Fernando Alonso: Why I'm Racing in the Indy 500

[FLRacingFan]

TPT comes through again.

The first car I ever raced in wasn’t built for me.

It was for my sister.

My dad wanted her to drive go-karts, like he used to. So, in our garage, he built her one — from scratch. The only problem was, she was an eight-year-old girl who had no interest in spending her weekends racing around the go-kart circuits of northern Spain.

So he put three-year-old me in there. The kart was a little big at first. I couldn’t quite reach the pedals, but we adjusted the seat, moved the pedals up and made it work.

I loved driving, but I loved just as much the time with my family. My mom, dad, sister and I would drive to different tracks and spend our weekends there. Every day I would race for a few hours and then play soccer in the Spanish sun with my friends. Those days are still with me every time I go to the track today.

I learned a lot about driving in those days, but just as important, I learned something about myself:

I love to race. Like really, really race. And that’s why on May 28, on the biggest weekend in motor sports, I won’t be with my Formula 1 team at the Monaco Grand Prix. I’ll be in Indianapolis. Racing at the Brickyard. Because I need to be. The Indy 500 is one of the greatest events in the sport. Drivers all over the world know this. I belong there. Because I’m a racer.

I always have been, and I always will be.

Continued... https://www.theplayerstribune.com/fernando-alonso-indy-500-mclaren-honda-andretti/

 

[LewTheShoe]

I love to race. Like really, really race. And that’s why on May 28, on the biggest weekend in motor sports, I won’t be with my Formula 1 team at the Monaco Grand Prix. I’ll be in Indianapolis. Racing at the Brickyard. Because I need to be. The Indy 500 is one of the greatest events in the sport. Drivers all over the world know this. I belong there. Because I’m a racer.

Good stuff from Fernando. Thanks for posting this.

Sorry to go off topic, but I feel that Alonso "gets" the part that many overlook in the discussion about Nascar. While we argue endlessly that we like or don't like playoffs, points scales, and stages, the real racers just continue to race, as they always have done. Man against man, on the race track. To me, that is the essential ingredient of racing. The Indy 500 has it, Nascar has it, MotoGP has it, and F1 needs to get back to that ASAP.

 

[Reck]

Last paragraph is ****** deep. Love it.

 

[Zerkfitting]

I enjoyed that story - Alonso is a true racer.