View single post by zippofan
 Posted: Sun Feb 17th, 2008 11:36 pm
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zippofan



Joined: Tue Feb 6th, 2007
Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania USA
Posts: 2408
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 I was a HUGE race fan when I was a kid.  I live about an hour or so from Pocono raceway, my dad was on the original superspeedway construction back in 1970.  We had tickets for all the USAC Indy car races up until 1978.  I saw the "Shaefer 500" from the pits every year, plus qualifying weekends and even practice.  It was the 2nd leg of the USAC "Triple Crown", Indy, Pocono and Ontario California.  I lost interest in open wheel when the drivers/owners got into a pissing contest with USAC and formed CART.  Then the Indy Racing League came along and made it even more confusing.  Back then the racing was more of "run what ya brung", dozens of chassis designs, Offenhauser, Ford, Cosworth and even stock block Chevy and Buick engines.  Now there are like 2 chassis manufacturers and 2 engine manufacturers.  The cars are all the same...

I saw the first NASCAR race at Pocono in '74, back then they called it Grand National racing.  Got Richard Petty's autograph, and he took the time to talk to a couple young kids (my cousin and I) for quite awhile.  Some time around them Goodyear had the "Goodyear Motor Sports Club", they used to sponsor meet and greets with the drivers at all the events at Pocono for members.  I got all the big drivers' autographs at the time, Mario Andretti, AJ Foyt, Tom Sneva, Gordon Johncock, Al and Bobby Unser, Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, Bill Vukovich, Lloyd Ruby to name a few.  Still have them too :)

I prefer open wheel, but it seems like they got away from being the American racing event like Indy.  Now it is all NASCAR, which is cool but there is something about the sound of a turbo Offy tearing down the straightaway at 200mph that really got me going.  Stock cars just didn't do that for me.  Now there is no open wheel at Pocono, though there are 2 NASCAR races per year.  I keep meaning to take my kids to a race so they can experience the feel, sound and sights of a race, TV cannot do it justice.

I've been to Daytona and Watkins Glen, and I swore when I was a kid I would see an Indy 500 before I die.  Haven't yet, hopefully in the next 10 years.

Cheers,
Griff