Filling The Need for Speed

[SuperDave]

Not to sermonize, nor give you a hard time, but a friend of mine once said to me: "There are Bold Fools, and Old Fools, but you rarely see a Old Bold Fool."

What he meant is that those who take chances are more prone to accidents. Unfortunately, you sometimes find out that you took too bold of a chance....afterwards.

If you are serious about getting your fix for speed, while having a blast, and staying relatively safe...try indoor go-karting. I will guarantee you that you will have an absolute blast, feel exhilirated, and get all the fix you want. All in a relatively safe environment, with enough acceleration (which face it is what you can feel, not speed) and g-forces and skids and donut and 180° thunks into the rubber to chill you out for at least.....a few weeks. Also, TONS cheaper. If you go to a local rink, they may have cars for rent either by the lap or by time.

As far as getting on a track, I doubt any track in the U.S. would allow you to race on their track without a waiver of responsibility. What form that takes is between you and the track. However, the tracks that I've heard of, give access only to established GROUPS. Unfortunately, I don't have any knowledge of any group that races that doesn't require some form of acceptance. Again, since I've not investigated it, I can't tell you what to expect.

As far as racing on the streets, I agree with you. I'm all for you getting your thrills out of life. When you decide to involve ME, you had better have discussed it with me and I had better have agreed, or you run the risk of MY taking the thrill out of YOUR life.

Personally, activities such as sky-diving, racing, deep snorkle diving, bungee jumping are thrilling because of many reasons. Not the least of which is the risk involved. Without addressing whether they should or shouldn't be done, my thought is that all of those activities are those that, in my opinion, require proper training and supervision. To attempt any one of those without them is a very boldly foolish way to die.

So good luck in finding a venue to get a racing fix.

Enrique

First. Karting, indoor our outdoor, is great fun, and I believe represents the best racing bang for the buck! I definitely feel, at certain parts of the track, like I'm going about as fast as I want to go. I'd also recommend Johann Schwartz' Endurance Karting. http://www.endurancekarting.com/ I participated in a 6-hour race last spring and it was an absolute blast! Johann keeps things fun, yet fairly safe, had brand new equipment last year, plenty of rental gear (helmets, suits, etc).

Second. The waiver. It may or may not be worth the paper it's printed on. But liability is not my biggest concern. I have raced only with SCCA, and when you sign their waiver, in exchange for signing away certain rights, you sign up for $2,000,000 worth of major medical insurance. Even if you are just spectating (at a club event where you have to sign the waiver) you can go to the quack shack tent and get treatment for a boo-boo knee or more serious stuff. I believe that dollar amount of coverage is more than NASCAR drivers can currently expect. Where was NASCAR when Bobby Allison was getting bankrupted by medical bills? Having such good insurance, of course means that the underwriters are going to scrutinize things carefully.

So with SCCA you can feel certain that the sport is just about as safe as it can be made. It's still dangerous, I have felt good about the way people look out for each other. It's very important to have someone looking over your shoulder when attempting something like racing. I have worked as a tech inspector and people have shown up with homebuilt roll cages that broke apart when you hit it with a hammer. The guy was disappointed he didn't get to race, but if he had rolled the right way his cage would have collapsed. Another time a guy was doing a driver's school with a borrowed formula car. I was poking around the suspension and found a rod end with a loose nut. A couple of laps and that guy's left front would have fallen off. The point is that little things can lead to big mishaps. And when you race with an organization, people can look out for each other and minimize the risk.

As far as street racing. Don't be stupid. Search around the net and you can find plenty of videos of street races that got out of hand and hurt innocent bystanders. If you want to go fast, try limit your damage to yourself and your own car.