These Offbeat Races And Driving Competitions Deserve More Attention Than Sperm Racing, According To Our Readers

If it can be raced, it will be raced. That’s just how humans work. Got a Barbie Jeep your kids don’t use anymore? Let’s see how fast we can make it go. Captured an ostrich? Time to race ’em like horses. Digging postholes? Why not see who can dig them the fastest? Unfortunately for all of us with eyes, the human tendency to race anything did recently lead to some kid with a dubious understanding of how human reproduction works and the backing of a mysterious billionaire to turn sperm racing into an actual competition and a startup currently valued at $75 million. 

As penance for bringing that story to your attention, I decided to use that as an excuse to take whatever reach Jalopnik still has left and bring some attention to some other, lesser-known racing series and skills competitions that are far more deserving of some extra eyeballs. That’s why, on Wednesday, I asked you which offbeat racing series you’d recommend someone watch instead of sperm racing. We got a wide variety of answers, including a few I’d never heard of before, so let’s take a look at some of the most popular answers.

Moped endurance racing, and lawnmower endurance racing

Suggested by: Slow Joe Crow

Stadium Super Truck racing.

Because someone looked at a Baja truck and said put it on a track… and then put jumps everywhere.

Suggested by: Cabooze66

Ice cross. Ice skating down a narrow track with sharp turns, vertical drops, and jumps. When I first saw the Crashed Ice series on TV, the down and dirty nature was nothing like I had ever seen regarding the sport. And I was hooked.

Suggested by: Giantsgiants

Another vote for lawnmower racing. I already have a likely candidate in the shed out by the garage!

Also…

Motorhome (caravan) racing like they did on Top Gear a number of years ago.

Suggested by: Monika

Figure 8 racing, especially when they’re towing a boat.

Suggested by: Stillnotatony

Osterich racing!

Suggested by: Ted Blumstein

Ice drags with studded tires. Insane 1/8th mile times out of muscle cars on frozen lakes.

Suggested by: Anonymous Person

Recently we had the tram/trolley/streetcar world championship in my city. Missed it due to vacation, unfortunately. Admittedly it’s more a test of skill than of speed.

Suggested by: Ara Can

The used to to tractor racing, like 18 wheeler tractor not farm tractor though that might also be fun. They got them up to some pretty crazy speeds considering their size and weight and had to use water sprayers to cool the breaks. looks like there is an American Big Rig league, but then one I remember seeing AGES ago was euro style tractors.

Suggested by: Liffie420

I kinda like jetboat sprint racing. Sort of a combination of autocross and rally stages where the navigator can only use hand signals, in a boat the size of a dinghy with 1000 HP. Lots of vids on line.

Suggested by: Michael Rosenfeld