[Need For Speed]

I've been going to races for right at 39 years. I've seen anything from slot cars, to NHRA, to airplanes, (and everything in between damn near) on permanent and tempory tracks, indoors and out, in the air on dirt pavement and on concrete floors covered with Coke syrup, on road courses- in straight lines- and on ovals of various sizes, with and without some kind of aerodynamic assistance.

I'm not a know it all, but you aren't going to BS me too easily.

-I started racing karts in 1977 at the ripe ol' age of 5. This was before the age of the full bodies, really wide/soft tires, and the crazy offset karts of today. My first kart had a little 'triangle' shaped nerf bar, and a short front bumper...there was no knocking and banging or pushing people out of the way, like happens now. I had to learn/was taught, how to race, not drive a bulldozer.

I ran on dirt mostly, but I've also run indoors, and on temporary street courses.

Matter of fact, the first time I ran on a street course, there was still clay on the kart from the night before....I was 11 at that time.

Dirt was a blast, especially when it was wet and tacky, but I could still get around on a slick track just the same.

Indoors was awesome....stand on the gas and go fast. Kinda weird seeing that tall wall beside you while running in the Ft. Wayne Coliseum, and at Marion, OH.

The street course was pretty cool also. Was odd turning left and right, and it took a while to get used to 'hitting the apex' and making a big wide dive into a turn, but once I learned where to back off, and then stomp it right away and drive through the corner, it was sweet.

For me, running on a road course was fun, but watching a road race, either on a permanent or temporary course, SUCKS, and is boring to me.

Was/am I the best to ever sit in a kart....no, but I could hold my own.

Kart races used to be interesting as hell, now they are boring 'follow the leader' parades.

Jeff Gordon is about 6 months older than me, and when he showed up in Ohio, my dad was constantly hearing, 'Dad, when are we gonna' buy a sprint car?' It never happened....lack of $$$$$$$$

I raced against, and am friends with, several of the guys you now see in midgets, sprint cars, modifieds, and late models in western Ohio/eastern Indiana....some of them have been track champions, and some have been touring series champions, multiple times.

If you ask any of us, we just wanted to race. We were not thinking of hiring an agent at 12 years old. We believed if we raced clean and hard, and won a lot of races, that people would notice, and ask us to drive for them, and we would move up....that's how it used to be.

But that has changed....and that is wrong.

Look at guys like Jack Hewitt and Steve Kinser...why didn't they have several INDY starts?

Rich Vogler could run the wheels off of anything he sat in. Why didn't he ever get a ride in the top cars of the day?

This isn't limited to just sprint car drivers. Where are the supermodified drivers at INDY? Why didn't Bently Warren have a bunch of starts at INDY? Billy Vukovich III was there, but we lost him.........

INDY isn't that big of a deal to me anymore. Oh, I'm still in awe of the place and it's hallowed ground, everytime I'm there. But the race itself is a joke. The crap starts at the start of the race...they can't get in a row of 3, let alone 11 rows of 3.....yet the night before at Anderson, those guys in the Little 500 pull it off, and then put on one hell of a race!!

Indy cars have people I've never heard of, and don't care about. Where did they come from (don't know), who did they beat (don't know), what big race/races did they win (don't know), did I ever see them 'coming up' (nope) = DON'T CARE

By the time a person gets to INDY, they should be a household name to a race fan........not true anymore.