It’s Coming

It’s coming. It’s coming and no one can stop it. What’s coming, you ask? Another season of racing. In fact, in warmer parts of the country it’s already underway. And some may find this somewhat surprising. This is mostly because these days, no matter where you turn, it seems all the media is pushing is the narrative that electric vehicles are the future and it doesn’t help that the government has not only fueled that thought process, it’s jumped right on the bandwagon. As an extension of that, there are many out there who believe all motorsports as a whole are on life support and are on the way out. Others will point to the age of those who are out there racing, and argue the sport will be gone when those folks are. Something oft overlooked, however, is the fact the sport keeps a lot of these folks acting younger than their years. In any American town, you can find old folks sitting on their front porch, in their rocking chairs and discussing their latest illness or surgery and wishing for the good ol’ days. . . or you can go to the local drag strip and find someone the exact same age still loading and unloading a race car by themselves and pushing their cars to the edge down the track or helping someone else in the family to do it. Quite a contrast there, eh?

Seems like drag racing is a magical cure to keep them young. While NASCAR and NHRA are becoming more “politically correct” and losing their most fervent fans, the local dirt tracks and drag strips are still bringing in passionate fans and racers. With the way the economic climate in this country the way it is, we all wonder what 2023 will bring. Early indications are that racers and fans alike are going to keep going after the sport they love as much as they can. In fact, you may even detect an air of defiance in doing so, having a little extra incentive by bucking the government/media system. So far , attendance at the Lights Out race in Georgia saw record crowds. The World Series of Pro Mod (WSOPM) was an incredible event as well. The Gatornationals had huge crowds and huge ratings on TV. I don’t know about you all, but my social media feeds are filled with people getting excited for the start of the season at their local tracks. Some seem to have an open defiance in the face of the current economic climate, showing a determination that nothing will prevent them from racing. Maybe that’s an attitude we all need to have. A defiance, much like our heroes of the early days had when they were pushing the envelope, trying to discover new ways to make their cars faster than the other guys. Face it, we all need heroes. All of us have our heroes in the sport, people we searched for in the magazines in the newstands every month. People who we wanted to be when we grew up. There’s still a lot of those legends out there. If you get a chance, get yourself out to a nostalgia event and seek out those heroes of your youth while they’re still around. You’ll be amazed with the stories they have to tell. You’ll relive that thrill. And so will they.

I’m going to be doing racing articles, stories and other things here just to see how it plays out and how much interest there is in this sort of content. Let me know if you like the content I share here. It may develop into something much larger if there’s enough interest. If not, I’ll be better for the experience and hopefully I’ll make at least one person out there smile along the way. Probably not a full-track smokey burnout smile, but I’ll see what I can do.

Advertisement