"Top Sirloin" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 02:15:53 GMT, "Tom Kunich"
<
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >"Top Sirloin" <
[email protected]> wrote in message
> >
news:[email protected]...
> >> On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 19:34:45 -0000, "Me" <
[email protected]>
wrote:
> >>
> >> >I'm curious if he plans to have a european team in the near
future
> >or if its
> >> >one of his "dreams" like racing in th indy 500..
> >>
> >> Greg wasn't a bad race car driver and could probably qualify at
> >Indy. If Patrick
> >> Bedard managed it...
> >
> >Why don't YOU try driving on the brickyard at speed. Very few
people
> >can do it in practice, you see how many are competent to do it at racing speeds.
>
> Ok, are you going to set up the ride or what?
>
> Besides, it wasn't about me, this was about Greg, who did pretty
damn good in a
> spec formula against a bunch of kids who had been racing their whole
lives.
>
> There are some **** pack fodder drivers who make it into the field
every year by
> just turning the downforce up high enough that all they have to do
is turn left
> 16 times.
When I was racing motorcycles we used to have lunch at a place where a bunch of local car races hung
out and they told brickyard stories. One of them was one hell and gone fast fast fast driver. He
told me this story about going out for a practice session. Rookies have to wear helmets with a white
stripe down the middle. As you approach the turn you are required to look BOTH sides of the car as
you drop into the turn.
This was a guy that was famous for his cornering skill. He told me that he was dropping into the
corners so fast that his nose was about to bleed and he was being slammed against the sides of the
car so hard that later he had pains for a week. As he dropped into the first turn he turned his head
left and Foyt went by 30 mph faster that he was going. He turned his head left and Unser went by on
that side at least as fast. He pulled back into the pits and got out and never tried again. He said
that if they were that much faster he didn't feel he had any chance at all.
I also talked to an Indy mechanic who told this story: I was all alone with the cars after a
practice session. There was no one else on the track. I decided that I wanted to drive one of the
cars around the track to see how hard it was. (In those days the cars only had a two speed
transmission - a starting gear and a running gear - I don't know anything about them today (tom).) I
took the car out in low gear and got it up to about 60 mph and started to press down on the
accelerator and the car swapped ends MANY TIMES so fast that I couldn't do anything but hold on and
prey. After getting it stopped I thought that I had to get the car up to speed before giving it the
gas. So I got it up to about 120 on the back straight in high gear and started to press the
accelerator and IT DID THE SAME THING. I spun down the back straight, luckily in a straight line and
finally the car stopped without damage to anything but the tires. I idled it back into the garage
and never sat in a car again.
I know that I took a race car out one time. No big deal, it was a NASCAR roadracer. I was an ok
motorcycle racer and pretty used to speeds up to 140 or so. This car was sort of like that. When you
got the car into the power band it would accelerate so hard up to 150 that I only did it once and
then brought it back into the pits. As fast as any car you've ever been in would accelerate in low
gear - as hard as it would press you back - that Rambler would do it from 130 mph to 150 mph.
Car racing is for psychos. After suffering some fairly minor but often spills on the track and then
watching friends get hurt pretty seriously and seeing a couple of guys killed and then having Cal
Rayborn die in some really stupid track accident, I gave that up. Raced sailboats until the expense
got to be just too much.
Believe me, bike racing is where it's at. There is absolutely nothing that compares to it. Nothing.