I take my 11yo daughter to the races and she has gone to the Monterey Races
since
age 1. It's a "daddy" thing that she has learned about just like "shopping" is
a "mommy" thing. You're giving your child some life experience and you're the
teacher/ good father. It is "Quality time".
The "bad" thing my daughter has learned? Besides that she doesn't want to torque
lug nuts and help bleed the brakes for a living, is that she now knows about
Lotuses, Morgans, Minis, Cobras, and Shelby's but has no idea how much they
cost!!!
maybe we'll see you sometime on the West coast. If my kid hasn't gone shopping w
"mom" instead of helping in the pits.
christopher
'72 lotus europa
"clark@dnf.com" wrote:
> 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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