What do you get out of racing?

Lynn Rimmer said:
Well, Mr. Adams, sounds to me like you want to be our moving, causing report writing, target this season.
We have to have one every year........man, I think you just volunteered (no pun intended).
Click to expand...

Hey, if I can manage to get out there and race this year, I'll take it however I can get it.

(Oh, and Lynn? I know your IP address... :p)
 
I suppose I answered the actual question poorly while getting caught up in taking cheap jabs at the bimmer folks so let me give it another shot.

HPDE's are mostly a different set of people doing their own thing each time. When you attend ICSCC races it's the same great group of people showing up and it becomes a family. I still feel like a stranger sometimes but it's more like a stranger amongst family. I've been involved with the ICSCC since 2004 and wouldn't trade it for the world. I've made lots of really good friends that I share my passion with and many people don't have that fortune. Attending my first race event each year (usually PR in May) is like coming home again. I've blown engines, wrecked a car and had other various issues and it's the racing community that is there for me. Heck, my primary competitor helped me build the roll cage in my car after wrecking my first one... Who at an HPDE is gonna do that for you?

All the thousands of dollars that I've spent to go racing holds much much more value then just the time spent on track.

If you discover that W2W racing isn't your type of rush or that it doesn't fit in the budget but you still love racing... doesn't matter, come be a part anyway, whether it's an official, a volunteer, member of the crew or spectator, you won't regret it.
 
Lynn and Richard thank you for pointing out what I missed, you are so right!

I did my one of my novice requirements at T2 flag stand at Pacific. I remember watching Steve Adams, and Eric Krause go though and thinking...Man they look slow. I KNOW I go through there faster then that. LOL I look at the time later in the day and they were 5 seconds faster.

Man what a very different view. I also learned a new respect for what the volunteers do out there all day, so I can play.

Steve you have some points but......rot roo............you do not want them "watching" you.....:)

I do know what you are meaning. But I actually LOOK at each flag station now before I enter the brake zone. That said I still missed a meatball flag at Spokane. For 3 LAPS! Finally they threw the black and I saw that the first time. When I got in to the hot pit I had a pleasent chat with our riace steward Mike B at the time about the different colors and what they mean. We also discussed it was the only way to communicate to me. Man I still cannot believe I missed it. So I pay extra attention now.
Mike fixed my hood from being unlatched and let me back out.
 
Jeez, people, I was just trying to make a joke about drivers can be pretty clueless when it comes to flags. (Although I was REALLY nervous when the nice lady in T8 at PR asked me if I wanted the yellow or the blue flag!)

When's racin' season start?
 
Steve Adams said:
Jeez, people, I was just trying to make a joke about drivers can be pretty clueless when it comes to flags. (Although I was REALLY nervous when the nice lady in T8 at PR asked me if I wanted the yellow or the blue flag!)

When's racin' season start?
Click to expand...

I knew you were kidding :)

But to answer your question....NOT SOON ENOUGH. We cannot function in a real world, just our own. :)
 
Hmmm..... How many agree with this..

The night before, anticipation, second guessing if all has been done and hoping it all holds together and you dont make a mistake.

Early AM, you walk the paddock, check out you competition, say hi to your freinds you have made at previous races and sneer at the ones you didnt.

You go back and look at your car and go over every inch of it in your mind, "have I forgotten anything?"

Then the sounds start, you feel it in your chest, its a sound youve waited for, longed for and now its here as engines come to life, it excites you.

Time to go out and qualify, your not nervous, you want it and all your thoughts are on how you are going to approach every corner and an early exit to make the most of your qualifying time.

The smells, the sounds, the people who all share your experience are all in the same mode.

Race time, your still not nervous, again, you want it. You suit up and climb in, fire the engine, then the adrenaline starts pumping thru your viens like 110 octane gasoline, you drive to pre grid, heres where everyone has their own feeling. Some like to get out and socialize, some stay in their cars and enjoy the rush, and wait. Pace lap your just concentrated on building heat into your tires not really thinking about much else. The flag drops and the fierce competitor in you comes out and wrenches every ounce of horsepower out of your car while you try not to make any mistakes that would take you or anyone else out while the field settles into a rythym, you start to relax and enact the plan you stored away earlier, about midpoint in the race you may start getting tired or hot, but it soon passes to your concentration on the track and your surroundings. the one lap board comes out, you feel relieved and disapointed at the same time as you know in 2 minutes it will all be over. You crawl out of your car with smile and a sense of doing something very few will ever get to experience.

There is nothing, nor will there ever be, a greater experience than real racing.
 
Last edited:
Daryl -

Very VERY well stated.

I have a great pic on my phone from last year (well a couple actually) of the paddock at Seattle and Portland before racers arrive (I stay at the track in the Redneck B&B) and there is something really peaceful about the paddock just prior to the day's events starting.

As the workers begin to congregate at Race Control, you start to hear more voices as they carry through the paddock. The occassional scooter or golf cart trundles by...the sweeper makes its passes on the straight-away cleaning up from the previous night's drag races. It's as if the day starts to slowly ramp up in volume...

The events of the previous day start to filter into my brain as the sleep filters out. Coffee wafts up from the cup in my hand as I extend a warm greeting that is returned from a fellow paddock occupant; perhaps they are a "competitor", perhaps not. Either way, we both recognize in that quick exchange that we share the excitement of racing.

The day will bring untold activities - some good, some bad - but all will be considered "racing". As the day wraps up, the attitude shifts to your friends and a good shared meal. Maybe it's trackside...maybe it's at the local feed bag...one thing is for certain: it will be a shared experience because your friends will be with you.

Racing for me is a diversion. I'm a pretty intense character at work and in life in general and it's difficult for me to seperate the events of the work week from my own 'quiet time' (what others might refer to as "relaxation"). I can't relax. Tried it; didn't work! BUT, when I'm racing, that's all that I think about. It's almost an escape, really. A chance to leave everything else at the gate while I persue my own time, and my own passion - not anyone elses.

It's tough to reduce it to words, but certainly worth trying because it's just that good of a thing to share!
 
I try not to fall asleep in grid
I try not to hit anyone because it's not my car.
I try not to get hit by anyone because it's not my car.
I listen to the car.
I feel the car......

and I can't think of anything else because I am to busy thinking of all of the stuff listed before.

That's what I get out of racing, I can't think of anything else while racing.

Oh, and I get really pissy on the radio.

Jeff
Retroracingteam.com
 
+1 on the friends comments. I don't really socialize in my work environment, for a number of reasons. The friends I have are in other activities, one of which is racing. BMW friends, Legends friends, Porsche friends, Mazda friends, worker friends, and even former steward friends. Conference really is a great group of people, and not something likely to be duplicated in and HDPE environment.
 
Boy, is it gettin' schmaltzy in here.

In a month you guys are gonna be clawin' at each other again. Wait for it...
 
Last edited:
Ken,

Just so we all feel more manly (and truthful) about it, let me add that the only reason I don't socialize at work is that I'm an a$$hole, and Conference people are the only ones that put up with me.

schmaltzy??

There - that's better. ;-)

Dan
 
Last edited:
epsdan said:
Ken,

Just so we all feel more manly (and truthful) about it, let me add that the only reason I don't socialize at work is that I'm an a$$hole, and Conference people are the only ones that put up with me.

schmaltzy??

There - that's better. ;-)




Dan
Click to expand...

SAME here Dan. Conferance, my wife (barely), my brother. That's it. No one esle ever wants to talk to me because all I talk about is racing. :(

I do not bowl, fish, hunt, garden, paint or vacation (unless at a race track). I played golf last in 2007. I save the greens fees for racing now. I do not want to do anything else much to my Wife's dismay. I have no idea how she stands me.
 
It thought it was just me. It's enabling to hear I'm not unique. Quite ordinary in this context actually, frighteningly so.
 
Wow, it sounds like we need a version of Alcoholics Anonymous but for racing addicts.


"Hi, my name is Mike and I are a racer ...."
 
When I started racing back in the dark ages Nathan, I had done 3 years of autocrossing first. After a couple of championships and countless laps at SIR, (for like 25 bucks for the day!), I decided to commit my car to EP and go for it. I spent Friday evening at a buddies house taping headlights and cutting out numbers, then arrived Saturday AM so nervous I could hear my knees clanking.
I was so stressed about my ability, my fear of failing and simple stuff like passing or being passed that I was a mess. But, when the flag dropped and we all funneled thru T1 the nerves vanished and the only thought on my mind was not letting the Triumph to my left beat me into T2. It was pouring and cold, but it was the biggest rush I'd ever experienced in my life to that point, and 36 years later it's still a rush that I wouldn't trade for anything. I wouldn't dare count the tens of thousands I've spent, nor mention the 2 previous wives who moved on when they realized my passion, (obsession), was permanent, but I don't regret any of it. The memories and the friendships are priceless, and if you have the passion for driving and competing inside you, please give it a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top