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From: Walter Banks on 9 Jul 2010 12:06


Bill Graham wrote:
>
>
> For the life of me, I can't understand why people like watching a bunch of
> specialty cars race around an oval track at nearly 200 MPH. What is there
> about this that even faintly resembles driving anything on a, "road"? When I
> was young, I used to go out to South Hampton, Long Island, and watch real
> road racing.....I had a friend who drove a Fiat-Abarth in those races, and
> sometimes won. He would race his car in the single modification class, and
> by adding a cardboard "fin" to the rear, he would also compete in the two
> modification class. Then, during the week, he would drive the same car to
> work every day, because it was his only means of transportation, and it was
> street legal.....Those were the days of real racing, and I could identify
> with it very well. Today, you might as well watch a bunch of jet planes race
> for all the comparison to real driving it has.

The average quy couldn't keep a NASCAR on the track at 120 mph let alone
close
to 200.

I agree with Bill about one thing. I was driving by a 1/4 mile dirt
track and
stopped in a couple years ago. Car sponsors were names like "John's
Wrecking Yard"
and "Mike's Service Center" we had the the choice of general admission
$2.50
or grandstands $3.25. My wife and I were probably the only people there
that
were not somehow related to one of the participants. The concession
stand sold
hot dogs, hamburgers, coffee and mix. Laugh. Throw about 20 drivers on a
10-20
lap race head them all in more of less the same direction on a 35 foot
wide
quarter mile and wait for the fun to start.

Walter..

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news(a)netfront.net ---
From: Bill Graham on 9 Jul 2010 22:27

"Walter Banks" <walter(a)bytecraft.com> wrote in message
news:4C3748F4.75345528(a)bytecraft.com...
>
>
> Bill Graham wrote:
>>
>>
>> For the life of me, I can't understand why people like watching a bunch
>> of
>> specialty cars race around an oval track at nearly 200 MPH. What is there
>> about this that even faintly resembles driving anything on a, "road"?
>> When I
>> was young, I used to go out to South Hampton, Long Island, and watch real
>> road racing.....I had a friend who drove a Fiat-Abarth in those races,
>> and
>> sometimes won. He would race his car in the single modification class,
>> and
>> by adding a cardboard "fin" to the rear, he would also compete in the two
>> modification class. Then, during the week, he would drive the same car to
>> work every day, because it was his only means of transportation, and it
>> was
>> street legal.....Those were the days of real racing, and I could identify
>> with it very well. Today, you might as well watch a bunch of jet planes
>> race
>> for all the comparison to real driving it has.
>
> The average quy couldn't keep a NASCAR on the track at 120 mph let alone
> close
> to 200.
>
> I agree with Bill about one thing. I was driving by a 1/4 mile dirt
> track and
> stopped in a couple years ago. Car sponsors were names like "John's
> Wrecking Yard"
> and "Mike's Service Center" we had the the choice of general admission
> $2.50
> or grandstands $3.25. My wife and I were probably the only people there
> that
> were not somehow related to one of the participants. The concession
> stand sold
> hot dogs, hamburgers, coffee and mix. Laugh. Throw about 20 drivers on a
> 10-20
> lap race head them all in more of less the same direction on a 35 foot
> wide
> quarter mile and wait for the fun to start.
>
> Walter..
>
> --- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news(a)netfront.net ---

These races were real road races. They were raced by real cars that you
could buy at your local sports car dealer, and driven on real country roads,
that contained hills, switchback curves, left and right turns and straights
where acceleration and braking were needed. The cars that won were cars that
could perform well on real roads. I could identify with both the cars and
the drivers. The racing they engage in today can only be done by specialty
machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and are not street
legal. When they tell me that the race was won by a, "Ford", I know that
there was absolutely nothing about that Ford that even faintly resembled any
Ford that I might see anywhere on the street, or ever be able to drive
anywhere unless I was a millionaire like Paul Newman or someone of his ilk.
I might as well watch a horse race as far as being able to identify with
anything is concerned. (I have just as hard a time imagining that I am a
horse....:^)

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