How did YOU like it?
Current NASCAR
I totally agree Jeff. I'm putting some thoughts in Forum in a bit, but it was excellent racing.
Forum Activity for @tim-leeming
Current NASCAR
I totally agree Jeff. I'm putting some thoughts in Forum in a bit, but it was excellent racing.
Get rid of Digger
General
At the very least, it should be noted that the track is coming apart in the same place Digger is hanging out. It should convince NASCAR and Fox, go cage Digger, at the very least, and quite possibly consider shooting the aggrevating animal. Or, as a very pleasant alternative, they could send D.W. and Digger to some far away island without communication possibilities. This is disgusting.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
LEFT LANE CLOSED AHEAD, MERGE RIGHT
General
If I didn't know better, I would swear the South Carolina DOT is in Daytona working on the track. 49 guys standing around watching and one poor guy shoveling asphalt in the hole. I would think the best solution would be to put a sign on the straightaway stating "Left Lane closed ahead, merge right". Works fine for road crews and the drivers on the road are much less accustomed to rapid adustments behind the wheel than these guys. Besides that, I know Daytona Speedway has thousands upon thousands of those orange traffic cones around. It just can't be that difficult. Come on guys, I want to see some racing.
Tim
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
Repeat? I'm not even sure.
General
For anyone reading this and finding it familiar, I apologize. I always write what I feel at the moment and in as much as this is Daytona 500 day, the start of the 2010 Cup season, I am experiencing flashbacks to all the 500s I attended through the years and all those I have watched on television all the years after I quit going. Between radio, attendance, and television, I have never missed a Daytona 500. The past few years I have missed other races for one reason or another but I never miss the Daytona 500 or any race at Darlington. It is that much in my blood.
I may have written something like this before but all the blogs and forums I've written over the past two years disappeared into the netherland of cyberspace never to be seen or read again. I wish I had printed them and kept them in a notebook because there were two or three of them of which I was very proud. At the same time, I am well aware how transitory everything in this life is, I still can see, as if watching it on video, the black number 3 crashing on that last lap of the 500 in 2001, and that is just a part of the vivid memories I have about so much of the racing history that floats around in the head under the cowboy hat with feathers. I can see that 1959 photo finish, the 1976 Petty-Pearson crash and spin when David crossed the line at about 30 mph with a crushed front end, the 1979 crash in turn three when 18 of us on top of a motorhome in the infield immediately went nuts because we knew that put The King in Position to win the race. So many memories, so many experiences.
Today, I shall go starch and iron one of my Racers Reunion shirts, put an extra spit-shine on a pair of boots, and sit back to watch the race.I am very happy that the race starts at 1:00, like it used to and the time it should start. I'll recall all the past 500s and all the good things I remember about each one. I'll try to overlook the past couple or three years when I would actually fall asleep because the racing was so mundane. I'll try to block out last year which, in my opinion was the worst Daytona 500 ever run. Ending in the dark, with it raining, and a winner who really happened to "luck into it", not that others haven't, but remembering how Jack Roush acting as if his team had dominated the event simple disgusted me. Sorry, Jack, just can't help that feeling.
It's the start of a new season, my 57th season of following races. It's not like it used to be and it's a pretty safe bet it won't ever go back to those days. But, just like all my blogs/forums are gone forever, I start over again. Here I am. I'm writing. If you got this far, you're reading. So, it's time to get it going again. I will not use D.W.'s chant used at the start of the race, but I will say this: :Let's have a great season boys (and girls) and may all be safe, the race days all sunny, and everyone remember we're on this site because we believe in the history that made the sport such an attractive television package even if we don't necessarily approve of the way things are today.
Tim
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM
I'll try to be better in the future. No more bump drafting for me!
B I R T H D A Y B O Y Sam Ard
Uncategorized
Happy Birthday Sam! Because of you racing was so much better back then. Thanks for everything you did. Hope you have a wonderful birthday.Tim
Back-up car?
Current NASCAR
I actually took some time last night to watch about 40 minutes of Cup Practice from Daytona on Speed. I think I was just so physically and emotionally exhausted after the day of events, that I needed something to absorb my concentration and, I must admit, watching race cars, even in practice, does that for me.
By the time the practice was over, I lost count of the number of teams bringing out "back-up" cars. Seeing those shiny new cars being unloaded from those extremely expensive haulers, lowered on the fancy lifts, and then pushed to the garage for inspection. Something about all that made me want to go back to the day when a team would show up at the track with a "box" truck, maybe one with the crew cab so the four or five guys who would crew the car could ride together, with the car on an open trailer, with maybe a few "bumps" and "dings" and maybe even a scratch or two in the paint.
I guess I'm getting very old and nostalgic now. I never used LSD (although I did drive an LTD once) but I was sure having "flashbacks" last night. I'm very glad I grew up then. I'm very glad I found this place to hang out with other folks that did too. I'm glad there are young people coming here who want to know the history of where the big show in Daytona this week got its start. Let us never forget there was a Herb Thomas, a Joe Weatherly, a Paul Lewis, a Rex White, a Ned Jarrett, a Lee Petty, a Fireball Roberts and so many more that laid the foundation of what now has it's own television network. Let us never forget cars once raced ON the beach, not AT the beach. Let us never forget the dreamers who built the dirt tracks, the race cars, and the guy from Darlington, Harold Brasington who took stock car racing to a big track level. Being old is not that bad after all.
So, I'll settle down this afternoon to watch The Duels and I'm sure, more than once, I'll see a black and gold number 22 Pontiac, or maybe a white number 42 Oldsmobile, which will remind me that Daytona has a history. Some of us are proud of that!
God bless!
Tim
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM
----------------RACERS REUNION bumper TAG--------------------
General
I have one and it's AWESOME! Thanks Johnny.
Bill Pittard Passes Away at 75 ...posted by Ray Lamm
Uncategorized
I didn't know Bill, but Kenneth Smithey is a good friend of mine and if he speaks that highly of him, then I know he was a great man. My thoughts and prayers go to the family and friends.Tim