjoying it as a hobby.”
Actually, I think that’s probably most of us.
If anything, precisely because it’s a hobby, I think how you deal with yourself is especially important.
For example, imagine someone looking at Max Verstappen or Shohei Ohtani and thinking, “They’re so talented. Must be nice. I don’t have that kind of talent…”
There may actually be differences in natural ability.
But honestly, I don’t really like that kind of thinking.
My first thought is, “Have you even worked hard enough to say that?”
And this isn’t just something I say to other people.
It applies to me, too.
“There are people who are really fast. I guess they’re just naturally different from me.”
If you’ve ever done any kind of sport, you’ve definitely had moments like that.
And every time I catch myself thinking that way, I tell myself, “That’s not what you should be thinking about!”
That’s another reason I think the spirit of sport is so important.
The more seriously you take a look at yourself, the more you can get out of it, and I think the more valuable it becomes to you personally.
A Brighter Future for Motorsports
Taking all of that into account, I think Formula Gymkhana is a really great initiative.
And honestly, I think it’s pretty damn cool.
I don’t know how else to put it, but I’d hate to see motorsports end up as nothing more than “a hobby for middle-aged guys with money to spare.”
There are all kinds of categories, so it’s inevitable that in some of them, you need a certain level of financial resources to win.
But I think it’s better for the sport as a whole if there are opportunities where a young person can say, “I don’t have much money, but I’ve got the motivation!” and, if they work their ass off, still have a real chance of getting a decent result.
For the industry as a whole.
With declining birth rates across many developed countries, there are simply fewer young people to begin with.
Maybe there are also fewer young people who are interested in cars.
But even so, there are still people out there who just love driving.
If there are places where those people can simply give it everything they’ve got and enjoy themselves to the fullest, I can’t help thinking that the future of motorsports could be a lot brighter.
At the moment, you have to belong to a university automotive club in Japan to compete in Formula Gymkhana.
But I hope this kind of thinking, and this kind of atmosphere, spreads much further.
That’s what I’ve been thinking about lately.
Ah, I’m getting old…