Paying dues, Learning the ropes

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Andy Belmont, a regular on the ARCA circuit, has been around for quite a while. Over the past year year of so he has been trying his hand at journalism and has written several fine pieces.

Seems this week he is concerned with the drivers arriving in the ARCA series and running their first races in these NASCAR type stockers at the big high speed tracks. A valid point, though I don't know whre one can draw the line and say,"OK, you have enough short track experience, now you can run the big tracks."

Where are the credentials?
Andy Belmont (2003-02-17)



Here we are at the start of another great season for the ARCA RE/MAX Series. The 51st circuit will see us again reach new heights. Daytona has come and gone with our event being a great race for the fans. Passing, big packs and a winner from the youth movement. It's great to see these kids who are on the fast track up the ladder win early in their career's.

This poses the question for me as we head to Atlanta. Here we see more entries and media releases about "first ever try" or trying to make it. This is puzzling at best. ATLANTA is the fastest place we go! ONE full mile shorter than Daytona, completely narrower and G-loads much higher. At what point do we look inside ourselves and say "okay we appreciate your wanting to race with us, but how about a short track?" We keep seeing new faces come out of the woodwork to race for glory and fame at the superspeedways. When are these people ever going to get experience at Salem? That's right Salem. Winchester. Show me you can drive that bad boy in on the outside around the top at Salem and stand in the gas, with car control. Earn some respect from Jason, Frank and Billy in traffic at Toledo.

All of today's wannabe's are forgetting some pretty simple basics. You have to have some idea of what you are doing! Why does Frank Kimmel win all the time? Okay, part of it is funding with Larry Clement and Advance/Pork's check book. Part of it is a great race team that communicates well, that took years of development. How about the most important part? Frank Kimmel learned to race at Louisville. Raced and won on short tracks. Frank is a great race car driver.

Jeff Gordon, Dale, Jr., Lajoie, The Green's, the list goes on and on. They had lots of experience on short tracks, in many different kinds of cars when they made the jump. Lap time, lap time and some more lap time. Years of lap time.

Somehow, I can't get it through my thick skull that driving a legends car one season (and having no idea what the difference is from an open end to a box end on a combination wrench) makes you qualified to run a half dozen races in a late model somewhere, go to a driving school and then jump to a 750 Horsepower, aerodynamically sound stock car capable of going 185MPH at Atlanta. Frankly, it's pretty scary for those of us who have half an idea of what we are doing, to think we are out there at this level with some who just may not belong there. Until you get some experience, "us idiots wont race with you." That by the way IS a quote from a rookie.

Whatever happened to the "learning curve?" Today, the new millennium race driver needs an 8 X 10 studio glossy, a Dale Carnegie course in speaking and a brief case full of green stamps. Never mind that driving part, we can teach that! We will put lights on the dash so you don't need to know what the lights around the speedway are. You can be color blind and not need look at the flag stand. We will give you a radio and walk you through it!

Last week at Daytona we raced with a car whose driver made the 500. That car couldn't go straight down the straight-away in the ARCA race for 200 miles. It hit everything but the flag stand. The car looked like it had raced at Salem. But the credentials are there. Name and checkbook, seems like enough to me.
 
HS,

I have to agree 100% with Andy on this one. Too many of these "young guns" have been brought to the upper levels of the sport without the experience that only seat time in the lower divisions can give them.
But, they have a pretty face, can talk to the camera and learn the sponsor's line.
Now what else is needed?
I've seen and heard several comments about some of these kids not being able to tell their crewchief what the car is doing, nor have they any idea at all what would cause a particular problem.
How far will these pretty faces go in the sport if they don't know, nor care about anything other than the amount of money mentioned in their contracts?

Oh yeah, Welcome back!
 
Thanks boB

It is so hard to determine when a young driver is ready. It is not hard to see that some of the youngsters are being brought up too soon and too fast. It is just as obvious that some of them (Newman, Johnson are obvious examples) are ready.

Some years back, I don't think they do it anymore, rookie drivers in NASCAR who were making their first appearance at Darlington were required to pass a rookie test. Basically they went out on the track alone and a panel of officials and veteran drivers observed their laps. If in the opinion of this panel the driver was not smooth enough he didn't run.

Based on Andy's comments regarding some rookie ( I don't know who he refers to, have not seen the race) maybe some type of similar arrangement needs to be reinstated.

I suppose also in fairness, it should be pointed out that some seasoned drivers can raise your eyebrows with their technique as well. :eek:
 
I agree with Belmont as well.

This whole 'image-racer' thing is just a sore point with me.A relatively new thing----and not even neccesarily limited to the young guys either.Martin and Grimm were young guys back in the ASA days and set the racing world upside down, and heaven knows that age is hardly a guarantee of maturity!

As stated,some sort of basic entry level SKILL test needs to be passed before some of these 'racers' are allowed on the track.

Image and money are not enough,after all.One name of a popular Busch series driver is jumping out at me as the personification of this------a driver complete with family ties.I wont start a contoversy by mentioning the name,but the guy just looks DANGEROUS sometimes.

Anyway,good to know Andy has quite a way with the pen as well as the wheel! :)
 
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