Someone posted this on a racing board that I hang out at sometimes...it touched me & I thought that it might be enjoyable reading for some of the rest of you who are racing fans.....
ENJOY ;)
Quote of the week!!
Why don't you show some testicular fortitude and get up from the keyboard and do something about it.
...author DirtRacinNut
I don't think I have ever heard it put so eloquently in my life. Well said.
Congrats to all the winners this past week........to all the drivers for putting on a great show........Thank you to the track officials that do all they do regardless if I agree with calls or not......Hip Hip Hooray for Chuckie May who has brought a track back to life and give all us race families and fans a place to go on Saturday night.
With all the controversies on this message board at times people somehow don't understand from a drivers stand point that this is a labor of love. In any sport baseball football basketball there are obstacles that interfere with the game. Such as a ref or ump in the way of that game winning play. But its part of the game. In racing you work countless hours all week, go to the track thinking all your ducks are in a row. Then in a heat go into a turn just a little hard and someone is thinking your not as close as you are and come down just alittle and bam there it is. You end up sending your pal behind you to the pits. Not your intentions at all. Feature rolls around one car gets squirrelly and you end up with a busted radiator busted fan busted fan shroud etc..... ITS PART OF THE GAME. Track conditions are obstacles, track officials are obstacles, other drivers are obstacles, your own driving errors are obstacles to others, and last but not least your own temper as well as others is an obstacle. Listen up here ITS PART OF THE GAME... When your in that car your goal is to be the 1st car and with split second decisions sometimes interferes with others split second decisions causing major OBSTACLES. Track officials make split second decisions causing yet another obstacle.
I was afforded the opportunity to go in the pits this past weekend with my husband. I learned much ......Albie Howell is a NUT!, Scott Lemaster was like a rat on acid getting his car ready for the feature (I thought he was gonna rebuild the entire motor). I saw Tim Mason with a bucket of parts lending anything he could to his fiercest competitor. I saw Shannon Richmond has the perfect family. Lets see what else, I saw Ervin Vance get dealt a bad night all around. I saw the entire Patton family work as a team and when their daddy wrecked I saw the look of panic on his little girls face as she ran to the fence. I have ridden the biggest roller coasters in the world literally but nothing compared to the feeling this bad ole hillbillygirl felt when I went to the fence in turn 3 and 4 and watched the late models come through there. It literally scared the crap outta me and I don't scare easy. The adrenaline was overkill for me, they can have it.
After balancing the checkbook and counting the amount spent this racing season alone my hubby looked at me yesterday and said "Is it worth it?" There he stood waiting for the answer.....I thought hard about it, my mind screaming HELL NO HELL NO ,,,but there he was waiting "Is it worth it?" With all my heart I answered HELL YEAH its worth it......ITS RACING get over it, its just money. What else are we gonna talk about when we are old and take to rocking on the front porch?
You can sit in the stands and point fingers, you can jump up and down in the pits when your driver just got screwed, you may flip the dreaded finger at a track official, but in the end its JUST RACIN....get over it theres another race in a few days and a car that needs prepared.....And memories that will last a lifetime.......
like the rest of you have been around racing most of my life. Though it may not be as extensive a time period as some, I have seen my share of days. Whether it be the litlle one who crawls under the Slidewinder #7 to change the driveline, just because they didnt want to raise the jacks, linings all the cars up in the staging lane, pulling/cutting drivers out of cars, or up in the judges stand making "bad"..lol...calls, I know my way around the race track.
I have had the opportunity to meet some of the greatest race car drivers of all time and had the opportunity to make great friends with the ones who do it for the pure love of the sport. Alot of what WVHILLBILLYGIRL was saying was how she felt in the pits. All those drivers who put extensive amounts of work, money, sweat and tears, into the one thing they love, all gather in one place on Saturday night. They communicate, they joke, laugh, cuss, kick. Bad attitudes??? If I put half as much time, money, and effort into the cars like some of these guys do, I'd be walking a tight rope too. But somehow, someway, Beadie Blackburn is crackin jokes and putting me in a choke hold, Tandy "Suicide" Spurlock is layin on the back of his hauler smokin a cigarette asking me how I'm doin, Anton Adams is jokin around on how he and another car got into it a little bit!
I have also been up in the stands, I have watched the races, I have my favorite drivers just like everyone else. I get mad when I think there is a bad call, I cuss, throw food at the track(not really) and all that good stuff. I have had my bad encounters with drunken fans, I have been a drunken fan. I have sat through races when the lights went completly out, when there was no sound coming out of the speakers. All of that, all of the stuff that the people get on here and complain about, we have all experienced it, not just you guys.
The thing I love about the sport the most, is the loyalty, the support, the energy, the fun. Track officials make a bad call, 201 Speedway isnt the only track that has bad calls. Cant hear out of the speakers, talk to your buddy and rub it in that Paul Harris is winning over Shannon. Lights went off on the track, go to the bathroom, grab a pop.
I want to say one last thing and this alone is what drives me as a fan, pit crew member, track official. Like HILLBILLYGIRL said, she was wathcing the Late Models on the inside fence. her heart beat raised, her legs went limp(much like my whole body did when I read her post) only because of the speed, the momentum. Get in turns 3 & 4, watch from the inside fence. You are only feet away from a Late Model traveling 80 miles an hour in the turn, front end of the car pointing at you. You can literally look the driver in the eyes. Watching those men and now women drive, fight, push, shove, use each other as guardrails. Its just unbelieveable.
What happened with Glen Patton, I didnt see the cause, just the after math. I have grown close to 201 Speedway, the track crew, the drivers, the fans. To see someone take a hit, flip, etc...scares me to death. Last year I was standing on the post beside the track entrance when someone hit the post I was sitting on. I ran to Jaime Ferguson just as fast as my boots would allow me to, just to make sure he was ok. I slit my hand open trying to get two Modified off the top of the other. Dirt track racing isnt something to complain about. It is truly to me a blessing from God.
I love the sport. I love to work on Mikes cars when he was still with us, I loved watching my brothers go around the track just to wreck each other, I loved being the one in the pits changing the tires if one had a flat. I love being there on Saturdays, talking to my family. When I say family, you all know what I mean. Every driver that cracks a smile and I give a thumbs up to, every fan that complains about the hot dog sauce, watching Chuckie run around the track all day just trying to survive the night.
I love it all. I thank each and everyone of you for being apart of my racing family. Whether you get on this board and bash the track, the drivers, the sport, etc...You obviously do not have a true love for the sport. We often take what we have for granted, I do it as well, but like I said, God has blessed us with the opportunity to go to 201 Speedway each Saturday. I love it!
Ace
This is just some of the touching words that were posted.....if any of you know anything at all about racing...cars,bikes...whatever machine it might be....this had to touch your heart!!!
PEACE
~ReD~
