Hi All,
This weekend, I took my 5-year-old daughter to the HMSA event at Laguna
Seca. It was her first race.
I've been hesitant to expose her to racing: too noisy, too dirty, too much
for someone so young, too un-girl-like. And the constant question of
whether I was really doing this for her, or really for me. My
soon-to-ex-wife will surely use this trip against me somehow. I'm sure
she'd like to kill me for this.
I was hoping I would know at least one competitor who might let her sit in a
car. As it turned out, I never had to ask. First, the owner of an Austin
powered BMC offered her a seat in his very un-intimidating little Formula
Junior car. While Veronica became a bit shy all of a sudden and rejected
the offer, I was amazed that even though the car's power plant had just
broken a crankshaft, the owner still recognized the opportunity to make
someone else happy in spite of his own pain. And I figured she had blown
her opportunity.
We walked a short while through the paddock only to have the same offer from
the owner of an incredible, blue Lola Can-Am car (number 5). This one
looked like Darth Vader might have used it to go to the 7 Eleven, but
Veronica snapped at the offer. Go figure.
>From then on, every blue car that circled the track was the one she "drove".
She was then ready to "go drive" the little BMC, but instead we had to
settle for waving to it as it departed on its trailer.
I'm writing this to let you all know how much such a little thing as
offering a seat and a little fantasy can mean.
I've been intentionally hiding from her my interest in this stuff, but she
knows I have that Devin out in the garage and she remembers seeing me work
on it, in her words, "when I was three".
Does anyone on the list have a little girl that likes to go races? Have I
done permanent damage already?
Clark
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