"Gentlemen start your engines!" Those words are always followed by the roar of engines, the shaking of the ground, and the smell of gasoline fumes. It's how most car races start. Races are won in the last seconds, but they are also won in the decisions made in the time leading to the finish. As a quote from "Talladega Nights" goes, "If you're not first, you're last."
I've always been drawn to speed, to know who's the fastest. As a kid there were foot races with my friends, bicycle races with my siblings, and even races to see who could eat dinner the fastest. The coolest part about racing as a kid is you can also allow your imagination to race with you. I wasn't just racing my brother on his bicycle, no I was Rusty Wallace and I was out to beat that dastardly Dale Earnhardt, and I would do what ever it took to win. One of my favorite things was to pretend that my father was a race car driver and his number one objective while driving us around was to pass all available cars before we reached our destination. We had to win after all.
I took my daughter to her first race, it was at a small dirt track in Georgia. As with most experiences, I check to see if she's enjoying it. I try not to ask too much, instead relying on glances of her body language, the expressions on her face, and the twinkle in her eyes. She had an absolute ball and I could tell she loved it. To see the cars drift around the turns, hear the sound of metal on metal, and feel the dry red clay as it slightly coated the area was better than any race on television. Live sports are always better mainly because they're dripping with such raw emotion from the spectators and the participants. Emotions that a camera just can't seem to grasp.
Sometimes while driving her from destination to destination, I think I can hear her mumbling something. I'm never quite sure what it is. But, if she's anything like me she's probably saying, "Qualls in the black Jeep has had trouble with the white Nissan, can't quite get enough room to pass. Daylight's opening up. He leans heavily on the accelerator. They're door to door, mere millimeters seperating metal. And with one quick move he's out in front!"
