Racing is Dangerous.........

[Fine Vol]

I grew up driving a race car, from 5 years old I drove quarter midgets. I drove them till I was 15. The best I ever did was 2nd in the nation at the Grands, its the superbowl of quarter midgets. I went on to drive mini sprints but her in Fla it is not as prevalent as up North so I quite. During that time I drove with a friend named Tony Rena who went on to drive Indy cars and got 7th at Indy. The next year he was trying out for Chip Ganasi(spelling) and died in a wreak in practice. The other guy I knew was Robbie Stanely and he was driving my favorite Sprint cars, he was driving on asphalt and a radious rod broke and he died in the car. I love racing but it took something out of it.

 

[MG1968]

as a spectator, the danger is part of the attraction. I'm sure that drivers like Earnhardt, Petty, Gordon, Waltrip, etc. all thrive on the danger while at the same time knowing the next turn could be their last.

 

[tidwell]

The danger aspect is something that seemingly gets taken for granted by most people that claim that they're out there just driving in circles. They don't seem to realize that when you're going 180+mph, it's not just driving in a circle.

 

[volinbham]

I remember an interview with Gary Bettenhausen (sp?) during qualifying at Indy. If I remember right, he had just failed to make the field. He was crying and talking about how his dad and grandfather both died racing and how it was just so in-grained in his DNA to race. He couldn't stop talking about how important Indy was to his family even though it killed one (maybe 2) of his family members and both he and his brother (Tony) had had serious accidents there.

Amazing when you look at how many families have lost multiple family members yet they would never consider not racing.

 

[VolsHoops5]

Racing is dangerous, but so is life.

 

[AlabamaVolunteer]

Yeah I knew Davey Allison and he was the same way. Wouldn't have ad it play out any other way. The one that puzzles me to this day is Red Farmer. He was in the helicopter with Daveey when he crashed. he has seen one of his best friends, Neil Bonnett die on the track in a ride given to him by Dale. Saw Clifford die at Michigan, saw Bobby almost die at the same track, along with Davey's replacement Ernie. But to this day you can still see his 70 plus year old fearless self driving in circles every saturday night in the famous white red and gold #97 SLM at talladega short track. He still works with young drivers teaching them the finer points, but he can't hang up the helmet yet.