How long is a Podrace?

Before I went on Appalachian Trail thru-hiking blog-hiatus, some dedicated Star Wars ‘reenactors’ and I were kicking around ideas for some sort of asynchronous long-distance trek or ‘ruck’ challenge we might organize in the future. We started by brainstorming any known distances from the Saga materials, and one of the first things that came up was the Mos Espa Arena podrace circuit. We figured if the length of the racetrack could be determined, it might serve as a nice basis for some sort of virtual relay race. The question was…how long was it?

As has become disppointingly apparent in my attempts to apply the rigors of realism to the galactic setting, because 90% of stories told under the Star Wars banner are purely plot-driven, the mundane details of life are too often nonexistent. Or if they are included, it is done in the most minutiae-focused manner and overlooks the more relatable pieces of information. Or, to paraphrase Maw Installation Redditor FlavivsAetivs, “plot and visual aesthetics—not technical specifications or internal consistency—are the primary focus of Star Wars“.

Case in point: the Boonta Eve Classic podrace! I could easily tell you the names of all the formations or obstacles on the race course, the names, species, and homeworlds of each racer, which racers did not finish the race, which racers completed the course, how fast they did so, and their average speed. But I have thus far been unable to find any mention of the distance the race covered. Unfortunately for us, the Boonta is not like the Indy 500 (the distance is right there in the name). However, a little math does allow us to calculate the length of the race course!

While the Complete Locations book does provide a detailed map of the race course, it’s clear that this is another example of Star Wars writers having a poor grasp of scale: per the map’s scale, the area in which the Boonta takes place measures barely 10 square miles (4 x 2.56 mi). I made up a rudimentary wheelwright’s ‘traveler’ tool out of LEGO and measured the race course:

I counted 34.6 revolutions of the wheel’s 2 inch circumference (69.2″ in total); the map’s scale is .28 inches:500 feet, so 69.2″ * 500’/.28″ = 123,571.43 feet, or 23.4 miles. With three laps, the Boonta would be roughly 70 miles long in total.
Since we know the final time for the six racers who finished, we should be able to calculate their speed and compare to the known speeds.
Speed = distance/time: 70.2 mi/.262 hr = 268 mph. Unfortunately, this is half as fast as Anakin’s average speed (536 mph). At the speeds podracers travel, the race should be over in 7.6, not 15.7 minutes. This suggests the map’s scale is about half what it should be.
Luckily, because the map page also includes a rundown of the race’s participants, we should be able to use a little 6th grade maths to calculate a second estimate for the distance each racer traveled.

The race’s winner (Anakin Skywalker) finished in “15.42:655″…which, unless time is written differently in the Galaxy, makes no sense. Let’s assume that means 15 minutes and 42.655 seconds (or .261849 hour); as noted above, his average speed was 536 mph. Reckoning distance simply requires us to multiply these together, giving 140.35 miles in total, or 46.78 miles per lap. Now, that’s more believable – and almost exactly double our earlier estimate: a second piece of evidence that the map’s scale is 50% of what it ought to be. Anyone out there know if there are later editions of Complete Locations that correct this error?

We can do the same with the runners-up, which is where we run into a snag:

Using this method it appear that the slower podracers were piloting shorter courses! Assuming the length of race cannot change, and the posted average speeds are accurate, then the racers following Aldar Beedo should be taking longer times to complete….or perhaps I’ve just been starting at these numbers too long. Either way, we have a rough answer: it seems the Boonta Eve Classic podrace course runs ~140 ± 5 miles.

I’ve considered adding ‘In-Universe Unsolved Mysteries’ of this sort as a category on this blog…something along the lines of this summer’s Great Twi’lek mix-up post. I have a few ideas, is there anything that needs digging into in the future? Leave a comment or click the CONTACT button at the top and let me know!

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