What kind of racing would you prefer watching?

[Whizzer]

DARN!!!!! Half the fun of the racing was the friendships we formed. And the beat goes on meeting old friends once again and making new ones.

As an aside, I raced a strictly stock(?) car beginning 1956 at a small one-quarter mile track in Beach Lake, PA. and had tons of fun and met lots of nice people.

In the early 1980's, my son raced motocross at tracks near Clifford, PA and became friends with a lad in the same cycle class. This particular Sunday it had rained for two or three days in a row but the racing were held anyway. My son and I helped the others clean the mud from thier bikes and as we were helping my son's friend and his father, I said, "I haven't seen this much mud since Beach Lake". The other guy looked at me and said he used to race there too. When I told him my car number and I had been the starter there, he remembered me, more than twenty-three years later. What a great thing for Danny and Kevin to race aginst one another in motocross as his father and I raced against one another in the strictly stock(?) cars.

And then the stops for a few cold ones in those dark, out of the way places bars. Funny, but there are more races won, and lost, over mahogany ridge than any other place I ever heard of.

Thanks boB, for the friendship, the memories and the fun of knowing who we are.

 

[boB]

Whiz,
I'm going to let the youngsters in on a couple of things which you really should not, under any circumstances, do after the races.

1: Never, and I mean NEVER, punch a police officer. Even if he's only trying to break up the ongoing brawl in the pits.
That leads to meeting more new friends (?) and costs about as much as a set of tires for the race car. The county needs the money too.
Not to mention the sick feeling you get when those doors make that clanging sound closing behind you.

2: Never, and I repeat myself here, NEVER, remove ALL of your clothes while dancing on the table when someone plays that old classic song, "The Stripper" on the jukebox.
While some of the patrons of the beer joint may find the show amusing, the bartender and the local officials sworn to uphold law and order may not be very impressed. Or at least not favorably.
You meet more new friends (?) and leave a few more dollars in the local county coffers, not to mention getting to hear that clanging sound again.
Something about indecent exposure, and even though the wife told the judge that while it certainly was indecent, there wasn't all that much to expose, he still suggested that in the future I might think about keeping my clothes on. To make matters worse, he even chuckled when he pronouced sentence.
Some people just don't understand how music can move a soul I guess.
I wonder if it might have been more than just the music?

Then there was a place called "Jake's Barn". The dance started at midnight on Sunday night before Labor Day and lasted until 7:00 AM.
The right front of the race car was rather bent up from a wreck at the Sunday night show and there was another one to run down the road on Monday afternoon. I'm proud to say we made the dance, got the car fixed, and made the feature. For some reason, I don't recall where we finished that day but man, it was an awful long ride home that Monday night.

The only reason I can figure that happened was that the good Lord watches over drunks and idiots.
I think He finds the whole lot of us rather amusing.
(I will add here that I have long since given up alcoholic drink. The idiot part lasts for life I think.)

 

[boB]

On a more serious note Ken, I know what you mean about the second generation thing. While I'm somewhere around three shades of usless when it comes to working on the cars now, my son is still involved. One of the BGNN teams he was working on had three second generation members.
The crewchief's dad had raced against us for over twenty years and the other kid's dad used to work with his half-brother and I when we were running the old Northern LMS series.
It feels pretty good to still be welcomed into the shops or the pits when we do make it to a show and it amazed me the number of times that the boy would come home from a race outside the local area and say that someone I hadn't heard from or even thought about in years had recognized him and asked what the dickens I was doing now.

 

[kat2220]

Nascar! but I even watch dog racing and horse racing just because it's racing.

 

[smack500]

This isn't a real diversified poll, 90% of the people on this board aren't really fans of open wheel leagues. All these leagues have something entertaining about them, but I chose f1 mainly because of some of the reactions by nascar fans and drivers. I also like to watch Irl and some local dirt tracks, one of my dads freinds competes we go watch once a month. Surprised NHRA and rally was'nt on here though.

 

[PureDeathRacing]

Anything racing i love it all!
But to watch Top Fuel run 325mph...........now that's just killer!

 

[racerx11]

I'd prefer to be at any of the local bullrings that are scattered around my house.


The Featherlite Modifieds are going to race at Lake Erie Speedway this summer. I can not wait. Arca, ASA and I believe the Goodies Dash series are also coming at some point in the season, but I'm real excited obout the Mods and ASA.

 

[DJFan]

I am the lone Busch supporter but it was a tough choice. I like the excitement of the IRL, the snobby, in your face pace of the Formula 1 series and will always love Cup racing. I love to watch the youngsters coming from all ranks of racing into Nascar's minor leagues and Busch gets the best exposure for me to be able to do so. I like to find out where all the rookies come from and see what they are made of.

I love talking with the boB's and Whizzers of the world that remember the yesteryears of racing. The other night Steve and I ran into a fella named "Butch" that worked with a Busch team during the late 70 and thru the 80's. We talked for hours and had never met the man before. We heard him mention having a car that runs at the local dirt track and told him we were race fans as well and it just went on from there! He could not believe how much we knew about the Busch racing of old and we could not believe how much more he taught us about the same racing! He told us about a fella that used to hang out in the pits that drviers believed could "curse" them. He said that some drivers even went as far as to pay the man to help insure they would have better luck during the race. I wish I could remember the mans name but we were a few drinks into the conversation by then.

I have the book written by Rick Houston "Second to None" A History of Nascar's Busch series, it is a great and was a perfect gift from my sons last mothers day.

Kel

 

[buckaroo]

Well, it's pretty obvious that 60% of the people who answered this thread would rather watch Winston Cup racing than anything else. I wonder, of the 60% of you that would prefer to watch Cup racing, how long have you been a fan of NASCAR Winston Cup racing? For that question, I'll start another thread with that in mind.

 

[judas1]

I went for the busch series, they have nothing to lose and all to gain. these guys let it all hang out. even if they only have 5 great performances a year, they can be discovered. I love cup racing, and couldnt go without it. but busch is very very exciting

 

[Mopardh9]

Well i have to say i have been a Nascar fan for over 38 years. I too cherrish the memories of my childhood, hanging out at the local garage with my dad and taking all the sights,sounds and, smells of racing in. When i run into people that remember all the old days of Mod racing back east it really makes wish those days never ended.