Auto Racers - Auto Racing page 3 (by PB Gill)
The people involved in racing at your local are normal people who live in your area . Most I have met like a beer after work but never on race day , until the racing is over and NONE of them ever use drugs “EVER” . Drugs and auto racing don’t mix ! No race car driver any where , wants to race against a Spaced Out Idiot anywhere ever . Any one caught using drugs around a race track or a race car is dealt with severely . Usually band for life ! Auto racing is a Good Clean Sport and those that are involved in the Sport want to keep “their Sport” that way .
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When taking pictures for this article the racers I talked to were most polite willing to help and great to talk to . You will find this anywhere in stock car racing .
Many have questioned ; is auto racing a Sport ? The answer is very definitely Yes ! The physical pressure on a drivers body during a race , require top physical condition . Many races in NASCAR are 500 miles at speeds often over 150 miles per hour . The pit crew must be agile enough to be able to replace 4 tires and put up to 40 gallons of fuel in the car and make any adjustments on the car as well , in 12 seconds or less if they hope to win .
The racers that run at your local track , spend most of their spare time and money building or working on their race cars , because they love the sport . The wife (or husband) and the kids are part of the race team and of course the #1 fans . At many small local race tracks only the winner or the first few cars win any money at all , and not very much at that . The racers at your local race track spend their own money to build and maintain their race cars for their love of racing . Some get lucky and find sponsors to help with some of the cost , but never any were near all the expenses .
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Often auto dealers or towing services will supply their tow trucks for the race night , for the advertising .
The local track owners spend a lot of your admission to build and maintain the racing facility and to pay the workers at the track . The insurance for the race track must be paid . The track owner must make some profit on the investment and only has one night a week and a short season to make that profit , for the track to exist . Often the prize money is put up by local merchants .
Many drivers at your local race track start out with the slowest class race cars and over a few years work their way up to the intermediate class . Some will advance with experience , to the top (fastest) class at the track . Many spend their whole racing life at your local track entertaining you ! Only the very best of the best will make it to the top major racing leagues . The top stock car league of coarse is NASCAR .
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When a driver makes it to the top league racing like NASCAR in most cases they are hired as a driver and become part of a race team . There are some drivers who own their own team but not many could afford to finance their own team . The price to run one Sprint Cup car for a year is as much as 10,000,000.00 and possibly more .
A common question is ; why don’t stock cars run in the rain ? The main idea of going to a stock car race is to enjoy the time . How many people would enjoy sitting in the rain for any event ?
However the main reason why stock cars do not run in the rain is the Safety factor ! Racing on a wet slippery race track would result in the total destruction of most of the cars and possible injury to the drivers . Stock cars are much heavier than open wheel cars . More than double the weight . It would be impossible to run safely at any speed that would be entertaining to the spectators . Fans want to full out racing ! Cars that are capable of speeds of 200 miles per hour , would be unsafe at 50 miles per hour on a wet race track !
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