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In Europe in the early part of the 20th century the first great road races were city to city events. When this became unacceptably dangerous the races were moved to long circuits made up of public roads. The early circuits were usually triangular in layout with the emphasis on very long straights, to test the engines, followed by a tight corner and then another long straight. The races were also generally run in an anti-clockwise direction. I think the only known precedent for this were the Roman chariot races. Since most of the track consisted of straights there had to be a rule of the road about which side cars should drive on so that they didn't obstruct faster cars - I think this sort of arrangement still applies on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans to-day. The rule was 'keep to the right unless overtaking'. Now since these were temporary tracks there couldn't be too much in the way of expensive permanent facilities such as tunnels under the track or lots of bridges over the track. Consequently the inside of the track was difficult to get to and from once the race was underway. Because of this the main grandstands had to be built on the outside of the track so that the general public could come and go freely. But since the rule of the road was 'keep to the right' the pits also had to be on the outside (right side) of the track with the traffic going anti-clockwise so that the cars didn't have to cross the road to get to the pits. To ensure that the pits didn't block the view of the public in the grandstands they were sunk, literally, into trenches, or 'pits', by the trackside and the mechanics remained in these until their car came in for a stop. And then a bright spark said 'hey, if we ran the cars clockwise we could put the pits on the inside of the track opposite the grandstands and leave the grandstands on the outside of the track'. And so it became normal to run tracks in a clockwise direction. To-day it carries on because of tradition as there are no more rules of the road and very few long straights.
