What auto racing could look like at the Olympics

If you’re a racing fan, you’ve may have wondered how auto racing could fit in at the Rio Olympics. If equestrian dressage is an Olympic sport, why can’t auto racing be one?

The Olympics would be the perfect opportunity for fans of different racing disciplines to watch their favorite drivers from series across the world go head-to-head against each other.

The many different types of racing can make it hard to determine just what discipline has the best drivers in the world. Is it open-wheel? Stock car? Sports cars? While an Olympic auto racing event may not be a true test of who is the best, it would at least serve as a huge platform for bragging rights. And, in our view, would be must-see television.

This is how we would structure Olympic auto racing.

Cars: This is perhaps the trickiest aspect of Olympic racing and one that would take the most thought and rules preparation. The cars would need to have characteristics of all the world’s major auto racing series. Simply using Formula 1 cars or stock cars would give the drivers who regularly drive those cars too much of an advantage.

We’re not engineers, but we’re thinking a closed-cockpit sports car hybrid would be best. The car would need to be heavy enough to force open-wheel drivers to adapt, but also nimble enough to make stock car drivers realize they could push the issue much more than in a Sprint Cup car. Paddle shifting seems like a good compromise, and lots of horsepower is a must as well. Braking and cornering needs to be of the utmost importance.

Tracks: We like a group of four tracks of various types.

• One race can be held at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paolo. Interlagos is the current home of the Brazilian Grand Prix in Formula 1. It’s a 2.7-mile, 15-turn road course.

• The Emerson Fittipaldi Speedway at the Nelson Piquet International Autodrome is another great site. Yes, it was demolished for Rio Olympic construction, but this is a hypothetical exercise. If racing was in the Olympics, it might still be standing. The track used to host CART races and is a four-turn 1.9-mile trapezoid-shaped track. While F1 and sports car drivers may have an advantage at Interlagos, here’s where stock car and IndyCar drivers could shine.

• Sao Paolo also has a street course if it’d be too problematic for Rio de Janeiro to host a street race during the Olympics. The street course was used for the IndyCar Series from 2010-2013 and was an 11-turn 2.5-mile track.

• We want an ovalish track for our other track, so how about the external circut at the Ayrton Senna Autodrome in Goiana, Brazil? The 1.67-mile track has two sweeping turns at opposite ends of the circuit and two kinks in the backstretch. We thought about mandating a short track as one of the tracks in the Olympics, but having two incredibly different and unique circle tracks is a good compromise.

Format: Golf went boring at the Rio Olympics with just a straight four-round tournament for individual medals. We want to have a little more fun than that.

There should be both individual and team titles at stake in racing. Gold medals shouldn’t be awarded for race wins, but rather the best performance over four races for both drivers and countries. Each race would be mapped out to last approximately two hours.

To adequately reward winning, we’re going to use the Formula 1 points system. Driver points would determine the individual gold-medal winner while the constructor’s standings would determine the team title. In the case of a tie, the best finish would determine the winners.

The driver with the most points over four races wins the title, while the country with the most points over the races wins the team title (more on how teams would be structured in a minute).

If you’re unfamiliar with the F1 points system, this is how it works:

First: 25 points
Second: 18
Third: 15
Fourth: 12
Fifth: 10
Sixth: 8
Seventh: 6
Eighth: 4
Ninth: 2
Tenth: 1

Yes, no points are awarded below 10th. This is all about excellence. We don’t need 20th-place finishes impacting a gold medal race.

In addition to four two-hour races, we’re thinking a 12-hour endurance race at the Interlagos circuit would be fun. It could be for a separate medal and would be a team event. Each country’s drivers would have to drive at least two hours in the race.

Team structure and drivers: Each team would be allowed to field three drivers per race. Each driver’s points would count towards the team competition.

Who would drive for each country? This is where it gets fun. We solicited your opinions via Twitter and Kyle Busch was the most popular choice to represent the United States. But who would join him? Here are our choices for some countries that would be strong contenders for the team title.

• United States: Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and either Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. We can make a case for either Team Penske driver. We’re also content with this type of grouping because it would mean a driver from each NASCAR manufacturer would be represented. While we don’t want Olympic selections to become about sponsorship, those issues would be a reality if this came to fruition.

We’ll also take Josef Newgarden and Ryan Hunter-Reay into consideration for the team and some IndyCar representation.

• Australia: Daniel Ricciardo, Will Power, Mark Webber

• Brazil: Helio Castroneves, Felipe Massa, Felipe Nasr

• Colombia: Juan Pablo Montoya, Carlos Huertas, Gabby Chaves

• France: Romain Grosjean, Sebastian Bourdais, Jean-Eric Vergne

• Germany: Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg

• Great Britain: Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Dario Franchitti (hey, maybe he’d want to come out of retirement?)

• Mexico: Esteban Gutierrez, Sergio Perez, Memo Rojas

• Russia: Daniil Kvyat, Vitaly Petrov, Mikhail Aleshin

• Spain: Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jr., Roberto Merhi

Who else could field a strong team? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter. We’re thinking Germany could be the favorites for the team title in this format unless Nico Rosberg crashes himself while racing Lewis Hamilton.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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