Go, speedracer! Go!
2011 03 28
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Finally having access to live Formula One again, along with making me nostalgic (as you'll see), is a relief on par with getting the ungettable itch. it's like sinking into the comfy chair after a day on your feet. it's like air conditioning after a blistering hot August afternoon. I have missed it.
I never used to like car racing at all (and still don't like NASCAR. Who wants to watch something drive around in circles for five hours? Not I!), until I met some friends who were into it, whom I used to visit every couple of months for a weekend. I figured that I should, at the very least, see what was what, since I was staying in the home of those who liked the sport. I got to the level of tolerance, then acceptance, then likeableness, then fandom, then to the point where the following thing happened one fine, rainy September day:
That's right. That's me driving that F2000 car. it's the only car I've ever driven, and it still makes me happy to think about it, over ten years later. it's what I did for my 31st birthday. (Yes, I have photos where you can see my face, but, a, I look like crap, and b, I'm not even certain where they are).
I was not allowed to run the track, due to the rain, but got to go up and down the straightaway a few times. Apparently I made it up to about 85 km/h.
When Nigel Mansell (who used to have trouble fitting into F1 cars, as he was tall and beefy) left Formula One to drive Indy (which has some oval tracks - F1 has none), he was advised by one Mr. A. J. Foyt, "Don't make any right turns, boy. You'll eat concrete."