Why? The age of communication, and the lack of willpower to bite our tongues instead of putting a racetrack or a racer on blast for the world to see because of our great passion. I'm 100% guilty of this myself over previous years, but I came to the conclusion that my internet tirades were pointless. I was going back the next week, so all I was doing was hurting the sport and the track that I love so dearly. Two weeks ago I was at a local track, not my home track, and not a track I frequent very often. They did the most bizarre, and disrespectful thing to the driver I was there supporting. It was awful and extremely unprofessional. I would have loved nothing more than to come home, get on Facebook and tell everybody that could see just how terrible it was. What would it have done for me? I wasn't going back, I knew the driver probably wasn't going back. What would I have to gain by trying to make them suffer?
We are the problem. If we could all collectively settle ourselves just long enough to take a breath and think, “Is this really the right thing to do? Is it going to do me any good at all?”, racing wouldn't be suffering quite as bad as it is. Are we 100 percent of the problem, lord no. But as we all watch the sport we love, that we've spent our lives following dwindle off to nothing, all we can do is hurt it with harsh and quick reactions. Fans, Drivers, Pit Crew Members, and even track staff are included. Every little nook and cranny of rules, procedures, or policies that tracks have to end up giving somebody the wrong end of the stick, eventually.
The absolute second it does, we blow up the internet like the world is going to end. And then we turn around, drive right back down that same road to the same racetrack we swore was the worst place in the country. And even go as far as to say “Well I'm going but I hope they don't have anybody there”. How backward is that? You want to go and pay your hard-earned money to watch nobody race, have none of your friends there from over the years to socialize with? Sounds insane, doesn't it? But it's truthfully a weekly occurrence all over the country.
The worst part? 90 percent of it isn't of anything that's relatively important. We take a rainout policy that we didn't like and we act like a driver just got flipped over on purpose, and the promoter just looked on and started laughing at the guy as he was crawling from his destroyed car. It's madness. A rule that's been in place all season long, that everybody's been going by all year long bites the wrong guy, and the driver and all of the drivers fans just brutalize the track publicly. Whatever happened to just going elsewhere? Taking your business elsewhere is point enough without blowing up the internet with your negative thoughts.
“What's wrong with racing?” I AM. But I won't be anymore, will you?
-Caring and loving fan of dirt racing.
This article was sent to us by an anonymous race fan who asked to have their identity concealed. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, The DRC.
