Cheating No Longer Funny Opines Long-time Racing Writer Larry Woody
Current NASCAR
I can't imagine where our "sport" would be today without a laundry list over the years of outstanding writers (I could name tons, but it would take far too much space) who got many of us interested and covered racing BEFORE television and BEFORE most fans could obtain a radio broadcast of an event.
Many of those writers' names such as Bloys Britt now adorn the doors leading into the fancy media centers at today's modern racetracks.
I don't know whether Chris Economaki could change a spark plug, but he could sure write racing.
If it were a requirement for writers to have technical knowledge of race cars, I doubt we'd have had too much NASCAR coverage since that first 1948 NASCAR race. In fact, most fans get bored very quickly when the race writing turns technical rather than focusing on the personalities and competition. All of that tech writing is best left to enthusiast publications, not the general reading audience.
Are there some writers who are/were idiots? Surely. Have you ever met any crew, crew chiefs or car owners who were/are idiots? I surely have. Thank goodness I didn't have to rely on them for my race coverage. Some of them were extremely well known within the sport for avoiding the truth at all costs. You can interpret that as being liars if you like because that is what they were.
I've also been in situations where many, many serious thousands of hard to come by dollars were paid to technical folk who thoroughly screwed up a race car to the point that it missed a very important event. I'm sure I'm not the only person that has happened to.
Can I change spark plugs? Yes.
Could I change points and condenser and set timing? I used to.
Can I advise you on your EFI? No.
Would I recognize cheating if I saw it? Probably not.
Do I know anything about spring rates? No.
Am I technically oriented? No.
Did I get Dale Earnhardt to sign his first personal services contract? Yes.
Was I involved in Richard Childress giving up driving? Yes.
Was I involved in getting the Petty family and Wood family together? Yes.
Have I "discovered" driving talent in the northwest and brought a driver south who won the Daytona 500? Yes.
Have I brokered sponsorships for tracks, drivers and team owners? Yes.
Can I build a race car? No.
Do I know much about the shady areas? No.
Can I write about racing? Many think so.
Have I contributed anything to racing? Well, In 1983 Grand National Scene Newspaper named me as "The Individual Contributing the Most to NASCAR Stock Car Racing." BUT, that was a bunch of writers who made the award, lol!
Personally, I don't think racing would have ever made it to a big stage if we were just dependent on crew chiefs. There was a reason that old Big Bill France Senior used to pay the travel expenses including motel bill for top writers to come cover the Daytona and Talladega races. Bill France, Senior didn't think writers were stupid. He thought they were valuable assets to promote the advancement of NASCAR stock car racing.
It has been my personal experience that most top car owners and crew chiefs after the fact are not shy at all to call cheating cheating. They didn't consider it a gray area. They knew exactly what they were doing and hoped to get away with it.
I'm kinda ready to puke over all this stretching the envelope and gray area talk. If you can get away with it, more power to you. But, call it what it is.
I guess that's why I loved the MEN like Bud Moore and Paul Sawyer so much. They called a spade a spade. No tippy toe crap for them. Real racers.
In fact, my best remembered racing quote of all time (written down of course, by a writer) was one of Bud's quotes as related in the 1972 Brock Yates book, SUNDAY DRIVER.
Bud had returned to NASCAR after winning several SCCA Trans-Am Championships. Brock was interviewing Bud beside the pool at a Michigan motel before a M.I.S. NASCAR race.
Why, asked Mr. Yates, did it cost so much more money to run the NASCAR Grand National circuit than to race in the SCCA Trans-Am Series?
After spitting a stream of tobacco juice down wind and with his tongue hanging out of the corner of his mouth, Bud Moore answered the question Yates had posed. It was a simple three word answer. "CHEATING IS EXPENSIVE!"
Bud didn't say stretching the envelope was expensive or trying to tippy toe around the gray area was expensive. He said CHEATING was expensive.
Did those championship winning car builders call it gray or stretching? Nope. They called it cheating and knew they needed to out cheat their competitors to maintain an advantage.
In one of his books, former driver Sam Posey tells of walking by Bud's crew as they were changing tires after going through SCCAA Trans-Am tech at Kent, Washington in 1970. Sam says he went to roll a tire back to the boys, but it was so heavy he couldn't roll it. Bud had those tires for pre-race tech weigh-in filled with sand.
Parnelli Jones won that September 20, 1970 Kent 200 Trans-Am race for Bud Moore enroute to the 1970 Trans-Am season championship. Posey was third that day behind Jones and second place Mark Donohue in the Roger Penske Camaro.
I asked Bud about the 1970 Kent race 12 years later and what Posey had said. Bud laughed and laughed. He said that wasn't the best cheating they did that day. Bud said they were running an oversized fuel container and that Roger Penske protested after the race.
SCCA officials made Bud drain his tank and they refilled it. According to Bud it was dark. Instead of completely draining the tank, Bud had two crew members "pass water" in the dirt and make a sizable puddle. We'd have never gotten away with it in NASCAR, but the SCCA sporty car officials weren't used to cheating he said.
Flash forward.
My personal opinion is that it takes all sorts to put on a successful racing campaign.
Writers have been an integral part of fueling the growth of stock car racing.
Writers aren't stupid because they can't build a race car. Crew chiefs aren't stupid because they can't write a news release. Takes all types to reach the pinnacle where we'd all like to see stock car racing.
If folks like a multi-time time National Championship car owner/crew chief in NASCAR and SCCA like Bud Moore can call cheating cheating, why can't the rest of us?
I find it very offensive personally to see a post that is so overtly sanctimonious as to say, ""I can build a race car and you can't so your opinion doesn't count."
Again, I think it takes lots of types of talent to "Put on the Show" as Big Bill used to say. It's all important, but let's call cheating what it is and quit making up name for it.
