It's about money, of course; for most it's about finding it, finding enough of it, and then finding more. It's about
guzzling money like water, about living with the guilt of burning up so much hard earned cash. But it's much more.
It's about supremacy, being top dog, king of the hill, head honcho, the big kahuna; standing out above the crowd, being
number one, the best.
It's about speed. It's about riding the fastest, scariest, hold-onto-your-hats-geez-I'm-gonna-wet-my-pants-best-damn-roller-coaster ever invented.
And it's about power. It's about leading the charge of a thousand screaming banshees, having your body wrenched and twisted
and tossed about by the hands of great unseen forces; and it's about taming a blind raging Herculean monster, and bending it
to your will.
It's about brilliant colors, flashes of light, ear-splitting shrieks, and bone-rattling rumbles. It's about the unforgettable smell of burning rubber, smoldering brake pads, and raw fuel. It's about reaching through the steering wheel all the way down to the tires and feeling the raceway slipping past your fingertips. It's about sensing the weight of the car shifting from tire to tire, like water in a pan. It's about the tug of the shoulder harness across the collar bones, and the cramp in the leg from pressing the gas pedal through the floor.
Racing is about all of these things, and much more.
It's about passion; burning desire, insatiable hunger. It's a perverse yet overwhelming love affair with steel, aluminum, and rubber. It's about a relentless courtship with speed.
It's about conceiving and nurturing a child--the benefactor of your skill and wisdom, and a victim of your ignorance. It's about saving a rusting pile of disregarded scrap from the crusher and making it stronger, faster, more real and alive than it ever was, or ever deserved to be. It's about caring for your creation, loving it; pushing it to its limits, exalting in its greatness, and forgiving its weaknesses, because they are your weaknesses.
It's about dreams and hopes and fears. Dreams of glory; dreams of carving out a small niche in history, like Darland, Kinser, and Stewart, or Gordon. Hopes. Hopes that the many long winter hours of lonely toil in the cold, dusty garage will bring smiles come May, and a nod of approval from the brutally indifferent stopwatch. Hopes that the brakes will be there on call, as you hurtle without recourse into the unforgiving dirt canyon. Hopes that, in the end, you'll be able to look back on the whole experience and find it worth the price, while living with the fear that it won't be.
It's about determination, perseverance, and the strength of resolve. It's about patience and discipline. It's about putting in the time, double checking, attending to the critical details. It's about concentration, and focus. It's about controlling the overpowering urges, sticking to the game plan, and keeping your head when the unthinkable happens. It's about testing, and measuring, and worrying, and sweating the small stuff.
It's about faith; faith in yourself, in your crew, in your fellow competitors, in the workers, and in the men and women who designed this car, these tires, and this track. It's about believing in your roll cage, and your safety harness, your nomex suit, and the fire system that has never been put to the test. It's about knowing that no matter what happens, you chose.
It's about deep and lasting respect, caring, and friendships; about sharing joys and disappointments, pitching in, and easing the load.
It's about living life on the cutting edge of a razor, hanging it all out there, going for broke. It's about knowing, without doubt, by-damn, that you're alive. It's about putting your heart and soul into something and letting the whole world see what you can do. It's about knowing that in the midst of the confusion and emotion and heart-stopping action, you were the one that mattered.
It's about being a winner...
ROBERT BALLOU (81) GOES AIRBORNE INTO BRETT BURDETTE (17B) AND GETS COLLECTED BY REX NORRIS III DURING THE USAC SPRINT EVENT
AT GAS CITY SPEEDWAY..(HEIN BROTHERS "ACTION" PHOTO)
FELLOW PUSHER JEFF FESKO'S LATE FATHER HAD HIS STOCK CAR STOLEN OFF THE FAMILY FARM AROUND 1970..WELL IT WAS FOUND THIS
SPRING ON A NEIGHBORS PROPERTY..SPRING THAW AND A CHAIN SAW WILL REVEAL THE TREASURED CAR..
YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT IN THE DESERT..BUT THE "DESERT RATS" WENT TO WORK AT MANZY..
THE PLEASURE OF DOING A GOOD JOB PRODUCES GOOD RACING..
MARK GIMMLER WON THE CHECKER FLAG SPRINT SERIES FEATURE AT CHARLOTTE COUNTY MOTORSPORTS PARK (FL)..(GENE MARDERNESS PHOTO)
DUDE TEATE WON THE CENTRAL FLORIDA WINGLESS SPRINTS SHOW AT AT CITRUS COUNTY SPEEDWAY (FL)..(MAX DOLDER PHOTO)
TROY DECAIRE WON THE CENTRAL FLORIDA WINGLESS SPRINTS SHOW AT COLUMBIA MOTORSPORTS PARK (FL)..
LEE SCRAPE WON THE FLORIDA SPRINT CAR ASSOCIATION SHOW AT ALBANY MOTOR SPEEDWAY (GA)..
FELLOW PUSHER RANDY CRONK FROM MICHIGAN HAS BEEN TEACHING THE LOCAL SCHOOL KIDS ABOUT DRAG RACING SINCE AUGUST 1987..THEY BUILT THIS DRAG CAR AS A SCHOOL
PROJECT A FEW YEARS AGO AND IT IS STILL BEING RACED BY CURRENT STUDENTS AT MILAN..
AGO AND ITS STILL WINNING..
THE LATE ART BRAITHWAITE FROM MICHIGAN IS SHOW HERE DRIVING HIS LAST RESTORATION..THE LAST WATSON SPRINT CAR EVER BUILT..
WE HAVE NEW 2008 PICTURES FROM THE "INDIANA MILITIA"..
TIM CHAMBERS RED JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE..(Joe Chambers photo)
JOE CHAMBERS WHITE DODGE DURANGO..(Joe Chambers photo)
"THE PIANO PLAYER" BOBBY GILL GETS THINGS DONE IN THE OLD STAND BY BLACK FORD BRONCO..(Joe Chambers photo)
JEFF GRACE BLUE CHEVY BLAZER..(Joe Chambers photo)
STEVE GROGAN BLACK-SILVER GMC JIMMY..(Joe Chambers photo)
STEVE MOAT BURGANDY CHEVY BLAZER..(Joe Chambers photo)
"LIL DARLING" GLENNA DEZARN PILOTS HER WHITE CHEVY BLAZER..(Joe Chambers photo)
BOBBY KINSER BLACK FORD BRONCO..(Joe Chambers photo)
CASE CONTRACTING DRIVER WAYNE REUTIMANN, JR PICKED UP THE FIRST USCS PAVEMENT WIN OF 2008 AT WATERMELON SPEEDWAY IN CORDELE, GA..(USCS photo)
VOLUSIA SPEEDWEEKS..(Action Photo)
PUSHING OFF AT VOLUSIA..(Action Photo)
OLD FRIEND BILL ROYNON FROM TAMPA TOOK THE CHECKERED FLAG..(Gene Marderness photos)
ON THE WALL AT EAST BAY..(Max Dolder photo)
2008 SPRING TIME INSPECTION BY ARDC TECH INSPECTOR BUTCH ZIPP ON THE MIDGET OF FRANK POLIMEDA OUTSIDE OF LOBITZ CATERING
HALL IN HAZLETON, PA..(Rockney photo)
THE FOLLOWING PICTURES WERE TAKEN BY GENE MARDERNESS DURING 2008 SPEEDWEEKS AT VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY PARK..KRAIG KINSER LEADS
THE PACK..(Gene marderness photo)
JOEY SALDANA..(Gene marderness photo)
STEVE KINSER..(Gene marderness photo)
STEVE KINSER CLOSE-UP..(Gene marderness photo)
DONNIE SCHATZ..(Gene marderness photo)
DONNIE SCHATZ CLOSE-UP..(Gene marderness photo)
STEVIE SMITH..(Gene marderness photo)
DANNY LASOSKI..(Gene marderness photo)
JASON MYERS..(Gene marderness photo)
JASON SIDES..(Gene marderness photo)
JACK HAUDENSCHILD..(Gene marderness photo)
CHAD KEMENAH..(Gene marderness photo)
CRAIG DOLLANSKY..(Gene marderness photo)
DANNY SMITH..(Gene marderness photo)
FRED RAHMER..(Gene marderness photo)
DARIAN PITTMAN..(Gene marderness photo)
KEN SCRADER IN HIS UMP MOD AT VSP..(Gene marderness photo)
WE HAVE NEW 2008 PICTURES FROM THE "INDIANA MILITIA"..
TIM CHAMBERS RED JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE..(Joe Chambers photo)
JOE CHAMBERS WHITE DODGE DURANGO..(Joe Chambers photo)
"THE PIANO PLAYER" BOBBY GILL GETS THINGS DONE IN THE OLD STAND BY BLACK FORD BRONCO..(Joe Chambers photo)
JEFF GRACE BLUE CHEVY BLAZER..(Joe Chambers photo)
STEVE GROGAN BLACK-SILVER GMC JIMMY..(Joe Chambers photo)
STEVE MOAT BURGANDY CHEVY BLAZER..(Joe Chambers photo)
"LIL DARLING" GLENNA DEZARN PILOTS HER WHITE CHEVY BLAZER..(Joe Chambers photo)
BOBBY KINSER BLACK FORD BRONCO..(Joe Chambers photo)
AFTER A RAINY START AT MANZY THE "DESERT RATS" GOT THE FIRST 2008 SHOW IN...
CARL MOSER IN ACTION WITH HIS 1998 DODGE RAM DURING THE COOPER CLASSIC..(Moser photo)
ANTHONY BOHNER'S 1985 CHEVY SURBURBAN..(Moser photo)
SPEEDY GONZALES BRIGHT AND SHINNY 1999 JEEP CHEROKEE SPORT 4X4..(Moser photo)
DARRELL KORTGARD GETS HIS 2007 JEEP A LITTLE SIDEWAYS..(Moser photo)
MATT MOEHLING'S FORD BRONCO 4X4..(Moser photo)
TIME FOR A LITTLE BS SESSION BEFORE ITS RACE TIME AT MANZY..(Moser photo)
SPEEDY GETS SOME MUD ON HIS JEEP..(Moser photo)
ANTHONY BOHNER PUTS THE BUMPER TO THE MIDGET..(Moser photo)
JEROMY SHERMAN GETS HIS FIRST 2008 WIN AT MANZY..(Moser photo)
