RCS Racing Stories

This section is devoted to the folks who have actual racing experience whether it be as a Driver, Owner or Crew Member! We want to hear all about your Racing Experiences. It might have happened at the track during a race, during practice, during tech or even at home at the Race Shop. I believe these will be the ones that really tell the story of how darn hard it is to get a Racecar or Truck to the track!

We will also ask for your vote on what you feel is the best story, joke or photo that we have published on the website. Once a month we will be sending the winner a FREE RACECAR STUPID HAT!!!

To input your RACECAR STUPID story, joke or photo here please click on the “Enter Story” tab and go for it! We look forward to laughing with you. As I have said so many times before nobody could make this stuff up!!!

The town where I went to college in didn't have a drag strip so to race we had to drive about 30 miles to a track. I had just finished building a car and drove it over for the Sunday races. Money was tight so I had built my own transmission shift linkage. On the second trial run I made the linkage broke off even with the floor so I sat in the pits watching other cars run.

One of the guys running in the same class I had been in came over and said his car was running on fumes could he siphon enough gas to finish running his class. I told him okay. About the same time another guy near my car was having engine problems and asked if I would come over and help him.

After eliminations were over I loaded up and headed back to school. About half way there my engine missed a few times and died. It was out of fuel. I knew I hadn't burned over 15 gallons of fuel so I learned a lesson to stay around when you are doing a favor.

I had spent what money I had for fuel and expenses at the drag strip so I hitchhiked into the next town and called my roommate. After much explaining and begging I talked him into bringing me some more fuel. I got back into town and was less than a mile from home when I saw flashing red lights in my mirror.

I pulled over and the officer asked ‘what was the matter with me?’ I told him nothing. He then asked me why after every stop I made did I duck under the dash two or three times while starting back up. I then got out of the car and pointed out to him that I had removed the transmission cover and had attached vice-grips to the transmission shift arms and I was reaching down through the floor to shift gears. He then asked why I was driving it that way. I explained how my day had gone and after he got over his laughter he climbed back in his car and drove off leaving me to finish my very eventful trip.

I met a lady by the name of Judith that came up to me when I was passing out fliers at Phoenix International Raceway and asked me if I would post a story about a loved one she lost in Iraq. She said he was a diehard fan and would have been at the Phoenix race except he never made it home . . . Judith if you are out there and read this please send me the story. I have children who have served over there but I am one of the lucky Moms – mine came home safe. Any of you other readers who have stories like this I would be honored to share them with our readers. Please thank anyone in your family or you know who are serving or have served in the armed forces for me. They are very special people.

When my daughter served in Korea she called me during the day (usually calls me in the middle of the night – their night and day is opposite of ours) and asked me what day it was. It happened to be a Sunday here. She said what Sunday? I asked why. She asked what race was going on. I told her Daytona and she responded that it was 3 a.m. there and half the barracks were outside in the freezing weather with TV’s tuned to the race and their bar-b-ques going. Even deployment does not dampen the race fan if they are able to watch a race!

Please send me your stories. You will be amazed how much you all have in common!

Article appeared in the Arizona Republic – Sunday, April 22, 2007

“Anything with 4 Wheels”

Betty Shannon of Scottsdale, dressed in a racing suit, passed out flyers and RacecarStupid.com window stickers advertising her RacecarStupid.com Website, where diehards can blog about why they are diehards. Her Website sponsors Jeff Barrister’s AFR Motorsports #50 Busch Series Team. She said one of the craziest blogs about Saturday’s race that can be told in a family newspaper tells of a California woman who ditched her husband on their anniversary to attend the race. “She came with a girlfriend to the race,” Shannon said. Shannon said she runs into all sorts of folks at the track. “Anything that has four wheels, they’ll race it. Whether it’s an ice chest or a bar stool, they bring it out to the track. We saw some guy (Saturday) in the parking lot that had a motorized bar stool.”

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Dennis of Hesperia, CA writes:
A fellow racer in my town, a good friend who was a die hard racer from way back. His wife was very upset. She had came home one day to find a man in a black suit with a clip board looking at the house. When she ask him what he was doing, he said that he was appraising the house for the fifth mortgage that her husband had applied for. Now this was very upsetting for her as the second was for the new truck, the third was for the new trailer to go with the new truck, the forth was for the new race car and motor. When she questioned her husband, he said that he needed a new 410 aluminum motor to run with the big boys and for travel expenses for the next 10 races he was planning on running. Well she told him that this was too much it would be her or the race car. Well as a racer we all know what he told her. His racing luck was not any better, he destroyed the new 410 motor at the first race, he fell asleep on the way home from the track, crashed and burned the truck and trailer. When he got home 2 days later he found that his wife had locked him out of the house and had divorce papers for him. So he ended up with zip and had to find a new hobby.

Ben from Northern CA writes:
Back in the 80's I worked with a team out of Fullerton, CA . We were going to the Winston Grand Nationals race at Sears Point. We got to the track only to discover that we were a day early and the track facilities would not open until the next morning for race teams. We were a smaller team and pretty tight on funds so we decided we would sleep in the hauler and support trailer for the night and be the first ones in line the next morning. Two of us drew the short straws and ended up sleeping in the support trailer. We had to keep the back door of the trailer partially open because we were also hauling race fuel and the fumes were pretty strong. Well we started out each with our own blankets but evidently because of the cold we migrated toward each other in our sleep trying to stay warm. We were stirred out of sleep early the next morning by the snickers of the rest of the team. We were spooned trying to stay warm. Kind of reminds me of the movie with Steve Martin and John Candy and their "pillow" scene. You never saw two grown men stand up so quick in your whole life.

	Racing Stories