Why is it, when they race cars, horses, dogs, etc., do they race counter clockwise on the track?
The reason for the counter clockwise direction for some sports like NASCAR is fairly obvious. Since the driver is on the left side of the car (in this country at least) driving counterclockwise provides a lot of physical advantages: drivers are shielded from the wall on banked turns, they have better visibility on the left side of the car where most people pass and the position of the driver is conducive to the effect of centrifugal force. Since the boys from down under have the steering wheel on the right side of the car it only makes sense that they would drive clockwise. Life, liberty and the pursuit of win, place and show In the case of American horse racing the reason has less to do with physics and much more to do with politics. In 1780, the first circular US race track was established by William Whitley near his home in Lincoln County, Kentucky. A staunch supporter of the Revolution, Whitley insisted that horses race counterclockwise, as opposed to clockwise as was the custom at
… Well animal racing started way before car racing did. I bet you didn’t know that every species of animals on this planet (and humans included) has their right leg(s) longer than their left leg. When the early Egyptians use to race dogs in the desert they noticed since their dog’s right legs were longer they made a longer stroke which in turn made their right side faster than their left side. This characteristic made the dogs run in circles (left turns) on very large Daytona style Egyptian tracks. … Also Moses (from the Bible) had a right leg longer than his left leg. This was the reason for him wandering (doing circles) in the desert for 40 years before he finally reached his destination. … Also people have a dominate side of their brain and the other half they never use as well as a dominate eye (crooked eyes) and this is the reason people look like they have wop-sided heads. With this in mind all tracks were built because (like the person above stated) that it is human charac
