What Does Racing Mean to You?

[Ghost1 (Jim Halford)]

I am in my late 30s and making a career change for the first time to work outside of the automotive and racing industry. In my early 20s I had dreams of becoming a professional driver, but as I ran out of money I started working with the idea of continuing to turn pro by being around teams through proxy.

Over the course of ~15 years I got to drive with Senna’s chief engineer who gave me very high praise, a karting legend and Atlantic who did the same, and a few other world famous guys with multiple Le Mans wins – all of whom told me I would have easily been a successful driver if I had come from money.

I’ve raced a LOT of cars, driven with some of the biggest names in the history of motorsport, and got to be around a plethora of amazing minds and talent.

As I move away from the “professional” side of things, but remain building my kart and tracking vehicles for fun, my thoughts on the sport have kind of changed. Towards the end of my coaching career I started questioning why I was doing what I was doing. I’d rather be driving than teaching people as much as I enjoy the teaching side.

This has lead me to reflect over the last 12 months about why I started racing and what I wanted out of my whole journey to begin with.

It made me curious:

Why do you guys race/track? How do you view the sport and your own personal endeavors in it? Did you enjoy being professional if you were? If your views of the sport have changed over time please share that if you’d like.

Thanks!

[BisayaKarting]

Why do you race

It occurred to me that many of us race for different reasons. For some it’s a stepping stone to other formula while for others it may be a family affair. For me I mainly race at a club level with the odd open meeting. As much as I enjoy the adrenaline, race craft and social aspect, I equally find the technical challenge in understanding what, on the surface appears to be a very simple vehicle interesting. In the mid 1980’s I began racing Go Karts in a in a kart I built myself, as a young appren…

[Ted_Hamilton]

For me, it’s the pursuit of a certain feeling, dacing in the edge of what physics allows, in pursuit of a ‘perfect lap.’

While I enjoy the competitive aspects of oustmarting (and outdriving) the other racers, they usually ruin the ‘perfect lap.’ So, I find that I enjoy racing and driving somewhat seperately. If you’re lucky enough to make it to the lead, you can often fit both into the same race. Being good helps make you lucky.

FWIW, I appreciate much the same aspect of the physics when arc’ing a soccer ball, throwing a disc golf frisbee, or skiing…something about perfect curves.

[Ghost1 (Jim Halford)]

Very interesting replies!

[Bimodal_Rocket (Dom Callan)]

Driving, surfing, etc all share the common feature of elevating the experience of movement. I like that feeling very much and need it as part of my life so as to not have the boring parts take center stage.