So I have entered a stretch where I’ll be announcing events virtually every weekend from now all the way into July in various locations across the country. In truth, this started a couple weeks back with the ECTA Wilmington Mile event I did. The following weekend I hit the autocross with Buford (as you read about earlier), then spent a week in Denver with a group of amazingly powerful diesel trucks. In a couple days I am heading to Tennessee to announce a Goodguys autocross, then it’ll be drag races, more land speed action, more autocross action, and on and on.

I mention this not to be boastful but to make the point that I have interacted with an amazingly diverse and wide ranging group of hot rodders over the last weeks and will continue to in the weeks ahead. I’ve enjoyed all the people and vehicles that I’ve seen. In some sort of unofficial social study, I have determined that while we all have our particular “kink” in the automotive world, the basic DNA is the same between us all. This of course requires an open mind to actually see, but it is there and failing to recognize and/or embrace that means that you are cheating yourself out of a good time and good friends. Make no mistake, I am not saying that everyone has to like everything. That’s not what I mean at all. Hell, there’s stuff that I have absolutely zero interest in, but I have a hearty respect for anyone that is devoting their time and effort into doing something with their hands and brain.

Before I got involved in road racing during college, I thought that most SCCA guys were people who thought a 350 was a mountain motor that couldn’t find the drain plug on their oil pan. I was 100% wrong of course. They’re racers who wrench, thrash, help their friends, spend long nights up by themselves in the shop to get their car ready week to week, eat ham sandwiches at the track and sleep in their trucks. Sure they don’t completely understand drag racers and drag racers will never understand them, but both camps should respect the other.

As gearheads we are often a product of our environment. Most of us have influences from the people that brought us in to the hobby. My dad was into drag racing and muscle cars so that’s what I learned about first. I often reference the old American Sports Cavalcade show that dad and I watched on Sunday mornings, but that was a huge influence for me. About the only time we switched it off was when the bull riders and goat ropers were the featured attraction. I can remember watching IMSA road racing, monster trucks, swamp buggies, and stuff like Gravelrama and other events on those shows. The fact that the racers an competitors were treated with respect and the broadcast was done in a totally professional manner (even when the event was some whack nut crazy deal) helped in instilling the idea that all this stuff was cool! Another guy I reference too often is Steve Evans and his gift was being prepared and knowledgeable on every single freaking thing that show covered. The man did his homework and treated every person he interviewed the same. From John Force to the guy running a swampy Jeep in the buggy races, they all got the same treatment. They were racers.

That’s the attitude I have taken since my road racing enlightenment. From diesel trucks smoking like coal locomotives to rotary powered Mazdas at the autocross, I’m in. It is a lot easier to throw a rock at someone or dismiss their efforts as being fruitless, pointless, or lame in your eyes than to actually learn about them or what they are doing. The car hobby in general needs to be as unified as possible. The more fractured we are and the less supportive we are of one another the less strength we have. Don’t care about off roading or off road racing? You should care about the Save Johnson Valley movement that off roaders are on top of to keep open a huge parcel of land out west where guys like to wheel their trucks. Why should you care? Because if you support them, they’ll support you the next time a road course or drag strip is threatened with closing. The off road dudes may not be your blood bothers but they are first cousins and family is family. My summer will be spend bounding between race tracks, events, air strips, airports, drag strips, parking lots, and even going for an ocean cruise. All of it revolves around combustion. No matter the size and shape, the basic idea is the same for all of the events. Be better and faster than everyone else. I have respect for anyone who achieves that goal.

This season, buy a ticket to an event you would otherwise have overlooked. Check out the cars, the people, and the environment. Look at it from an objective point of view and check your attitude at the door. I can guarantee you that you’ll be surprised by what you see. The worse case scenario is that you’ll leave smelling like race gas and burnt rubber and how is that a bad thing?

Our car guy DNA is built on a couple common threads. We dare you to look in some places you never have to see them in action.

(Photo credit: Diesel Power Magazine)