Running 2023 Motorsports thread

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I was getting rid of a bunch of stuff today and thought some of y'all might get a kick out of seeing these.

 

Those are awesome. I was toiling away at UF during that stretch, although still snuck over to Daytona for the '78 and '79 500s.

I gave away those programs to former boss Duane Cross a few years ago.

 

We switched from Daytona to Atlanta in '79 when the race started being televised.
I've given away and tossed more programs, autograph cards, etc. than you can shake a stick at. All that stuff that was supposed to be "worth something someday" really just turns into clutter.

 

Most definitely. I've got a box full of NASCAR media guides in the basement. I might as well use them for campfire starters. Now, I plan to make a collage out of the hard cards, tickets, passes and parking permits someday, just as a reminder.



The best thing about the era that we saw -- those were real full-bodied American cars running real races with drivers who knew the dangers but were willing to trade that for glory -- a whole lot different than what's going on in the sport now.

I can tell you who won those races 40 years ago. I couldn't name more than a dozen guys in today's Pocono field.

 

This is hilarious:

https://nypost.com/2023/07/23/f1-th...-race-views-unless-they-pay-millions-sources/

 

When I left the business, I had a box of credentials that I had planned to make something out of. I think I torched them during the COVID shutdown. I don't have kids, and when I'm gone, they'd get tossed by somebody.
I kept years worth of media guides from all sorts of motorsports and tracks thinking they might be "worth something." They weren't. They're gone.
About the only thing I have still is a big collection of NHRA national event pins, and probably the only reason I still have them is they are in the bottom of my bottom dresser drawer.
I'm a very sentimental person, but the older I get, the more I realize that if it's not something I use regularly, I probably don't need to keep it around/in the way.

 

I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!

 

Watching NHRA. They showed a graphic about the Western Swing that surprised me.
It's 1,100 miles from Indy where most teams are based to the first race in Denver, but and 1,300 miles from Denver to Seattle.
I guess my southeastern brain had never given it much thought.

 

Driving back from the Bay Area last month, I was reminded just how far the West Coast is from the East. I drove the equivalent of 13 500-mile races in 16 travel days, including 575 miles between Tahoe and Salt Lake City (in only 15 minutes!) and then turned right around and put another 550 miles to get to Sidney, Nebraska. And that still left me three "short" 475-mile days home.

Hard when I was 25. A lot harder now that I'm closing in on Medicare next month. Six hours in a metal tube is a reasonable trade-off at times.

Those long-haul truckers get my admiration, not just for the seat time but for somehow staying alert when you've driven the same boring-ass route hundreds of times EXCEPT when all hell breaks loose that one time.

 

I drove straight through from Northeast Tennessee to West Palm Beach - 13 hours - in my mid 20s, and I swore I'd never do it again.
I once had to make an 8-hour drive, take care of business at my destination for less than an hour, then drive 8 back home. That was also in my 20s.
I'd rather drink Drain-O than do that in my 50s.