Archive-name: autos/sport/introduction
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 24th June 1994
Version: 1.0

1     INTRODUCTION

This will be posted monthly to rec.autos.sport.info and to 
news.answers.  The latest version of the rec.autos.sport FAQ should be 
available for anonymous ftp at mgu.bath.ac.uk (138-38.24.19) as file
/pub/rec.autos.sport/introduction or at rtfm.mit.edu (18.70.0.209) as
pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/rec/answers/autos/sport/introduction If you only 
have electronic mail, the FAQ can be retrieved from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu.

For information on how to use FTP, send e-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu 
with with no subject line.  In the body of the mail, put:
send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources

Whilst some care has been taken in the preparation of this FAQ, a few
errors may have slipped through the net (no pun intended).  Please send 
any corrections or additions to rasfaq@bath.ac.uk. 

Throughout the FAQ, telephone numbers are quoted by giving the country,
the international dialing code in parentheses, (), followed by the
rest of the number.  Although this is a little unwieldy, it is
clear and consistent.  To dial from the same country, you usually
dial 0 instead of the international dialing code.  Check your
telephone book for instructions on International calls.  You may
not be able to reach some numbers from another country (for example:
North American 1-800 numbers).


1-1   What is a FAQ ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is normally a Frequently Asked Question, although some people
prefer to call them Frequently Answered Questions.  Some of the entries
in this FAQ aren't actually answered or even asked very often, but 
I think they are some questions that _should_ be answered.

1-2   Contents of the FAQ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1     INTRODUCTION
1-1 What is a FAQ ?
1-2 Contents of the FAQ

2     NETTIQUETTE
2-1 The Content of Your Post
2-2 The Style of Your Post
2-3 Practicalities
2-4 Spoilers
2-5 Handling Frequently Asked Questions

3     CHARTERS
3-1 rec.autos.sport
3-2 rec.autos.sport.info
3-3 rec.autos.sport.tech
3-4 rec.autos.sport.nascar
3-5 rec.autos.simulators
3-6 Others related newsgroups

4     MAILING LISTS
4-1 Autocross
4-2 DRML (Drag Racing Mailing List)
4-3 Hotrods
4-4 Karting
4-5 Rallying
4-6 Wheel-to-wheel

5     OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES
5-1 WWW pages
5-2 Gopher
5-3 IRC channels
5-4 Televised Events

6     1994 RACE SCHEDULES 
6-1 FIA Formula 1 World Championship Schedule
6-2 FIA International F3000 Championship
6-3 Japanese F3000 Championship
6-4 PPG IndyCar World Series
6-5 SCCA Player's Ltd Toyota Atlantic Championship
6-6 PPG-Firestone Indy Lights Championship, powered by Buick
6-7 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
6-8 NASCAR Busch Series, Grand National Division
6-9 ASA AC-Delco Challenge Series Schedule
6-10  Auto Trader British Touring Car Championship
6-11  Deutsche Tourenwagen-Meisterschaft (DTM)
6-12  ONS/ADAC Tourenwagen-Cup
6-13  American Cities Racing League (ACRL)
6-14  Miscellaneous Races
6-15  FIA World Rally Championship
6-16  SCCA Pro Rally Championship
6-17  Canadian Rally Championship "CRC"
6-18  NHRA Drag Racing

7     1994 DRIVER LINE UPS
7-1 1994 Formula One Drivers
7-2 1994 IndyCar Drivers
7-3 1994 NASCAR Drivers
7-4 1994 BTCC Drivers
7-5 1994 DTM Drivers

8     1994 F1 SPECIFICATIONS

9     1994 INDYCAR SPECIFICATIONS
9-1 Chassis
9-2 Aerodynamics
9-3 Tires
9-4 Engine
9-5 Fuel
9-6 So you want to race an Indy car - how much will it cost ?

10    QUALIFYING FOR THE INDY 500
10-1  Which cars start the race ?
10-2  How are the qualifying days organised ?
10-3  How is the order of starting line for the race up decided ?
10-4  How big is the track at Indy ?
10-5 Qualifying for other IndyCar Races


11    POINTS SYSTEMS
11-1  How does the F1 points system work?
11-2  How does the IndyCar points system work?

12    MISCELLANEOUS
12-1  What are the IndyCar flag rules ?
12-2  Andretti vs Mansell
12-3  What are the pros and cons of gravel traps, tyre walls, armco & walls?
12-4  Where can I send condolences to the Family of Ayrton Senna ?

13    NASCAR Information
13-1  Technical Regulations
13-2  1994 NASCAR Drivers
13-3  How does the NASCAR Winston Cup points system work?
13-4  How are NASCAR provisional start positions decided ?
13-5  Who _is_ that guy that's always in the NASCAR victory lane ?
13-6  How can I find MRN radio ?
13-7  How can I get information about watching a NASCAR race ?

14    GENERAL QUESTIONS
14-1  Who is the greatest driver of all time ?
14-2  Which is the best racing series ?
14-3  Murray Walker (aka Muddly Talker)
14-4  Where are there any Motorsport GIFs and JPEGs ?
14-5  Which are good races to spectate at ? 
14-6  Where can I get tickets for races ?
14-7  Origins of the names of teams and Manufacturers
14-8    What are the origins of F1 chassis numbers ?
14-9    How are F1 race numbers allocated ?
14-10 Why is there no US GP ?

15    MOTORSPORT PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
15-1  Pronouncing Germanic names:
15-2  Pronouncing Japanese names:
15-3  Pronouncing French and Canadian names:
15-4  Pronouncing Portuguese and Brazilian names:

16    REC.AUTOS.SPORT AND USENET
16-1  The race finished hours ago.  Where are all the results ?
16-2  Where are rec.autos.sport.info, rec.autos.sport.tech & 

 rec.autos.sport.nascar?
16-3  How many people read the rec.autos.sport hierarchy ?
16-4  Where can I get the latest race results and championship tables ?
16-5  Why not split rec.autos.sport to r.a.s.f1, r.a.s.indycar & r.a.s.drag?
16-6  Why rec.autos.sport and not rec.sport.autos ?
16-7  What do these abbreviations mean ?

17    MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS
17-1  How do I Join the Pick6 competitions ?
17-2  Which are faster: Racing cars or racing motorbikes ?
17-3  Which are faster: F1 or IndyCars ?
17-4  Can a car decelerate faster than 1G ?
17-5  Who helped make this FAQ ?

18    TOURING CAR REGULATIONS
18-1  FIA Class 1 Touring Car Technical Regulations
18-2  FIA Class 2 Touring Car Technical Regulations

19    MISCELLANEOUS
19-1  WHAT IS FORMULA SAE ? 
19-2  What is "John Winter's" real name ?

20    ADDRESSES
20-1  Track Addresses
20-2  Addresses for Motor Sport Magazines
20-3  Addresses of Bookshops
20-4  Motorsport Video Companies
20-5  Motorsport Governing Bodies
20-6  TV Company Addresses
20-7  F1 Team Addresses
20-8  NASCAR Teams Addresses
20-8  More Addresses


2     NETTIQUETTE

A lot of people read this newsgroup, over 100,000 in the latest estimate.  
Some readers are restricted to tortuously slow connections.  Some people 
pay for their connect time by the minute.  Other people just like to read 
news when the Net is running slowly.  When you post, please ask yourself 
questions like ...

2-1   The Content of Your Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   o  Are you discussing "organised, legal auto competitions" ?  
      rec.autos.sport is _not_ for discussion of roadgoing "sports cars".

   o  Would it be better to post to rec.autos.sport, rec.autos.sport.tech
      or rec.autos.sport.nascar ?  The charters for these newsgroups are
      listed in the "CHARTERS" section.

   o  Is a cross posted article is directly relevant to all of the groups
      where it will appear ?  It is usually wrong to cross post an article
      to both rec.autos.sport and one of its subgroups (eg r.a.s.tech or 
      r.a.s.nascar).

   o  It is perfectly legal to reproduce short extracts of a copyrighted 
      work for critical purposes, but reproduction in whole is strictly 
      and explicitly forbidden by international and US copyright law. 

2-2   The Style of Your Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   o  Would you want to read what you are writing ?  Might it be better 
      to email a comment, or even make no comment ?  Spelling and grammar 
      flames are particularly dull for the rest of the world, as are posts 
      which follow fifty lines of quoted text with "I agree".  

   o  On the Net, most people only know you by the words that you write.
      People will pay more attention to your thoughts if your writing is
      clear and easy to read. 

   o  Trim down your quotes.  Delete parts of the article that you are not
      responding to such as other people's signatures.  Its best to have as 
      little as possible from previous posts.

   o  Humour, and particularly sarcasm, is often misunderstood over the 
      Net with hilarious consequences.  A smily, :-),  may be advisable.

2-3   Practicalities
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   o  Is the subject line is both descriptive and accurate ?

   o  People can select the articles which most appeal to them if you
      have a keyword in the subject field like F1, INDYCAR, NHRA, WRC, 
      F3000, IMSA etc.  I think ADMIN is good for any posts which 
      discuss the day-to-day running of the group, splitting the group, 
      or revising the charter.  

   o  Please try to keep the lines in the main text of your posts to fewer
      than 80 characters per line.  When lines are longer than this, it
      becomes difficult to read with many news readers.  72 characters per
      line is a good length, since it allows others to quote you without
      running over 80 characters.

   o  If you are following up an article to create a new article, please
      remember to delete the "References:" line in the header.  This will
      help the readers who use a threaded news reader; otherwise your new
      topic will be mixed in with an old one.

   o  Please do not post large files like GIFs or JPEGs to rec.autos.sport.  
      They will fill the Usenet disk partitions at some sites.  Some people 
      cannot select which articles they want before they have to download 
      them.  It is much better to post them to alt.binaries.pictures.misc 
      with a short post to rec.autos.sport to notify anyone who is interested.

2-4   Spoilers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   o  If you are going to post about a race before some people will have had 
      the chance to watch it on television, say within 48 hours of the race,
      please put (SPOILER) in the Subject: line and don't give away the result.
      You might also want to give people a chance to quit reading your
      message before you give them the news.  You may be able to insert
      a ^L page break with your editor (hold the control key and press l).  

   o  If you have not yet seen the race, a day after it was on TV, and
      you _really_ don't want to know who won, please abstain from r.a.s
      for a day.  Even if everyone goes by the guidelines, there are
      always new people who won't know about them.

   o  If someone posts results without a spoiler warning, do _not_ post
      a public flame.  Mail a reasonably civil email note to that person
      requesting that they use (SPOILER) in the future.

2-5   Handling Frequently Asked Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   o  If you are asking a basic question, please check the FAQ first.
      If the FAQ is has expired on your system, see section 1 for
      information on how to get a copy.

   o  If someone posts a question about something that was resolved recently,
      please answer the poster via email.  Rehashing something that was just
      discussed is a waste of bandwidth unless you have something new to add.

   o  Many news reading programs allow you to filter the articles in a 
      newsgroup to ignore articles from a particular author or on certain
      subjects using a KILL file.  If you're using rn or its brethren, 
      see the "rn KILL file FAQ" in news.answers.  Two lines that you 
      might like in your KILL file for rec.autos.sport are:

/Subject: Admin: rec\.autos\.sport FAQ.*$/h:j
/From: .*A\.H\. Henry/h:j


3     CHARTERS

3-1   rec.autos.sport     Unmoderated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This group is for discussion of legal, organised competition involving
automobiles. Discussion from either of two viewpoints, spectator and
participant, is encouraged.  Technical discussions are generally more
appropriately carried on in rec.autos.sport.tech, and NASCAR (and other
professional stock car racing) is discussed in rec.autos.sport.nascar.
Arguments about sports cars are largely inappropriate, as are most
other discussions.  For Sale ads are inappropriate unless they are for
competition vehicles and/or equipment.  Discussions of illegal events
are marginal; one should probably avoid advocating breaking the law.
(remember, the FBI reads Usenet!)

3-2   rec.autos.sport.info    Moderated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This group will contain announcements, results, standings, news items,
press releases, schedules, "reliable" rumours, and other information
about automotive racing.  No discussion will be permitted; followups
will be directed to rec.autos.sport.

3-3   rec.autos.sport.tech    Unmoderated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This group will be for discussions about technical aspects of racing
cars.  Past discussions in rec.autos.sport that would be appropriate
for this group include F1/Indy engines, restricter plates, aerodynamics, 
semi-automatic transmissions, exotic fuels, carbon vs.  steel brakes, 
active suspension, chassis construction etc.

3-4   rec.autos.sport.nascar    Unmoderated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This group will be for discussions about all aspects of professional
stock car racing, especially the NASCAR (Winston Cup and Grand
National) but also series such as CASCAR and AUSCAR.

3-5   rec.autos.simulators      Unmoderated
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This newsgroup will be used for discussions of realistic computer
simulations of automotive vehicles, irrespective of the platforms on which
said simulations are supported.  This will include simulations which have a
competitive component (racing simulations) and those which do not.
Arcade racing simulators, which give an overhead perspective and which
do not attempt to provide realism of handling of the vehicle, would not
be appropriate in this newsgroup.  It is appropriate to discuss simulators 
such as Microprose's Formula 1 Grand Prix which attempt to realistically
simulate the handling of the vehicle.

3-6   Others related newsgroups
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Motorbike racing is more appropriate in rec.motorcycles.racing and 
rec.motorcycles.dirt. You may also find alt.hotrod and alt.autos.karting, 
on your Usenet feed.

4     MAILING LISTS

[I have removed some details for some mailing lists whilst I check
that they are accurate]

4-1   Autocross                       Contact: autox-request@autox.team.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Discussion of autocrossing, SCCA Solo events.  Also available as a digest.
Many members of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) are on the list.

When you send a request to the autox-request address, it may take days,
maybe even a week or so before anything happens.  List administration is
not an automated service, but is done by busy people.  Be patient.  The
list can also be accessed by WWW (http://triumph.cs.utah.edu/team.net.html)
or for anonymous ftp at triumph.cs.utah.edu [155-99.208.4].

4-2   DRML (Drag Racing Mailing List) Contact: listserv@rdt.monash.edu.au
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Info and discussion on amateur and professional drag racing.
To subscribe, send a message to listserv@rdt.monash.edu.au,
with no subject line.  In the body of the mail, put:
subscribe drml your name( ie: John Smith)

To unsubscribe, send a message to listserv@rdt.monash.edu.au with
"signoff drml" in the body of the mail.

4-3   Hotrods    Contact: hotrod-request@dixie.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hotrod list is chartered to provide a forum for people interested in 
high performance vehicles to exchange ideas and discuss topics of current 
interest.  This list is chartered as broadly as possible consistent with 
noise supression.  Explicitly acceptable is any discussion regarding 
increasing the performance of any vehicle with more than three wheels.

To subscribe, send email to hotrod-request@dixie.com with "subscribe" and a
return email address in the "Subject:" line.  To unsubscribe, put the 
keyword "drop" and your return email address in the "Subject:" line.
This mailing list is also mirrored to alt.hotrod.

4-4   Karting                         Contact: karting-request@cmr.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Recreational karting, racing, off-road, on-road, wheel2wheel racing,
mud, sand, just plain dirt, manufacturers, suppliers, commercial
karting facilities, good tracks, bad tracks, track design, setup,
engine modifications, chassis setup, rules, lack of rules, safety
(should have been first), and anything else we can think of.
To subscribe, send email to karting-request@cmr.com with "subscribe"
in the body of the message (not in the subject line).

4-5   Rallying                        Contact:listserv@guvm.ccf.georgetown.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Discussion of rallying, including driving, navigating, car preparation.
Send mail to listserv@guvm.ccf.georgetown.edu  with "subscribe RALLY-L"
in the body of the message (not in the subject line).

4-6   Wheel-to-wheel  Contact: wheeltowheel-request@abingdon.Eng.Sun.COM 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~           (Andy Banta)
For people interested in participation in auto racing as driver,
worker or crew.  People interested in all types of wheel-to-wheel
racing are welcome, but the majority of the discussion centers on
road courses.


5     OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES

Descriptions of WWW and IRC are in the FAQs for comp.infosystems.www and
alt.irc in news.answers

5-1   WWW pages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
F1 IndyCar & NASCAR http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Contribs/carina/ra.home.page.html
F1      http://www.abekrd.co.uk
Ice Speedway        http://ws105.zfn.uni-bremen.de/icespeedway/icespeedway.html
Ayrton Senna GIFs   http://gto.ncsa.uiuc.edu/tfischer/senna.html
http://galaxy.einet.net/galaxy/Engineering-and-Technology/Transportation/
Automotive-Engineering.html
International Electric GP Association: http://www.elpress.com/iegp/iegp.html

5-2   Gopher
~~~~~~~~~~~~
TAMSCC:         gopher://tamscc.tamu.edu

5-3   IRC channels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#motorsprt and #nascar (may not be running all of the time).


5-4   Televised Events
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A compilation of info. gleaned from TV listings, auto mags, newspapers, tea 
leaves, my favourite bartender, and the nice folks at TNN. If you are having 
trouble with this list arriving at your site in a timely fashion, please let 
me [Bill Stoffel] know by e-mail and I will start mailing you a copy. 
Comments, suggestions, additions, pit passes to: stoffel@oasys.dt.navy.mil

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rec.autos.sport FAQ                                      rasfaq@bath.ac.uk

