Years ago, in the so called Golden Age of racing, race car drivers were much different than they are today. The sport itself was obviously much different as well. Drivers in those days were truly racers, who would and could race anything with wheels on it. The car builders (they weren’t really manufacturers then) would often build different types cars for different series for them, rather than focusing on just one type of racing.

In today’s world, drivers have become specialists that only race in one series, or one type of car and car manufacturers usually focus on one series as well. With contracts and overlapping race schedules it just doesn’t seem to make sense for any cross series racing. Or does it?

Back in the day, guys like Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, AJ Foyt and a ton of others could be found racing almost every weekend. They had to to pay the bills. The difference was that one day they might be racing an open wheel car and a sports car the next. They might be racing in Europe, the US, Canada or even South America. Wherever the paycheque was coming from. These guys loved to race and it showed. John Surtees went so far as to win World Championships on both 2 and 4 wheels. Still the only one to accomplish that feat, but that might be about to change.

In recent years, the only really versatile drivers seemed to be guys like Boris Said and Ron Fellows. Racers to the core, who could and would race anything they were invited to drive and would be competitive too. We’ve begun to see guys like Tony Stewart, Kyle Petty and the Earnharts running in sports cars at the 24 Hours of Daytona each year. Now we’re starting to see more guys expanding their reach.

Most notable is probably Juan Montoya who, after several years in Champ Cars and F1 cars, now is set for an all out assault on the NASCAR world. It looks like Jacques Villeneuve and AJ Allmendinger may be making plans to follow suit. American Motocross star Ricky Carmichael has already signed up for his NASCAR debut and fellow dirt bike rider Travis Pastrana has already had some success driving a Subaru in the X-Games. Moto GP legend Valentino Rossi has been rumoured to be making a switch to the Ferrari Formula 1 team, but first is planning to campaign a Subaru in the Rally New Zealand to finish off the 2006 WRC season. Could we again see a top motorcycle racer excel in F1?

Maybe driver’s are tired of sticking to one series and are feeling the urge to just become racers again, instead of just marketing tools. Regardless of the reason, it will make for some interesting comparisons over the next couple of seasons.