[Spridgets] Racing in Australia

[Rick Fisk]

I respectfully disagree with several of your points.  Nascar runs two races a
year on road courses - Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca.  Two or three of the 43
entrants may be run by a hired gun driver, but the majority of the teams use
their regular driver.  Historically the ringers have never done very well, as
driving a 3500 pound 850 hp dinosaur on a road course is a lot harder than it
looks. Marcos Ambrose did very well driving the V8 Supercars on the road
courses in Australia.  But he has struggled somewhat on the ovals of Nascar.
His one Nascar win was on a road course.  Driving one of those dinosaurs on an
oval is also a lot harder than it looks.

As far as Mr. Waltrip being excited during his test run at Bathurst - well all
I can say is that he was expecting a tour of the track, not a
balls-to-the-wall all out run on a course he had never seen before.  And I
imagine you might react the same if someone else was doing the driving.  I
know I would.  :-)  Personally I dislike riding with someone else doing the
driving.  I absolutely refuse to ride on the back of a motorcycle.

Some years ago I helped run a Nascar driving school at California Speedway for
a weekend.  The school used old Busch cars that had been fitted with a
passenger seat.  Most of the passengers going for a ride-along squeeled like a
baby when you went into turn one at only 100 mph.  LOL  The Cup drivers hit
turn one at over 200 mph.

Rick

Sent from my keyboard

On Jul 9, 2012, at 12:58 PM, David Booker <tncarnut1 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Just goes to prove the point I've been making for years: NASCAR drivers
can't
> cut it if they have to do anything more than put their foot to the floor
and
> turn left on a big wide oval. The few courses in the series where they
> actually have elevation changes and right turns are usually driven by hired
> guns. Yes, I know there are exceptions to that last part, but they are few
and
> far between. NASCAR is a big show designed to sell T-shirts, flags, beer,
and
> toy cars to the masses who don't know any better.
>
> - David Booker
>
> http://www.wimp.com/ferrellcoach/
> ------------------------