Originally Posted by RyanKentJr:
Agree 100% with you. I, being an 18 year old highly into multiple forms of motorsports, found it VERY difficult getting into the dirt track, open wheel racing world. I am a HUGE IndyCar fan and grew up going to Indy and Kentucky and watching the old IRL on TV. When I first went to a sprint car race at Lawrenceburg less than two years ago, I fell in love with it. But looking back now I realized that Fans, Drivers, Announcers, Promoters and people involved with racing HAVE to inform new fans and people that are even the slight bit interested about the cars, the format, fun facts and things to make them more interested.
I got hooked on sprints when I heard the Lawrenceburg Announcer (Chad Cunningham) talk about how the sprint cars racing at Lawrenceburg had close to 900 horsepower and only weighed around 1400 pounds. To me I thought that was absolutely badass, and instantly made me interested. But as I went on, I went to some midget races, some sprint pavement races, some crown/champ car races and it seemed every new track I went to or to see new kinds of cars I was so confused as to what the difference was between a sprint and midget, sprint and crown car, winged vs non wing and so on. At the expense of my embarrassment I wouldn't try to ask questions to any of those folks I mentioned before, because I didn't want to be deemed "stupid" when it came to dirt track open wheel racing in our area. Google does not provide very good answers as to the questions I had. I know a cool moment for me came at May in 2015, shortly after I had seen my first sprint car race. It was at Indianapolis and after I had interviewed him, Bryan Clauson showed me around his car for the 500 and explained to me about the differences between an IndyCar and a sprint car, explained how this or that worked and did so in a very fine manner. From then on, I've been hooked. Even though it may seem stupid to some for a "kid" who has never strapped into a race car to look up to these guys as heroes, I know I sure do. The brave folks who put on the helmet and gloves, get up on the wheel and can drive a car for 30 some laps, then come have a chat with you in the pits afterwards like you've been friends forever, that is one big thing that made me a junkie about this stuff. I wanted a reason, like most, to have a reason to be interested in the event I was at. I wanted to talk to badly to people who had been around this sport for years. To hear stories about Kenyon, Hewitt, Foyt, Jones and so on but it seemed that some people I tried to talk to had zero interested in chatting with me, which was unfortunate.
So if you've been a fan, a driver, car owner, announcer or just someone who knows something about racing that you can pass along, no matter the discipline of motorsport, please...take a few moments to chat with that random person you see looking at a car, sitting alone during hot laps watching cars go by or walking around the pits during the course of the race. I would have loved to have more guidance from people to teach me what this or that was, and I still need that guidance as I'm learning every day about this type or car or that part...to me its just super fascinating. I may not be like most high school seniors, but I promise you that there are some people out there in the same situation I was some two years ago. It won't happen over night, but I really do believe that this sport has a huge future. Heck....I was chatting with my barber a few weeks back and he talked about the new Dodge Demon car. Said that nothing could touch the horsepower and ability that car had. I told him and showed him videos of sprint cars. He thought it was awesome, we talked about them for half an hour and he is going to his first race whenever the rains go away.
Sorry for the rambling on, but I felt obligated to put my .02 in on this topic. This stuff has become really special to me, and I want to be able to pass that on to others and to make this sport be a driving force for some people, instead of something random to do on a weekend.
THE ONLY STUPID QUESTION IS THE ONE YOU DON'T ASK! Everybody starts out a beginner....
