There is No Place Like Home

We all have this kind of experience.

We would feel at home in certain places, but somehow some other places simply give us an uncomfortable feeling.

In sporting scenes, there are many instances where the athletes display such kind of territorial dominance in certain venues.

Take Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART, now renamed as the Champ Car World Series) as an example. In the 80s' and 90s', CART was the major open-wheel racing series in North America. Due to its popularity, the series was expanded to Australia, Japan, Brazil and Mexico, but the majority (over 80%) of the races was still held in the USA and Canada.

For some reason, Mexican driver Adrian Fernandez often found his very best form in races held outside the USA. Of his eight career CART victories, five of them came outside the States (in Toronto; Motegi, Japan (Twice); Rio de Janeiro; and Surfers Paradise, Australia) and only three in the States, a lopsided difference favouring the non-US races when you consider the respective winning percentage.

For fellow CART driver Bryan Herta, his favourite circuit must have been Laguna Seca in California. Among his seven career pole positions, three of them came in Laguna Seca. And in case you are wondering whether it really is his favourite circuit, then consider this: Both of his two CART victories came on this circuit. But for "The Pass" by Alex Zanardi on the very last lap in 1996, Herta could have added a third victory (or scored his first ever victory in fact) on this very same circuit.

And Herta's affection of Laguna Seca is shared by American MotoGP rider Nicky Hayden, who scored two of his three victories (so far) at the Californian track. In fact, his victory total would have remained at two had fellow American rider Colin Edwards not made a costly mistake at the very last corner in Assen earlier this year, thereby handing the victory on a plate to Hayden and ruining his "perfect" record.

In Formula One, Keke Rosberg, the World Champion in 1982, scored a total of five victories in his career. Among his victories, four of them came from street circuits (Monaco, Dallas, Detroit and Adelaide). The other victory (his very first victory in fact) came in Dijon, although being a high-speed circuit, is fact short and narrow, which are the major characteristics of a street circuit.

The late Italian Michele Alboreto also scored five career victories from 1982 to 1985. But unlike Fernandez in CART, Alboreto did extremely well in North America by notching up three victories in the USA and Canada. One wonders whether they should have swapped seats in the first place.

Similarly, fellow Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella won three races in his career (so far). However, none of them were in Europe. He won in Brazil in 2003, Australia in 2005 and Malaysia this year. Given the majority of race being held in Europe, no wonder he has never been a serious title contender despite his many years in Formula One.

(However, if you consider the fact that his victory in Brazil was not confirmed until five days after the race, and a victory ceremony was made up for him at Imola, Italy before the very next race, one may argue that Fisichella did have lifted the winning trophy in Europe.)

And this is not a recent phenomenon. In 1955 and 1958, veteran French driver Maurice Trintignant scored his only two career victories in Formula One. Both of them came in none other than Monaco, the drivers' biggest challenge due to its twisty and narrow nature.