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Chris Judah

Big time racing today

Watching back to back NASCAR and IndyCar races off of the DVR, it quickly becomes quite obvious, even though they are both are America’s biggest racing series, they are two entirely different products, actually very different.

However, the similarities undeniably are there, and they are not good ones in my opinion. Both series now limit their teams to basically a “spec” chassis or tub, you can run the manufacturer of your choice exterior pieces, but under that body and aero packages they are all the same chassis/tub wise. Both series have limited engine choices, in IndyCar you are either a Honda team or a Chevy team, in NASCAR you are a Chevy, Ford, or Toyota team, but you do at least have an engine “builder” choice, but you are limited to one of three approved engine manufacturers.

Now here is where I start to sound like a grippy old man. NASCAR is an acronym, it stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, well if you ask me they need to change their acronym. They no longer race “stock cars” you can not go to the dealer and buy a Toyota Camry that is V8 powered rear wheel drive, nor a Ford Fusion, or a Chevy Impala that even begins to resemble the cars racing on track.

There was a time not so long ago, when manufacturers had to build, for sale to the public through the dealer network, a certain number of any car model they wanted to race, before it could run as a “stock car” in NASCAR. Those days are long gone. Now Nascar makes up a template the cars must closely adhere to, now try putting that template on a showroom Camry, Fusion or Impala. Ha, not even close.

Now IndyCar engine wise, is just a special kind of stupid! Did you know, you are not allowed to work on your engine. Honda and Chevy both have their own engine techs that travel the circuit to service and maintain these engines. In fact most, if not all teams, do not own these engines. They are on a lease program, and Honda and Chevy will tell you how many miles you can put on them. Thats right engines are leased with limited miles and trust me, those miles are documented very closely! Now some teams have bigger more expensive lease agreements than other teams, which is why you saw Buddy Lazier’s car sit idle in the garage at Indy ready to run almost the entire month of May until he finally brought it out on the last day of qualifying. He was only paying for a “limited” mile engine lease, very limited.

Once again, it just doesn’t seem so long ago that there were engine choices in IndyCar, and you owned your engine, and you actually built your own engine, and built your chassis too! There were quad cam Fords, 4 cylinder Offenhausers, the big ol V8 Novi’s, V6 Buicks, a few stock block Chevy’s and even the short lived turbines. Those were the days!
 
In both NASCAR and IndyCar you built your own car, you built your own chassis. You had a set of rules to go by and you were left to innovate, one up your competition, build a better mouse trap. It was exciting to see the different designs, hear the different sounds, all the while breaking down design barriers and creating new technologies.

But now, we go to the track, or we sit in front of our TV’s and watch cars that are pretty much all the same with different color schemes, as they cruise around for 90% of the race just trying to position themselves for that last 10% of the race, just to see if they can make a pass for the lead or position with a handfull of laps to go. That my friends is Big Time Racing in the USA today, in both NASCAR and IndyCar.

And they wonder why the grandstands are half empty. I am frankly surprised there are that many people that still show up!

 

Chris Judah

You have to start with a good foundation

You have to start with a good foundation

It really does’t matter what you are building, a good foundation is imperative, and racing is no different. If you look back at the history of our sport, there were founding fathers that set the standard for the direction that the sport was heading and still is to this day. There are currently, and hopefully always will be, adjustments and improvements being made along the way, and there are still pioneers charting new courses. But the foundation laid back in the early dawn of automobile racing, is still where we all build from going forward.

Even in the biggest and best known series around the world, like F1 and Moto GP we still strive to build a better mousetrap, so to speak. In the two major American series that require the use of standardize parts, NASCAR and IndyCar, where everyone runs pretty much the exact same engines and chassis combinations, there are still gray areas of the rulebook that get exploited. It’s what we do, build better, build faster, and outrun your competition.

Obviously, my own bias toward the best racing left on our planet is in the grass roots dirt series, and even at some of the completely unsanctioned tracks throughout the country. That is the foundation of pure innovation and design and it still takes place, even on the lowest imaginable levels.

When it all got started, you have to know it was just two guys seeing who had the fastest horse, bicycle, car, boat, airplane or whatever it was, it was the thrill of competition. It caused the loser to go home and work harder on his stuff to make it even faster. That is what racing is all about.

As the sport of racing evolved into where we are today, who knows where it would be without great men such as Carl Fisher, James A. Allison, Arthur Newby, and Frank W. Wheeler who originally conceived and built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway back in 1905. Those men along with a few others you may have heard of from the early days like Louis Chevrolet, Henry Ford, Enzo Ferrari, and others, who at the time were laying down the very foundations of our sport without even knowing it.

The sport of automobile racing is just over a hundred years old. While in human years that is more than most lifetimes, but in the big picture, it is still a young evolving and growing sport.

 

However, there have been times through history where the sport nearly came came to an end. It was all but completely stopped during both World Wars. There was the tragic and horrible events of 1955 at Le Mans, where 1 driver and 83 spectators were killed, and more than 120 others severely injured, when a car crashed into the grandstands. That tragedy did bring an end to a sanctioning body, the AAA, and caused a ban on all motorsports in France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and several other nations, until better safety standards for spectators could be instituted.

That all kinda brings us to where we are today, the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 has just been completed. While attending the race it was abundantly clear to me, the foundation laid by those early builders of the speedway, and those early pioneer drivers is still very evident.

Even though, some of those drivers made the ultimate sacrifice while pushing the barriers of their equipment in pursuit of speed, even today, they risk their own personal safety for the betterment of our sport, seeking the pure unabashed enjoyment of speed and competition that race car drivers crave. The sport of racing really is the same today as it was back when that foundation was first being laid.

Where is our sport headed, what will the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 be like, what will be the next big breakthrough for our sport be? Those are the answers we will always seek, and we are able to seek those answers, because of the rock solid foundation laid down by the brave men who first sought to see who was faster.

Chris Judah

 

Photo credit unkown, Bloomington Speedway 1923

"The other side of the fence"

“The other side of the fence”

Ever since I was old enough to remember going to the races, I have always gone to the fence, just to look through, hoping to see what was happening on the other side. I was that little kid with the big grin looking up at my driver heroes at Indy, like Jim Clark, AJ Foyt, Jim Hurtibise, Eddie Sachs. There were also photographers like Phil Whitlow, John Mahoney, Gene Crucean and others, who were my heroes too, I was in deep envy of all of them on the other side of that fence.

I had my own camera at 11 years old. Probably a Kodak something or other, but it took pictures, pictures through the fence, pictures of race cars and drivers and various other activities, even some in the Snakepit that would fascinate any 11 year old boy. I still have pictures of cars in the garage area where I could not get into, crazy looking people in the Snakepit, some 50 years later and I still have them. A couple I will post here, not because of the content or quality, just so you can see them and date they were developed, also the fence that separated me from where I desperately wanted to be.

Then many years later, as a grown man marveling at the 19,000 rpm screaming F1 engines at the U.S. Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, still though, stuck on the wrong side of the fence. I still find myself being in awe at certain events, of certain drivers and photographers, all while still looking through the fence. But this Spring that all has changed for me. I was able to attend the Alabama Grand Prix for IndyCars and also, I will be attending the 99th running of the Indy 500. Both events finally, from the other side of the fence.

This all came about because of my dear friends Bruce Leer, and Rick Evans. Bruce who has afforded me the opportunity to be his sidekick on the Racing BS Show, Thursday mornings on Hoosier Country 105.1, and also because, Rick who is the DJ that is forced to ride heard on Bruce and myself, just also happens to be the Chief Engineer for the Indianapolis Speedway Radio Network.

Rick has encouraged me to apply for credentials to be able to attend these events and “cover” them for our radio show. Truthfully, I was reluctant at first, almost feeling like an imposture, trying to get in somewhere that I didn’t belong. But, I decided to give it a shot, sending in my first credential request and getting accepted at several local tracks and then at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL, then following that, the pinnacle, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I have to say I was surprised as anybody that not only were my requests accepted, so far I have been treated so nicely, at all these tracks, it really is hard for me to put it into words. Someone close to me joked, “man you are livin’ the dream” and truthfully they are correct, I am! So as I get ready to attend my first Indy 500, as a credentialed photgrapher/reporter, I just wanted to say a most sincere and heartfelt thank you, to both Bruce Leer and Rick Evans for the opportunity and encouragement. Without them, this would not be happening.

Tomorrow morning, I will be out the door before dawn cracks, on my way to the greatest spectacle in racing. There is no doubt, I will be grinning just as big as that little 11 year old kid looking through the fence at all my heroes standing in the Snakepit of turn 1. But this time it will be different, I will be in turn 3 and on “The other side of the fence”.

Chris Judah

 

 

 

 

 

What makes a racer, a racer

What makes a racer, a racer
 
Racing is something that not everyone truly understands, and really, I’m okay with that. But what those folks fail to understand is, it isn’t “just” racing. It’s the people, it’s the machines, the competition, the smell, the sound, and even the feel, as you watch a driver search for the fast line around the track. It’s all part of a puzzle, a symphony, that all comes together, it’s the sensory overload that real race fans love and understand.
 
The people,
I have been so blessed to have met so many cool people through racing, from multi millionaires, to guys with barely enough gas money to get to the track. Some who have even begged borrowed and stole their way to building a race car. But the one common denominator in both of them is, each one of them loves racing, every single aspect of it.
 
The machines,
On any given night at any racetrack you will see the haves and the have nots. The haves with their big rigs and beautiful race cars, pitted right next the guys running used parts with mismatched paint and duct tape numbers. If you stop and think about it long enough, I know you too will remember a night when you saw David, kick Goliath’s ass!
 
The competition,
We have all seen races that ran to the checkered flag and were so close, you looked at the person sitting next to you, that you probably didn’t even known before you sat down next to them, and high fived them and ask, WHO WON! That is true competition!
 
The smell,
Once the snow finally stops flying and the flowers start to bloom, tell me which one smells better, spring flowers, or racing fumes? I know that answer, and it ain’t even close for me! Give me the beautiful racing fumes of springtime in Indiana!
 
The sound,
There is no music on Earth that sounds as sweet as a big ol’ fat cam sprint car engine sittin’ there lopping at idle, and then with the slightest crack of the throttle, the sound of HUNDREDS of horsepower coming to life. Whether you like Rock, Country, the Blues, or heaven forbid Rap music, a race car motor is the sweetest sound on this planet!
 
The feel,
As you sit there in the stands, or stand as close to the track as you can get, you feel the cars go by and you can’t help but lean, or press down harder with your right foot as you try so hard to help your favorite driver get around that car in front of him or her. Be honest, you have done that! I know I do, every night I am at a track.
 
It’s what makes racing, racing, and it’s what we all love, it’s what we understand, and it’s what we will all be jones’ing for come Snowtember! It’s what makes us all “racers” or “race fans” and for me, I don’t care if you are rich with a big rig, or haulin’ your Hornet or an open trailer, if I see you in a racing shirt in the Mall shopping for Christmas presents, or at the grocery store stockin’ up milk and bread for the blizzard they say is comin’ our way, get ready for a hand shack or a high five, because we got something in common, the strong bond of racing that we understand, and love!  We are racers, both waiting impatiently on the next race!
 
Chris Judah
 
Picture by me.
 

 

 
 

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