For over a decade, Buddy Lazier has been a professional racer who has made an impact at the Indy 500. He won the race in 1996 and has four other Top 5 finishes. He also won the IndyCar Series championship in 2000. This year he raced in his 18th race at the age of 46, but finished in 32nd place overall. Sponsored by Delta Faucets over the years in a distinctive purple car – one of the Finest Faucets that you can get for your kitchen, racing might be in his Lazier’s vision 24/7, but he’s more concerned about the vision of his daughter than he is with racing.

You see, Lazier’s daughter Jacqueline doesn’t have any sight in her right eye. She was born with Aniridia, which means she doesn’t have an iris in her eyes. Without the iris, it makes it difficult for her to focus on objects, increases her overall sensitivity to light, and puts her at risk for other eye conditions that aren’t normally seen until older ages.

Lazier loves to race… but he uses his racing as a means of getting his daughter the help she needs.

That’s What Brought About a Change 

If you watched the 2014 Indy 500, then you likely saw the decals on Lazier’s car supported a vision institute from the University of Iowa. The whole point is to give this institute the public support it needs to develop advances in medical science that will promote vision. Even though Lazier readily admits that his daughter hasn’t benefited from the research as of yet, he has full confidence that one day his daughter will get to experience the benefits of their research.

Lazier isn’t the only one supporting this research in a big way. Steve Wynn, who people know from his Wynn resorts in Las Vegas, also suffers from a degenerative eye problem that is slowly taking his vision away. He donated eight figures to the same institute that Lazier supported during his race in the last year alone.

Jacqueline’s eye problems aren’t stopping her from following her passions, however, and that’s an encouraging thing to Lazier. She’s a racer, just like her dad.

What Keeps Motivating Lazier To Race?

For Lazier, racing is more than a job or just a way to raise money for his daughter. It’s also a personal family passion that has been developed through the ages. His dad raced in 1981. It’s about wanting to show people that personal goals can always be achieved, no matter what individual circumstances might be. 

Buddy has a sponsorship deal that will have him in the Indy 500 for the next 5 years thanks to the formation of Lazier Partners Racing, a conglomeration of friends and supporters from Lazier’s hometown of Vail, CO. They decided that there was nothing to lose and everything to gain, so they all took this attitude out to the track.

With hardly any practice time, Lazier qualified last year and has been the final qualifier two years running. Lazier wouldn’t have it any other way and he knows that his experience in the race and his ability to raise awareness will only help to do good things for anyone who is inspired by the work of his team.

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There are two types of cars built for racing. One type is built for the short track where the speeds are lower and the turns are tighter. The other type is for the super speedways where the speeds are faster and the turns are wider. The Bristol Motor Speedway located in Tennessee and a super speedway would be like the one in Daytona, Florida. When making a short track car the aspect of down force is concentrated on because down force helps the car grip the track better since it is made lower to the ground than others. Also the body of the car is placed further back on the frame of the car and the front fenders and are more curved. With a great amount of down force the car will be better able to handle the turns of the track as quickly as possible. Since the brakes and engine conducts more heat, the cars are made with more grill vents where air goes directly to the brakes.

The cars on the super speedway need to keep high speeds at all times, even when going into the turns. The banking on the track is high for this purpose and the body of the cars is placed more to the front of the frame to reduce drag. Reducing drag is important because if they do not the cars will not be able to go fast enough. Since the cars travel at higher speeds there are not as many air vents to cool the engines and brakes, as it is not necessary.

Checking the requirements from the SCCA or the speedway officials is the most important thing that you can do to make an acceptable speedway car. You should pay close attention to what they expect on the inside and outside of the car. You also need to know exactly how fast and how far the car will be traveling so that you know how much horsepower the car needs to have to perform properly, how munch ventilation is needed for the engine and brakes so that injuries are avoided and what fluids would be best for the car to make sure that is as optimum racing ability. Sometimes just the way the car curved can increase the ability for the car to catch the wind and increase speed, but it can be more dangerous if done the wrong way.

You must be careful and, like everything else in life, do the research of have an expert do it for you. Having poor bearings on the wheel hubs can be a recipe for disaster. Make sure that every single bolt is tightened. Check and recheck. You can never be too careful. Make sure the fuel pump and all other related parts are in perfect working order. Just to be safe, you could brand new ones on before each and every race to insure your safety and the safety of others on the speedway with you. You may be able to use a car instead of a motorcycle on a dirt track, but checking with the appropriate officials is always the best way to go. Different parts ay be necessary to use.


There are many resources to view a speedway race if you can’t view it in person at the track. Most cable companies have some sports channels that come with a standard cable package. You can usually find a race or two on your basic cable sports channels.

If you don’t have sports channels that air the races you could see if any of your friends have premium channels and you could have a sports party with some close friends or a lot of friends. This would be a great way to spend time with people you like and see the races all at the same time. If you are a loner, you could make a phone call to all of the sports bars in your area and see if they are playing the races so that you could have a cold one and watch the races. You could also ask family members what channels they have for sports channels and see if you could watch them at their place. It’s always good to spend time with family when you possibly can. You never know what tomorrow will bring. So seize the moment to spend time with those you care about. Or if you have an upgraded cable package you should be able to view all of the races of the season.

Other than YouTube, there are a lot of sites to find live stream speedway races. Although, if you are a die-hard YouTube fan, there are quite a few interesting races on YouTube to watch. If your cable package doesn’t consist of sports channels then you could also go online to places like Amazon, Target, and other such places to purchase the season that just ended so that you didn’t miss a single race. Just like any other sport, racing is basically a seasonal sport. By this I mean that most of the races will be held in the summer months, yet you can find some races being held in the winter months. There are just fewer of them.

You can find just about anything relating to this sport on YouTube. YouTube has so many different speedway related material available such as some of the oldest races ever aired on television, the most amazing crashes, most famous races and the drivers and, of course, current races from recent years. Most states do have a speedway; therefore most states will televise the races that are held there. You might have a hard time choosing where to watch the races. You could just tape them all for hours of entertainment.






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Never checked out Speedway Racing? Well friends, it is not for the weak of heart. It is a very exciting event and also dangerous for the riders. As they are going around the track they are going very fast on motorbikes with no brakes. The race isn’t very long being that it only lasts for one minute, but no brakes! That is the scary part. So, if you enjoy thrilling events this would be something you wouldn’t want to miss. You are constantly on the edge of your seat and that is the goal for true thrill seekers. The speedway is an oval track made up of dirt and loosely packed shale (or dolomite in Australia and New Zealand). This helps them slide or glide into the turns. This is also called broadsiding. They are traveling about 70 miles an hour when on the straight part of the track. There are four laps where you will see four to six riders in one race.

No one knows the exact origins of the sport, but it is believed to be first played in the 1910s to 1920s in Australia. This might be a misconception because the first known race was held in the United Kingdom on February 1, 1928 at Camberley, Surrey and Droylsden, Lancashire. In Camberely the races went in a clockwise direction, but the races had been changed to an anti-clockwise direction soon after the first race.

Each track is between 260 and 425 meters long and it takes approximately one minute. The riders reach a speed of 110 mph on the straight part of the track and they reduce speed when making the turns on the oval track. The Federation Internationale de Motorcyclisme (FIM) regulates tracks that are used for professional speedway racing. They have strict rules concerning construction, size and safety requirements. The starting gates are spring-loaded and there are white lines midway through both of the straight parts of the track. They also put in pits in the track when it is constructed. Pits are areas off to the side of the track for press to broadcast the race, medical personnel and facilities. The track consists of four layers of grading. The topmost part of the track is made of loose grading in order for the riders to maneuver the safest way possible while gaining as much speed as they can.

When riders are going into turns, they use their back wheel so that the motorcycle finds the best spot to speed up when coming out of the turn and onto the straight part of the track. Wire fences, air fences and wooden fences are used on the outside of the track. The air fences are the closest one to the riders as they are filled with air to provide rider with the safest possible track. The public and the riders are kept safe from the dust of the track by watering down the track before and sometimes during the race. Safety is a very big concern to the FIM.


The two most famous speedways in the United States are The Indianapolis Speedway and The Daytona 500. The Indianapolis Speedway is the first one constructed in the United States in 1909. It has a permanent seating area of 257,325. Infield seating raises the capacity to 400,000. It is the largest ever made and is more of a rectangular oval than the original construction plans indicated.

Since August 19, 1909 248 automobile races have taken place there and 137 separate drivers have won. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum was constructed on the grounds in 1956. There are three major events that take place at the speedway which are the Indy 500 Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and FIM MotoGP.

The track surface is asphalt and brick and contains four turns. It is located on 16th street and Georgetown Road in Indianapolis. There is a lot to do there. The most popular are the Outside Groovin’ Music Festival, a festival parade and Legends of the Day at Indy which is a celebration to honor Mario Andretti and Jason Aldean with a concert. There is also a lot of places to shop, museums to visit and park areas for children to play at. They have many types of restaurants to eat at that are geared toward family and singles. They also have great hotels and other places to stay. With the speedway museum being inside the speedway grounds it is a great place for the whole family with memorabilia and a ton of information on the speedway.

This speedway was constructed in 1958 and opened in 1959 in located in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Daytona 500 is the most prestigious race in NASCAR and people will travel from all kinds of different states to attend a world famous speedway. It includes races involving motorcycles such as Motorcross, AMA Superbike and others. This track offers multiple layouts to accommodate as many different kinds of races. The speedway can also gain more revenue with the multiple layouts to the speedway. The International Speedway Corporation possesses ownership of the speedway. The banked design of the speedway gave the drivers of the cars and the riders of the motorcycles more speed and the audience a much better view of the race. This makes the experience well worth the money. Lights were installed in 1998 and it is the third largest outdoor-lit sports venue.
The speedway in Daytona was renovated 3 times so far. The infield was renovated in 2004 and the speedway was repaved in 1978 and 2010. The speedway is yet again being renovated and the project is being called “Daytona Rising” The plans are to make more artistic adaptions to what already exist and to move the seating to accommodate more fans to come and visit. The revised speedway should be available in the year 2016. Out of the seven different tracks that they offer the dirt track is the only one that is made of dirt instead of asphalt like the other six. There are two highlights for the fans called the Sprint Fan-zone and The Budweiser Party Porch.