Racing

I never thought I would race. But then again I never thought I would write either. One intrigued me and the other distressed me. One captivated me as a kid, watching Petty and Yarbrough and Allison and Andretti on our black and white TV. The other tortured me for hours while I struggled at the kitchen table to write a one page paper for a fifth grade assignment. Given the above, what would your prediction for me have been?

Motorsports is such a target-rich environment when it comes to story. It has such a long, rich history, and by rich I mean plane loads of money, at least for the people we get to hear about. But during the past couple of years racing and being involved in the Opel community I have met and talked with people with all of the passion and dedication of the big name teams and celebrities. Actually, one could easily argue that their dedication surpasses that of the pros. I'm thinking of Bill Ward, who modestly took home seven Bonneville land speed records and his long-time driver "Rocket Man" John Paxson, who had also run a rocket-powered dragster around the country. And closer to home, in LeMons, there's CrazyMike, who suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune, and occasional fortune, at the wheel of a 1963 Beetle, dragging it out to over 19 endurance races, then dragging pieces of it home again. And Matt Adair, proving the Jeep Cherokee CJ on the road course over and over again, and Spank, creative genius of theme and build.

And yes, there is everyone else in LeMons, characters with loads of character, in a race series that seems to have been able to find and stay in that sweet spot where the sport is first fun, and after that, whatever. How could one not want to write about this?

Most of my race writing has dealt with LeMons, and most of that with our team. That is changing, however, and that change started with the book "How On Fire Are We?" Hey! Maybe I should even become a publisher. The world needs a crapcan magazine.