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This weekend, I had another auto racing epiphany after
watching NASCAR at Watkins Glen, after reading about
DeltaWing--
it wanted to be the spec car for the Indy light series,
completely ignoring the logic of how that would be
nonproductive as a training ground for talent for the big
Indy cars with a completely different car technology and
set up feel--
and following three events across the US and the globe,
the World Time Attack Challenge from Australia, and
from the US, the Pike's Peak International Hill Climb and
Bonneville Salt Flats.
They're a speed competition.
When I looked at those events, when I read all the current
racing news and compared it all to the mindset of big time
professional racing, well, a key point about racing hit me.
And as car fans, I wonder if it hits you too.
Come back and find out WTF I am talking about because it
could spark a ton of comments and debate, and it may just
turn into a classic "Shakedown" rant.
You know, with the Leo shouting voice and hand
gestures that some of you all love to comment about.
But I'll be talking about cars, while you're wanking on
about my hosting skills.
And that's the hint for today's epiphany.
Focus on the cars.
I was reading a newspaper article lamenting how as a
nation, the US has stopped being a country of craftsmen,
craftspeople.
We don't make things anymore.
We don't do do-it-yourself projects.
We don't know how.
We just watch others do it on TV, I guess.
Oh sure, we're here crafting videos, and some microbrewery
is crafting beer, and a cook or chef will tell me they're
crafting a culinary dish, or someone's writing lines of
code or making an app, but building real [BLEEP]?
Well, we're no longer seeing that as our style.
And that's when it hit me.
With Bonneville, Pike's Peak, World Time Attack, it's not
just about the racing.
It's a celebration of craftsmanship and
individuality.
In each event, each car is its own unique design and unique
interpretation of how to go fast.
And as car guys, you like that.
It's why you're watching "Tuned" and "Big Muscle."
Someone building something special, their own, and in
racing, putting that to the test versus others.
Not a megacorporate exercise, not everybody racing unit car
spec cars, not rules that prevent craftsmanship or
narrow the skill down to who's the best at micromanaging the
tolerances of a parts assembly or a body line fit to get the
most speed.
Real cars, custom cars, individual designs.
And that came to me as the epiphany.
While real racing, for the most part, is busy trying to
make the show better or control costs or limit the
tech to control costs and make the show better, they're
forgetting what car guys love about cars, individuality and
craftsmanship.
Everyone doing their thing.
May the best engineering plus driving plus the car win.
Like in Bonneville.
Check out these cars.
They are awesome.
Now, I have no idea who's winning right now or what's
going on really because the event runs through August 17.
And the website kind of sucks.
And it feels like a bunch of old guys on the desert.
But who cares?
I want Bonneville to be cooler than the Texas Mile BS.
Or how about this collection of Pike's Peak competitors?
Hey, even Audi was there.
No, not with the fenderless R18 team from Le Mans.
They had a pace car.
But that would have been cool if they ran the R18 up.
The event was kind of a mess this year.
Kind of screwed up with handling of the fans.
It's all pavement this year, so it was
really too much danger.
And there were guys chewing crashes.
I'm sure you've already seen the Foley video.
But really, who did what?
Well, Rhys Millen and his Genesis Coupe, they won
overall, followed very closely by Romain
Dumas in his Porsche.
They set records, 946.1.
The Porsche was only two tenths back from that Hyundai.
Then Ducati bikes P3 and 4.
The Palatov with his new V8 was P5 overall, and was the
first car that kind of popped into the 10 minute mark.
The next car was the Honda electric.
Did I say Honda?
I meant Toyota.
That was Freudian.
I used to work for them.
They were P6 at a 10 minute 15.
And why did I say Honda by mistake?
Well, there was a NSX there, but it really should be a WTF.
I can't see the NSX in there.
At Pike's Peak, there were too many cars that
did not post a time.
I'm not sure what happened.
If you know, kind of fill in the blanks in the comments.
And then there were the rides from the World Time Attack
Challenge that was in Australia.
40 miles west of Sydney is the Eastern Creek International
Raceway, the only permanent circuit in Australia with an
FIA grade two international license.
There were records all around, heavy speeds, and
tech, a lot of tech.
Now sure, there was money for the pro cars, and a lot of
money spent, but there were am classes too.
So individuals building their own cars at every level of
this competition and the freedom from racing
restrictions to do so.
Let me explain my epiphany a bit further.
I like it when the GT and LMP classes of Le Mans racing show
me different designs, different brands, all trying
to go fastest.
I like F1 and WRC for the same reasons, different solutions.
But it's all about big money, big corporate craftsmanship
and design.
And I don't like Indy car and NASCAR as much because they
negate the car tech individuality with a spec car.
And they even neuter the different engines via
equivalency formulas.
See, the epiphany is all about the real racer guys building
things, their cars.
The cars are the stars as much as the driving,
as much as the show.
The people managing racing seem to forget that, forget
the affinity that a car guy or girl has with a car, with a
special car, with the person that made it special, that
created it.
Cookie cutter clone [BLEEP]
is hurting racing, and that's where the World Time Attack,
Pike's Peak, Bonneville feel like the best of racing.
So how can we promote more of that?
You know, individual cars are a big part of
what made racing cool.
And you still want that, right?
Racing still needs it, right?
What do you think?