Now that the end of the year is clearly within our sights, it's pretty common practice for people to reflect on the previous 12 months, only to set ambitious goals for the upcoming year. As race fans, we are not exempt from this practice. In actuality, I think race fans should make the extra effort to make resolutions as the new year brings with it a new racing season.
Over the past few days, I've given thought to how we all can improve upon our behaviors at the track from the past year to make next season better than ever. Of course, some things we hope to happen aren't always within our control while others, although we have good intentions, we know will fall by the wayside the first chance we get to not follow through with them.
With that in mind, I brainstormed a number of resolutions that we race fans, drivers, crewmembers and track officials can strive for in the coming year. Much like the items on my wish list from last year, some are genuine, a few are humorous and others are, well, complete pipe dreams. Keep in mind, these aren't all my personal resolutions for 2011. No, they're things all of us can consider for the upcoming year and racing season.
1a. I resolve, as a race fan, to faithfully attend my local or favorite track every chance I get because I realize it takes the support of race fans to keep our sport alive.
1b. I resolve, as a race fan, to not simply sit at home online asking for feature results from my local or favorite track knowing full well that I'm asking for results before the heat races have even ended.
2a. I resolve, as a race fan, to thank track employees or officials that I encounter throughout the evening for their hard work and dedication because I realize they take a lot of grief in their positions all while sacrificing their weekends to work for a small paycheck.
2b. I resolve, as a race fan, to admit that while I may claim I could do a better job as a track official, I honestly couldn't set my beer down long enough to look up at the corner I'm supposed to be watching.
3a. I resolve, as a race fan, to throw all of my trash into the designated garbage cans because the people who clean up at the end of the night are not paid enough to sift through all of my nasty trash since they're likely to be paid little more than the money they get from refunds for the empty beer and pop cans.
3b. I resolve, as a race fan, that I'll drink all of the contents of the beer or soda containers that I purchase or empty them in the proper place because (see 3a).
4a. I resolve, as a race fan, to sit, watch and enjoy every division at my local track at least one night this season without focusing only on my favorite driver and using other divisions' races to make repeated trips to the beer stand.
4b. I resolve, as a race fan, (on the nights I do make repeated trips to the beer stand at tracks where beer is sold in plastic cups) that I will discard each cup after I consume all of its contents rather than place each empty cup inside of the previous one. By doing so, I resolve to acknowledge that holding onto every cup throughout a given night makes me look like a drunken slob rather than the chick magnet I was misled into believing the 2,954 times I did it before.
5a. I resolve, as a race fan, to leave the four-letter words at home as I realize the races are a place for kids and we need kids at our tracks to keep our sport strong.
5b. I resolve, as a race fan, that displaying my middle finger is not a suitable replacement as a result of cleaning up my language.
6a. I resolve, as a race fan, to sign my name to every post I make on the message boards I visit.
6b. I resolve, as a race fan, to be willing to sign my name to every message board post I make because I am proud in knowing that my post contained positive or constructive comments that are good for the sport of racing and were not intended to slander any driver, official or promoter or hurt our beloved sport.
7a. I resolve, as a driver, to faithfully arrive at the track by the posted check-in time.
7b. I resolve, as a driver, not to throw a fit on the nights I arrive late to the track (even for reasons out of my control) and am relegated to start at the back of my heat race.
8a. I resolve, as a crewmember, to leave any procedural questions to be asked by my driver because I realize it is his responsibility, not mine, to approach a track official with concerns.
8b. I resolve, as a driver, to accept the information presented to me by a track official when I express a concern about a call on the track and understand that nobody actually can see all areas of the track at all times during every race.
9a. I resolve, as a track official, to admit when I made the wrong call because everyone makes mistakes.
9b. I resolve, as a driver, to accept the apology from a track official who tells me he made a mistake because I understand that nobody is perfect and yeah, the view probably DOES actually look different from another angle and vantage point. As a result, as a driver, I additionally resolve to never bring said track official's mother into the conversation because I admit that she had nothing to do with the call that was made.
10a. I resolve, as a race fan, to complain less about track conditions because I admit that the weather, river levels and other conditions do have a tendency to affect them.
10b. I resolve, as a race fan, that I really don't know how to prepare a track better than anyone else.
11a. I resolve, as a race fan, to cheer for my favorite driver when he does well, but not cheer when his competition suffers misfortune on the race track because more sportsmanship in our sport would be welcomed.
11b. I resolve, as a race fan, to applaud when my favorite driver's opponent wins because I realize my favorite driver can't win every night and I believe more sportsmanship in our sport would be welcomed.
12a. I resolve, as an announcer, to stop talking when the race cars are coming out of four and heading down the front straightaway.
12b. I resolve, as an announcer, to allow intermission to be just that - a break - and realize that I don't need to be talking all the time simply because there's a microphone in my hand.
13a. I resolve, as a track official, to be as consistent as possible when officiating a race.
13b. I resolve, as a race fan, to acknowledge that there are exceptions that may result in different calls from one situation to the next and I understand that these results are not favoritism, rather fair officiating given each set of circumstances.
14a. I resolve, as a scorer, to get every car in its correct position prior to returning to green, even if it means the driver running on the track under yellow in 17th should be switched with the driver rolling in 18th.
14b. I resolve, as a driver, to admit that I have absolutely no idea how scorers do what they do and will respect them for having abilities that few people possess and, as a result, I resolve to restart the race where I'm instructed to restart the race without climbing out of my car on the front stretch, doing donuts on the front stretch, stalling my car on the front stretch or extending my middle finger toward the scoring tower.
15a. I resolve, as a driver, that speeding in the pit area is dangerous and completely unacceptable.
15b. I resolve, as the pit steward, that if the driver speeds past me one more time in the pits trying to return to the track before the caution light goes out, the dent I leave on his hood next time will bend the shroud, break the fan and leave his quarter panel hanging on by a Pop rivet, resulting in his DNF.
16a. I resolve, as a race fan, that there are seats in a grandstand for a reason and that I will use them to the best of my ability when a race is on the track.
16b. I resolve, as a race fan, that slipping something into the drink of the guy standing in front of me during the races while he isn't looking isn't the best option... putting my dirty shoes on his seat before he sits down, on the other hand, is appropriate.
17a. I resolve, as the track steward, to take a more assertive approach when trying to realign cars under caution rather than leaving everyone with the impression that I have the uncanny ability to do the Macarena, Electric Slide and Chicken Dance in simultaneous fashion.
17b. I resolve, as a driver, to get behind the car under caution that I know I'm supposed to be behind instead of trying to jump multiple unearned positions before the race returns to green, only to complain that everyone else led the time limit to be enforced and not my stubborn attempt at sneaking positions.
18a. I resolve, as the guy who drives the water truck, that I don't need to empty the water truck on the track each and every time it's full.
18b. I resolve, as a race fan, that I understand watering a race track isn't like watering plants and that I really have no idea how much water to put on a race track at any given time so I'll leave that to the guy who drives the water truck.
19a. I resolve, as the sheepsfoot (yes, the actual sheepsfoot, not the guy pulling it around the track), to accept the fact that not everyone likes me.
19b. I resolve, as the sheepsfoot (yes, the actual sheepsfoot, not the guy pulling it around the track), to accept the fact that it isn't a matter of being liked, rather it's a matter of having an important job when it comes to preparing a track.
20a. I resolve, as a driver, to actually make the car number as big as it's supposed to be on my car, per the rulebook that I didn't bother reading.
20b. I resolve, as a driver, to stay away from the cutesy reflective lettering and cluttered wraps that look fine in a showroom, but terrible on a race track (while still understanding there are plenty of vinyl graphics and wraps that are sweet to see at speed on a race track).
21a. I resolve, as a race fan, to cheer on my driver in a respectable and appropriate manner from the grandstands.
21b. I resolve, as a race fan, to not "talk" to my driver as I cheer for him or tell him the groove he should be running or that someone is closing in on him or that there's a wreck up ahead or stand up and wave him around his competition because I understand he just flew past me at 100mph and can't hear me, nor can he see me in the masses of people because he's simply not looking at me... because he just passed me at 100mph.
22a. I resolve, as a track official, to remain calm when a driver approaches me with an angry tone to protest a call that was made against him on the track.
22b. I resolve, as a driver, to never let my anger force me to resort to using the, "Do you know how many people come here to see me race," line when I don't get the answer I want to hear from a track official after I approach them with a concern.
23a. I resolve, as a promoter, to do my best to offer more fan appreciation specials throughout the season because their support is important to me.
23b. I resolve, as a race fan, to encourage friends and family who may not normally consider going to the races to give it a shot on those fan appreciation nights.
24a. I resolve, as a flagman, to do my best to offer a slight delay before waving the yellow flag when I see a car spinning at the back of the pack.
24b. I resolve, as a driver, to get my ass moving and not bring out the yellow because I'll end up at the back of the pack, or maybe even the pits, regardless what happens.
25a. I resolve, as a promoter, to work with the promoter of the track just down the road who races on a different night because we need to keep the sport strong and give our drivers and fans a reason to come out and support both of us.
25b. I resolve, as driver or fan, to do my best to support those local tracks that work together and try to give me an incentive to race multiple nights and hopefully make it feasible for me to do so.
Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment