A Day at the Track

Racing is considered a spectator sport, but as far as I'm concerned, it gives spectators ten times more unpredictability and amazement than actually participating any active sport you can name. I've never witnessed anything more exciting, more flush with adrenaline, than a pit crew in action--fueling, changing tires, checking the driver's apparatus, all in a space of 30 seconds. Add to that the competition for space and speed on the track, and you can practically work off five pounds just by keeping your eyes open.

I don't know what it is about racing--well, I do: The action can't be beat, even though each kind of car racing operates according to formula. The classic Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt once said there wasn't much to turning left all day, that the real racing challenge was the twisting-and-turning course at Le Mans. But Foyt was wrong. What's not exciting and dynamic about the multicolored cars outmaneuvering one another on ninety-degree turns, darting over, across, and through the black pavement at 200 miles per hour of ground speed? What's more, the turns and maneuvers are never the same; there's no end of variety on a car track. It's not only that you're just as likely to see a 1956 Porsche 356 against a reconfigured 2004 Ferrari. Every move to left or right, every throttle surge, every half second of delay represents a driver's split-second tactical decision. Every time a car--will it be the Ferrari or the Corvette?--surges on the stretch and le

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op fuel. The driver has the blacktop all to himself, showing off the best colbination of tires, suspension, speed, and maneuver for his gasoline-addicted beast. What first really drew me to car racing was the burnout, the name given to what goes on at the starting line. There's no other word for the burnout: cool. And what's cool is the sight of the cars you just toured in the staging area roll to within inches of the starting line. What's cool is hearing the powerful engines idle, then the crunch into first gear, then the screech and roar as the drivers depress their gas pedals and slowly release the clutch. What's cool is the slow-motion surge of the ultrashiny wax job and the pale, white billow of smoke that virtually makes the car disappear. And the car has hardly moved yet. That's the burnout. The more smoke there is, the better it is for the audience, but a burnout serves more of a purpose than a show of smoke. It heats the tires so that their rubber contacts, or burns, to the pavement, giving the car unbelievable launch traction off the line. Only now, after burnout, do the cars come up to the line, their engines in tension and the eyes of drivers, crews, and audience on the 20-foot column of lights that will signal the s

Category: Personal - A