VIEW FROM THE TAILGATE
by Carl Rackoff
What qualifies a person to be a
racecar driver?
A few weeks ago I was at family function and while
talking with friends and family it came to me about what it takes to get
yourself strapped into a racecar of any type. Over the years in the
sport of auto racing, I must have been told time after time: “Oh yeah,
let me get into a racecar and I show all you guys how it is done.”
Well it is not always that easy, and if it were
that easy, everyone would be making the big bucks up at “the show.” Some
of us have the talent and most of us do not. For myself, I don’t but I
sure can make them go left and that’s ok with me.
People think if you have deep pockets or you drive
a vehicle real fast on the street, you can do this. On the other hand,
maybe you think you got what it takes when you went to one of the many
driving schools that are out there that let’s you drive in a controlled
environment or you scored well on the latest video game. WRONG IT TAKES
TALENT. I know some people out there who are great fabricators and
mechanics, but should not be behind the wheel of a racecar. Talent in
this sport comes in many ways. Some of us are great swinging wrenches,
some of us can weld the hell out of anything and a few have the talent
to drive and others do not. Just because you raced slot cars or ran
go-karts does not make you a racecar driver but you may have the talent
to do other things.
Don’t get me wrong as there is probably a lot of
unknown talent out in the world today and we may never find them until
it’s too late. Sometimes the talent may be standing right next to you or
even staring you in the face. Looking around the pit areas of the short
tracks in America, such as a track like Riverhead, there is some of the
best talent you can find. After years of watching drivers in all of the
divisions at Riverhead and many other tracks, I found that sometimes it
was not the driver but his equipment or his crew that did not have it to
win and the driver suffered because it.
People in the world today want that instant
gratification in all that they do and unfortunately that does not always
happen. Oh by the way, talent is not the only thing, as LUCK helps!
Nevertheless, these are just my views from the tailgate.
Carl Rackoff
Want to voice your opinion, check out our forum thread on this week's View from the Tailgate by going to:
http://racerhub.com/forum/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=43020
Want to comment to directly to Carl? E-mail him at CRackoff@longislandjam.com.
