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Originally Posted by BuffaloBoxster
...At any rate karting is IMHO the best and most cost-effective way to improve your driving, and undoubtably the most cost-effective way to wheel-to-wheel racing...
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Hi,
Agreed! But folks have to understand that Open Wheel Racing of any kind is truly the pinnacle so far as the Driver is concerned - it is my Passion.
Despite what Robert Duvall and NASCAR say,
Rubbin Ain't Racing! Whenever two Open Wheel Cars touch wheels, one wheel will ride over the other, and someone's going Airborne!
Back in the mid-late '80's, I was campaigning a Formula Ford at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in Northern Illinois. There were 3 of us contesting the lead 2 laps from the Flag. I decided to slip back to 3rd, since the Track is not 3 cars wide, and let the other two guys fight it out, hoping that I'd get an opening to scoot right by them.
Anyway, coming off the first turn 2 Laps from the Finish, they started really battling each other and their wheels touched. Both Cars turned into each other, and I had nowhere to go.
So, I followed the old Axiom which says to
aim your Car toward the Center of the Crash (on the theory that they won't still be there when you arrive at that point).
Well, they just kept skidding sideways nose-to-nose down the track and it was looking like I should have clipped my Helmet Tether afterall. I held the wheel, pulled my feet out of the Pedal Box, and just as I came on them, they raised up forming a Pyramid between them, and I drove right underneath them (not by choice, I was already committed to that Line), and held on for the Last Lap and the Win.
I was back in the Pit Lane and this Guy comes up to me and asks for my address, said that he was a Photographer and had some nice shots of the Race and me that he'd like to send me, so I gave him the info.
10 Days later I get this Manilla Envelope, and inside there are a number of Race Pics, some of me, mostly others. But, the final shot is one of me driving underneath the two stacked Cars!
All my years of struggle, pain, work, boredom and expense devoted to Racing became instantly Worth It! I still have the pic somewhere in a Box (all my Family and Friends have seen this one
Ad Nauseum), I'll try to dig it out and scan it to post here and show you guys...
Happy Motoring!... Jim'99