On paper, the race should’ve been a wash. In the left lane was me in the 2001 Buick Regal GS Joseph Abboud Edition. What the hell did that mean? 240 horsepower, 280 ft/lbs of torque, and a quarter-mile time that was in the high-fourteens without any work whatsoever. In the right lane: fourth-gen LT-1 Camaro Z28. Maybe 285 horsepower, much more torque, an interior that wasn’t covered in leather and fluff, and a six-speed manual transmission. In the hands of a good driver, my butt was going to be served to me on a silver platter with garnish. And I was resigned to that fact up until the lights dropped…and I heard first gear overwhelm tires and the driver of the Camaro go into full-blown panic pedaling. Once the boost gauge woke up on the Buick, the Camaro had no hope…not when he spun second gear and certainly not when he missed third. There was nearly a fight after that race, partially due to his embarrassment at being laid out by a silver and tan golf club special, and partially due to the smug-ass grin that I wasn’t going to drop for anybody’s sake.
I don’t consider myself a sore loser or sore winner. I enjoy competition…the closer the margin of victory, the better I am at celebrating neutrally. I’ll pack up and roll out if I’m the track piñata and have no hope of winning even a bracket race, and I’ll naturally get excited and mouthy if I’m on a hot streak of wins, but I don’t go out of my way to be a prick about it unless someone stirs the pot first. You know the types, the ones that run their mouth to anyone in earshot about how everyone should just go home, because they’ve got this one locked down? Yeah…I don’t care if they finished dead-last and I’m second from bottom, I’ll celebrate like I won the lottery.
What about you? Are you a good sportsman? Are you friendly enough and a good match for competition, or are you a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde scene until after the race is over? Do you remain on DEFCON 1 until the checker flag waves, or do you do like Troy Corser here and give a friendly pat on the cheeks once you take the lead?
I’m very competitive but generally won’t rub it in if I win unless the others are mouthy bastards. Best example was an outing at a local indoor cart track. I was with some co-workers many of whom weight under 170lbs. They were talking smack how they were going to smoke me because I weight 240. Well first time out I set fastest lap by four tenths of a second over everybody. They promptly shut their fat mouths!!!
If somebody double bulbs me, I dick make them forever. If I lose I usually congratulate them on their win. Age brings on sportsmanship.
I don’t think I’ve ever been a sore loser. Usually coming in second drives me harder to do better, and makes me be a better racer. In fact, I once let my competitor use my bike to set a faster record than my own.
Having said that, if someone steals, cheats, or is a prick at the track, I will do everything I can to make your presence there very uncomfortable.
Depends who it is. My brothers car is probly half a second quicker than mine.He lives three hours away so we don’t get many chances to race one another. While at RMRW at Bandimere I got the guy running the lanes to have it to where we’d race one another.Sibling rivalry at its best. Both talking smack. Short burnout,lit both bulbs and treed the hell out of him.Took til 1100 ft to catch and pass me.LOL
got the sportsman trophy one year racing dirt-bikes, don’t care about winning like to have a good time @ help other people