Motor Racing
- 2 July – death of Swede Savage (26), USAC race car driver, in a racing accident
- 29 July – death of Roger Williamson, British Formula One driver, in a racing accident
- Open wheel racing
- Formula One Championship
- Jackie Stewart wins World Drivers' Championship in a Tyrell 003-Cosworth
- World Constructors Championship won by Tyrrell
- 28 & 30 May – Gordon Johncock wins the 57th running of the Indianapolis 500 in the STP Double Oil Filter Eagle-Offenhauser
- USAC Championship Car Series – Won by Roger McCluskey
- Formula One Championship
- Stock car racing
- 18 February – Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 in the #43 Plymouth for Petty Enterprises
- singer Marty Robbins makes his first appearance as a driver
- 27 May – E. W. Baker wins the World 500 in the #6 Dodge
- NASCAR championship won by Benny Parsons
- 18 February – Richard Petty wins the Daytona 500 in the #43 Plymouth for Petty Enterprises
- 24 hours of Le Mans – the team of Henri Pescarolo / Gérard Larrousse won, driving a Matra MS670B
- Rally racing
- World Rally Championship for Manufacturers – Won by Alpine Renault (1973 is the inaugural season for the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's new World Rally Championship series)
- Drag racing
- NHRA Supernationals – Top Fuel Dragster won by Don Garlits
- NHRA Top Fuel championship – Top Fuel Dragster (TFD) won Jerry Ruth, Top Fuel Funny Car (TF/FC) by Frank Hall
Read more about this topic: 1973 In Sports
Famous quotes containing the words motor and/or racing:
“What shall we do with country quiet now?
A motor drones insanely in the blue
Like a bad bird in a dream.”
—Babette Deutsch (1895–1982)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)