It’s For the Love of the Sport8/30/2016
A long time ago, a reporter went up to a short track driver/owner at a local short track and asked a simple, blunt question.
“What was the cost of your new motor?” When the driver/owner gave a five figure amount to the reporter, the reporter was quick to respond back with a follow-up question. “Why would you spend that much money on a motor when you are here to race an event that only pays $1,000 to win?” Without hesitation, the driver/owner looked that motor and made a simple comment. “This is my boat.” Many others in auto racing would say the same thing. They give that answer because, for many, auto racing is a hobby. It is their weekend golf outing, family time on the boat, fishing, playing a sport, etc. Some others see it as an opportunity to find a career in the sport. While the focus is always on young drivers trying to be the next big star in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, there are also many, many others trying to find their niche in this sport. There are many teenage pit crew members hoping to move up the ladder and get that golden opportunity to move to North Carolina and work on a NASCAR team. At the same time, there are many who want to work on the media side. Some hope they can start as a track announcer hoping that they can someday work for the Motor Racing Network or Performance Racing Network. If they can’t talk, they can write and many hope that their work can be seen by tracks, series, and media outlets hoping to give them that chance to make a living writing or talking about something they love to share with the world. Some will get on a fast track and within an instant; they are in North Carolina busting their butts while wearing a shirt that says Hendrick, Ganassi, Childress, Gibbs, and others on them. Many will write blogs or submit stories to editors hoping that it will land on a news website, magazine or newspaper, getting that validation that someone felt your storytelling was worth sharing to their mass of followers and subscribers. The sacrifice that many of these make to get somewhere is one of the most humbling experiences any human will ever imagine. Some will stay in their vehicle during multi-day shows or room in hotel rooms that receive negative stars. It becomes a “dog eats dog” world as one tries to outdo the other to get noticed and take another step up on the ladder. Emotions are felt and egos are bruised during this time. People will step over another in hopes of getting ahead. But there is one thing that they all have in common, their passion. It’s our passion and drive that keeps us going and showing up at the tracks. Either to get greasy and dirty working on the car or writing about those who risk their lives behind the wheel of a human built racecar. Do we wish we all made good money at what we did, oh heck yeah. Teams that help by buying pit passes and providing food and drink every week really makes a big difference to the loyalty of the people helping them out. Most of the time, the money reporters receive is just enough to cover travel expenses. The bottom line, we are all in the same boat. But, each day, we all wake up hoping for that phone call, email, letter or someone walking up to us at a track offering us that opportunity. For some, those opportunities work right away and for others, it may cause someone to take a step back and re-think their plan and try again. Working on a race team or with a media outlet is like a marriage or the longest team building exercise around. Things have to click; the doors have to remain open with ideas and positive influences. We need to continue to encourage everyone. Some would say we are immune to the negatives we see and hear in the sport. We are not, we take it all personally, but it just drives us to prove those negative people that they are wrong. It’s a great reminder of something we learn from the farmers…when you use manure properly, you will get a profitable yield of crop in the fall. We are trying just like everyone else to find our successful niche in the racing world. We don’t want to give up, and will find different ways to stay afloat, even if it means putting a “Donate” button on your personal website. We are not alone out there, and we do support one another. We hand out compliments more than complaints. We are trying to make ourselves better every time we are at the track. In the end, damn this is fun. We meet the best people in the world, make great contacts and build that rapport and relationships with as many as we can with the hope of reaching our personal goals someday. When we do, the hard work doesn’t slow down, because when we get to that point, we will be working our butts off to being a part of a winning team to sharing a great story. If our passion paid the bills, we all would be billionaires.
1 Comment
Anyone remember back in January of this year (2016) when Ransomville Speedway in New York announced a new social media policy? Part of the policy read, “If we see any negative comments on social media outlets from Owners, Drivers or Crew Members, we will take action immediately.”
It wasn’t long after that a few other tracks started to adopt this policy as well. Some felt this is a violation of their freedom of speech, while some felt it was a sign that the track doesn’t have a good open line of communication between themselves and their participants. Some just thought it was a stupid policy. Why can’t we say what we want to say about something without getting into trouble? The simple answer is that it’s all about the image that the track/series wants portrayed to the public, and they expect their participants to adhere to that image if they want to participate in their particular sport. This is not something being singled out in short track racing, in fact, some feel that short track racing is catching up to everyone else. With today’s world allowing for more knee-jerk reactions and too quick to judge before getting the whole story society, social media and message boards have become a petri dish of what people are feeling about things. Sadly, many feel that those with a negative opinion speak up more than those with a positive opinion. Along with the fact that negative opinion/news gets more views than something that is positive being posted on the internet. This is something not just happening in auto racing, but also in other sports. The difference this time is that NASCAR and other sports are stepping up to react when comments are spoken or written, and most of the time what someone may see or read as a minor comment, the organizations/sanctioning bodies are not tolerating it. Hope Solo, the goalkeeper on USA’s Women’s soccer team, just was suspended for six months for comments she made on how Sweden played in their Olympic match, in which Team USA lost and were eliminated from the tournament. Granted, she was suspended for 30 days in 2015 for her conduct, U.S. Soccer wanted to send a message. “The comments by Hope Solo after the match against Sweden during the 2016 Olympics were unacceptable and do not meet the standard of conduct we require from our National Team players,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati in a press release. “Beyond the athletic arena, and beyond the results, the Olympics celebrate and represent the ideals of fair play and respect. We expect all of our representatives to honor those principles, with no exceptions.” It’s not just the Olympics that “celebrate and represent the ideals of fair play and respect,” it is all sports for that matter. Yes, Solo is an American citizen and does have first amendment rights, but basically those rights are given up when she chose to participate in U.S. Soccer matches and therefore must abide by their rules as a participant. This also includes adapting to the image that U.S. Soccer wants their teams to portray at all times. Darrell Wallace Jr. was reminded of the policy he must adhere to with NASCAR this past July for his comments after an Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway where he criticized officials on a call that was made at the end of the race. Wallace was fined $15,000 for his comments that was on his personal Twitter account. A few months before that, Tony Stewart was slapped with a $35,000 fine for his comments about lug nuts. The irony with his situation is that NASCAR made changes to their rules about it. But he was fined about how he addressed the matter in the public eye. It just doesn’t revolve around rules or criticism of how a team plays; it is also coming down to how one athlete doesn’t respect another athlete on the field of play. Richard Chaplow, a soccer player for the Orange County Blues FC was recently suspended two games and fined an undisclosed amount for calling gay epithets to gay soccer play Robbie Rogers. “The USL has a zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” Jake Edwards, President of the USL said in a press release. “We cannot, nor will we, condone any language that is counter to the values we have instilled throughout the USL.” The precedence is already out there, and now it is time to instill the same values at our short tracks. Promoters need to step up and start fining or suspending owners, drivers, and crew members more than just fighting in the pits or on the track. Promoters need to start penalizing for comments made to the media and on social media, and make sure the public is aware of it. The same values of competition that is shown in other sports, especially in light of the recent Olympics, need to be brought in at a higher degree in the short track community. The amount of respect needs to be brought up to a higher level. At the same time, those who are complaining about a call made by an official or anything similar needs to ask themselves this question…how often have you seen an umpire change his mind on a third call strike to a ball because you didn’t see it the same way? Taking a call made on the track to social media won’t change the call that was made. The milk has been spilt. There also has to be a call made to anyone who operates a short track racing message board. While you are providing an area for people to speak freely about any topic, those people should also have to identify who they are and not hide behind fake names and their keyboard just to stir up controversy for their own personal amusement. People are passionate about this sport and they will show it when someone is trolling around on a message board, hiding their true identity, trying to upset those who are not afraid to share their own identity. If there is something nice about Facebook, you can’t really hide who you are, and if you do, Facebook can shut you down. In fact, Twitter just banned a journalist who was trolling one of the regulars on Saturday Night Live. Message board owners need to step up and do the same. Either you make people fill out a legitimate profile and have a verification process or just shut down your message board. While you are offering a community for people to chat, a few are taking advantage and hurting that community. The spirit of competition can be seen in every sport. The values of fair play and respect have always been at the forefront of any sport. Those values get tarnished by a few who forget those values. Those who do forget, need to be reminded by penalties and, in the end, are examples for others within their sport. Nobody knows if they should be laughing or crying at what they read on the internet. Especially when rumors are posted on message boards and social media as facts allowing the thread of follow-up comments to be as worse than an old fashioned soap opera.
Over the last 10-12 years of seeing the invention and use of online message boards and social media, it has come basically into the same flow as the 24/7 news cycle. Let’s pump news out as fast as we can, then we can backtrack on the accuracy later on. Just like in racing, the key thing is to be the first to report and not be held accountable if correct or not because your identification on some is hidden. Some would say that these message boards and social media have put more hurt on short track racing than has helped build it up. Some would also say that it has opened Pandora’s box as to what is really happening and by doing so, some things have improved. Some would also say it has been a positive way of promoting upcoming events at practically no cost. This is now a regular form of communication. When message boards were created, it opened an avenue where people could post whatever they felt and be anonymous, ultimately not being held responsible for something that they post. Sadly, this allowed some to go out there and post things to fuel a fire for self-amusement. What is sadder, is that someone or something is hurt from a post that while they may have made up as a rumor, or heard from someone who heard it from someone else, is believed to be totally true and people react to it with their emotion as a fuel rather than their heads. Recently, there was a post about a driver separating from their car owner. This is something that typically happens anywhere from short tracks to the top levels, especially this time of the year as teams want to start looking ahead to 2017. Of course, people want to know why a driver and team parted ways. What was the real reason? Those who are looking for those answers do something silly. Instead of asking the parties involved directly, they go on a message board or social media and ask if anyone knows. This opens up the door for speculation, false reasons, or totally made up reasons that in some legal areas could lead to libel or defamation of character lawsuits. A recent situation of a driver/owner split discussion on one message board turned into a discussion that is totally not involved in racing, but of a personal matter. Almost to the point to where people were comparing laws in each State regarding the matter. So a person (this writer) decided to contact the person who was in the message board as being directly involved to the separation. It only took a few minutes and a couple of questions with the person directly involved to find out that the decision was totally based on performance and cohesion within the team. In fact, the personal matter that was discussed on the message board had no bearing whatsoever, and in fact, came as a surprise to this person who honestly didn’t know if that personal matter was happening or not, but clearly said it had absolutely no bearing on the end result. What is sad is that the driver is being dragged around on this message board on what could be considered a defamation of character. But, the person who initially wrote it, gets to hide in anonymity, watching what they posted go in so many different directions. We need to be careful with we post. We need to take a few moments and get the truth before we do post, especially if it’s involving someone’s overall character. Just think if a certain post can literally shut down someone’s career for false reasons. We need to be stepping up when rumors are posted on message boards or social media. We need to start being pro-active and question that person on how they found out and start naming names. If a post starts with, “I heard from”, “Someone said”, “I overheard”, etc. Question the validation before jumping on the bandwagon and making a bad rumor worse. No, these are not supposed to be posted to get the truth, it is to post the truth. Reporters cannot report on hearsay on the evening news, they have their sources and can back it up. Can you back up what you post? If you can’t do us all a favor and keep the fingers off of the keyboards or hitting the send button unless you know for sure what you are posting is the honest to God’s truth…and you are ready to back it up right away. Racing’s Version of “The Sandlot”8/16/2016  There is this picture on Derek Kraus Racing’s Facebook page. The old adage, "A picture says thousand words," and this photo could have words that include future, competition, and most of all friendship.
This photo reminds some of the movie “The Sandlot.” It’s a story about a kid who moves into a new neighborhood and becomes friends with a bunch of kids at the local baseball field. They all hang out together, support one another; go through tough times and more. But when you look at this photo, they are not wearing baseball uniforms, nor have a baseball glove in their hands. These kids are wearing racing suits. Some proudly displaying their car numbers to just a basic black & white color. Each one of them has a dream. Those dreams could be anywhere from being a doctor to being the next local driver to becoming a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. But this is where those dreams start. They start at the local short tracks. Some of these kids may have started racing go-karts or quarter midgets. They then graduate to bandoleros then to Legend cars. Some will take a path to racing a 4-cylinder car while some will race a full-bodied Super Late Model. But they start at the short track. They arrive each week with their family in tow to support them from the stands. The young drivers have their responsibilities once they get to their pit stalls from helping to unloading to wiping the dust off the car. It’s during that downtime it is where friendships are developed and respect is gained for the on track competition. It is where they learn from their mistakes on the track and apologizing if they are the ones at fault, as we all hope that parents teach them the true spirit of competition rather than this what you need to do to get even with them. Today, we are all seeing the results of what friendships like what we see in the picture is having on the higher levels of the sport. Many of the young drivers competing in NASCAR’s top three series grew up racing against each other in bandoleros, legends and micro sprints. Through social media, we can still see how strong those friendships are today. Whether it’s Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney riding together from Phoenix to Los Angeles to Blaney saying he made Chase Elliott dinner after getting him involved in an accident at a recent race. Oh yes, there will be rivalries. It is part of the human nature of competition. Rivalries bring out the best in competitors, but rivals can also be friends. When you look at that photo, sure one or two may be rivals on the track, but that is where they leave it. Some of these kids may not go further in their racing career, but may find success in other professions or sports. But the lessons they learned at the short track may become a huge value later in life. In 15-20 years from now, it would be cool to know what happened with each one of these individuals in the photo and see where they are today. That will show the true success of short track racing for today’s youth, and hopefully start a trend from one generation to the next. 14 Means 14 in the Racing World8/4/2016 Social media and news outlets have been buzzing over the news of two 13-year-old drivers being suspended from competing at NASCAR sanctioned tracks because they are not at the legal age of 14. Each has their own unique story, but the outcome is the same.
Andrew Molleur was parked after NASCAR investigated his actual age competing at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut. According to multiple reports, paperwork that was submitted to NASCAR said he was 15. Upon further investigation, NASCAR learned he was only 13-years-old and is now suspended indefinitely. Carson Hocevar, who races at Berlin Raceway in Michigan, also can’t compete at any NASCAR sanctioned events until he turns 14. In this case, according to the track and family they were very transparent about his age citing they have written proof that NASCAR approved him. But NASCAR recently ruled a different decision. "There was an unfortunate miscommunication in conversations between NASCAR and Berlin Raceway that recently came to light and has now been corrected. NASCAR regrets the misunderstanding, but also recognizes that this is an important matter for all involved. NASCAR is taking additional steps to insure that there is no ambiguity regarding age limits with any NASCAR Whelen All-American Series tracks moving forward,” NASCAR said in a statement relating to Hocevar. In both cases, each driver has shown they are talented behind the wheel, with each winning a feature race this season. But, it comes down to a simple rule that NASCAR has had in place for as long as I remember. In order to get a NASCAR license, a driver must be at least 14-years-old. That was the rule when I was working at Rockford Speedway, a longtime NASCAR sanctioned track in 2005-07. I recall Michael Bilderback wanting to race in their NASCAR Weekly Late Model division, but he had to wait until he was 14. So, why is there a push to get these kids in a full-bodied car as soon as it’s available? The answer is pretty simple, many look at it as part of the driver’s development to get up to the upper levels of racing, especially when NASCAR and ARCA is allowing drivers under 18 (usually ages 16-18) to compete at tracks less than a mile in length. Let’s be honest, the percentage of young drivers to be the next Erik Jones is very low. Not every driver moving up will be in the Cup Series before they are 21-years-old. There are some parents, I feel, who see their kids as a golden ticket and will try to push their child when they are not mentally or physically ready to move to the next level. This is in every sport, not just auto racing. For some parents, in my opinion, they see youth sports more as future business than fun for the kids. We all have been to the youth sporting events and have seen parents yell and scream at their kids because they made an error on the field or behind the wheel. Sometimes, it gets to a point to where the kid doesn’t want to play anymore. Rarely, do I see a parent ask their kid, win or lose, did you have fun out there today? Yes, we need to have the spirit of competition and the will to win. The will to win comes by rewarding trophies to those who won, not everyone. In auto racing, the will to win can start at an early age by racing legends, bandoleros, go-karts, micro sprints, quarter midgets, etc. There are great facilities that provide these unique opportunities for the kids. These opportunities also provide an environment for the entire family to be involved along with rules that provide the best safety for the kids. But sometimes the envy to get their child in a faster, bigger car skews the common sense decision making by the parents. Some will not properly fit their kids in the right safety equipment. A couple of years ago, I was watching a bandolero race when a kid rolled over and his helmet flew off. I have never been scared in my life at a racetrack when I saw that. I had to wonder, where was the responsibility to make sure that the helmet was strapped on correctly and wasn’t too big or loose for that to happen? Fortunately, he was in a full contained seat and was alright. So why does NASCAR or any insurance that covers a track say 14-years-old? Because insurance companies study the risk exposure at that age, is it safe for them to insure someone to compete at that age at a certain track without a high volume of loss. By loss, I am not meaning by death but by claim payout from injuries. It’s the same philosophy behind why your teenage driver is at a higher risk and has higher insurance rates when they get their driver’s license. Many insurance companies will insure younger drivers competing in cars that are more fitted for them to compete in a safe environment like quarter midgets, bandoleros, Legends, micro sprints, etc. But it comes down to patience and common sense. Parents shouldn’t push the rules, but respect the boundaries behind it and tracks/series shouldn’t give in to those boundaries because the kid is good and brings fans to the track. Many drivers have started racing at 14 and have gotten into Truck and ARCA rides at 16. Trying to push it at 13, what difference does it make? If they have the talent, it will show right away not in two or three years. Sadly, some do get those opportunities at the higher level at 16 based on how much money they put down versus talent. So, by allegedly providing incorrect paperwork to get a leg up on the competition won’t help in the long run. Was this a situation where one person’s doing hurts the rest of the class? It was more than likely the case for the other driver. At the end of the day, 14 means 14 like 21 means 21. This website is privately owned and updated by me. Any donations would be greatly appreciated to help maintain and make improvements. Thank you.
My BlogsPersonal thoughts from my brain. These don't reflect on my employers or contractors. CategoriesArchives
July 2024
|
RSS Feed