The five biggest motor races in the world 2020

One day we’ll do it, an annual book on the five biggest motor races of the year… but what are they? The Motorsport 360 crew sat down to work it out. History plays a part, and these races have stood the test of time.

Here’s our top 5 circuit events for the 2020 motor racing year.

62nd Daytona 500 / 16 February

They tag it the Great American Race and the Daytona 500 is NASCAR’s biggest race as well as the season opener. The superfast Daytona oval track near the beach where NASCAR first began is the race they all want to win. You know it is fierce when the ‘green–white–checker finish’ (there must be two clean laps of racing at the end without a Safety Car) has been used more than half the time since its introduction in 2004. The race is generally a sell-out with 167,785 filling the stands and in-field on race day.

http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/

78th Grand Prix de Monaco - 24 May

We don’t really need to say anything about this one, do we? An absurd place to hold a motor race for the fastest cars on the planet, but its prestige says it will always happen despite the multiple concerns about everything. Many drivers say how much they dislike racing there, but we’ve never heard one person say they didn’t want to win it.

https://www.formula1monaco.com/

104th Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge / 24 May

Any car race that can have average lap speeds of more then 380km/h is fast, and that why more than 320,000 fans flock to this oval track in the suburbs of Indianapolis in the middle of the USA. Its history is fascinating, but it is the on-track action that is captivating. And forget the oval argument, this race is as a tough a test of driver and machine as any on the planet, just ask Fernando Alonso who failed to even qualify last year. If you can get there, take in the whole month of May from the Grand Prix on 8 May all the way to 24 May for the big race. It is special, so special they celebrate with a bottle of milk at the end rather than champagne.

https://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/events/indy500

88th 24 Hours of Le Mans / 13-14 June 2020

Not only is this race one of the fastest and most gruelling motorsport events in the world, it is also the season closer for the World Endurance Championship which is presently being led by the Toyota trio of Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway. After the Ford v Ferrari movie there may even be more interest than normal in the greatest test of sportscar racing with LMP1 and LMP2 cutting phenomenal lap times and GT cars proving the road cars have a big part to play.

https://www.lemans.org/en/24-hours-of-le-mans/

60th Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 / 13 October

The biggest touring car race in the world is the Bathurst 1000 in rural NSW in Australia. Today it is run with the domestic Supercars class (formerly V8 Supercars) and is a car busting 1000km run around the world’s best motor racing track. Built more than half a century as a touring road for Mount Panorama, it was always conceived as a racing venue, with a big climb up to the Skyline before a dizzying drop down The Esses and onto the 300km/h Conrod straight . The Bathurst 1000 is one of the biggest sporting events in Australia and winning this race has been the sole goal of many of the team in the series, attracting the likes of Andretti Autosport, Team Penske and Triple Eight down under to contest the race.

https://www.supercars.com/bathurst1000/

Stay tuned, some time soon we’ll look at the events we like that aren’t on circuits.