The Legend
NASCAR is an alien concept to those brought up on a diet of right- as well as left-hand turns. Cars going round and round, endlessly turning in one direction for three hours. How hard can it be? Surely, anyone could do it. You couldn’t be more wrong. I have attempted most forms of motor sport spanning half a century, whether it has been autocross and hillclimbs, or sprints and rallies, in addition to my day job as a circuit racer. I always enjoyed trying new things. I never did get my bum in a proper stock car, although I raced a close approximation of that when I did the International Race of Champions series during the 1980s. I competed in four races a year in what you might describe as a NASCAR-spec Chevrolet Camaro.
What a series! I raced against the likes of Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough on Super Speedways such as Talladega and those guys were hard as coffin nails. Sure, our cars didn’t do 200mph like a proper ‘stocker’, but they were good for 185mph. All the while your Chevy would be bucking and weaving. Then one of the Good Ol’ Boys would give the European dilettante a love tap, just to show who’s boss. It was tough, and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
I have huge respect for anyone who can handle a stock car, but when there are 40 of them on track, two or three abreast and millimetres apart? That redefines ballsy. The problem is, NASCAR seems to be heading further down the balance-of-performance rabbithole that is blighting other forms of motor racing.
Did you see the end of February’s Daytona 500? There were 18 cars wrecked in one shunt at the last gasp. And there is an artifice in making all ostensibly different cars in effect the same, whether it’s their top speed, how fast they accelerate, or something else. This is what you end up with. It has been going on in sports car racing for a while now, with cars finishing seconds apart after racing around the clock. And I am not a fan. I just hope it doesn’t reach Formula 1.
But, Derek, some might say, who wants to see Max Verstappen scamper up the road and win everything? Well, that is motor racing. The best driver often wins, especially if he is in the best car designed by the best brains trust. When I started out, Jim Clark do
