Race queen

A race queen or pit babe is a promotional model found as part of a pit crew in certain kinds of motor racing, such as F1 races.

History

The first usage of promotional models in motor races was during the late 1960s. It was then that the term race queen was coined. Prior to that, women in motor races were mostly wives and girlfriends of drivers and staff, with the exception of some who were drivers. In 1983, the sun tan lotion company Hawaiian Tropic sponsored the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The company brought its models over from the United States to appear on the racetrack before the race began. These models wore bikinis bearing the company's name. A year later, that practice was imported over to Japan for the Suzuka 8 Hours motorcycle race.

In Japan

In Japan, race queens are often regarded as idols varying only by the motor sport event they appear in. The average age for these girls is late teens to early twenties and demand for them wanes with age. It is not unusual for some of them to have a background in or a sideline career as a gravure idol. Race queens who operate in prestigious events and with a large fanbase can also be found at automobile shows purely to draw crowds where they are nearly as important an attraction as the cars or electronics products that they are promoting. There is a magazine dedicated to them called Gals Paradise.

Cycle sport

Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, time trialling, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sports include artistic cycling, cycle polo, freestyle BMX and mountain bike trials. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is the world governing body for cycling and international competitive cycling events. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is the governing body for human-powered vehicles that imposes far fewer restrictions on their design than does the UCI. The UltraMarathon Cycling Association is the governing body for many ultra-distance cycling races.

Bicycle racing is recognised as an Olympic sport. Bicycle races are popular all over the world, especially in Europe. The countries most devoted to bicycle racing include Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. Other countries with international standing include Australia, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Bicycle Race

"Bicycle Race" is a single by the British rock band Queen. It was released on their 1978 album Jazz and written by Queen's frontman Freddie Mercury. It was released as a double A-side single together with the song "Fat Bottomed Girls". The song is notable for its video featuring a bicycle race with nude women at Wimbledon Stadium, which was edited or even banned in several countries.

Song and lyrical content

The song was written by Mercury and was inspired by watching the 18th stage of the 1978 Tour de France passing Montreux where the band were recording Jazz in the Mountain Studios. It starts with a chorus unaccompanied by instruments. The chorus is followed by two verses connected with a bridge, both followed by a chorus. Around the middle of the song there is a solo played with numerous bicycle bells. The song has an unusual chord progression with numerous modulations, a change of meter (from 4/4 to 6/8) in the bridge, and multitracked vocal and guitar harmonies.

The lyrics are topical for the time and contain social, political and pop-culture references, such as religion, Watergate, drugs, fictional heroes (Peter Pan, Frankenstein and Superman), and the films Jaws and Star Wars. The song also mentions actor John Wayne. The lyrics make an implied reference to cocaine (known in slang as "coke"), but it may also refer Coca-Cola (also known as "Coke"). The lyrics also mention the exclamatory interjection, "Hot dog!" and the idiom "Cool it, man!"