Monday, September 14, 2009

Off to the races

We had an eventful time last Friday night. Sarah, the girls, and I were treated to a local raceway called Killkare in Xenia Ohio. Cindy Ater and her family took us to watch as Cindy's husband Dick competed in the Modified class of cars. He came in second in his grouping.

It was a half mile track of pavement where huge engined cars (in the modified class) drove in an oval to try and win points and prizes for the season. It was the last of the season and it was chilly and loud.

It was fun to be a part of a crowd and to be with people just to have some fun. Often I miss out on the joys of being a pastor because I get too caught up in the business of being a pastor. I miss ministry by trying to be a good minister. Fun can often be a part of the equation if we're looking for it though. Friday reminded me of that.

I was most fascinated by the Legends cars. They looked like miniature version of model 1943 ford coupes and were not much bigger than a golf cart. Some had snowmobile engines in them. They are single seat cars-one center seat in the middle and seem to be ideally suited to such a short track.

Another class we got to see was the compact car series-I loved seeing these having owned a Honda Civic that helped save my life. They sounded like bumble bees on steroids buzzing around the track and put on a big show. The winner of their race was a Honda Prelude beating out a couple of Chevy Berettas. I thought all of the Beretta's resided in small towns in WV like I'm from or in South Jersey-but they were there in force in this race class.

I wish I could come up with some significant metaphor like life is like racing-we go round and round and if we don't take care of ourselves our engines will blow and we'll have to retire to the junkyard in the sky. But I just don't have it in me.

I write this to say if you have a chance to go see live racing-go. It's REALLY entertaining and makes more sense in person. For those who offer the driving tip wisdom to NASCAR "Drive really fast and turn left every so often" I invite you to go see what it's like. Your opinion will change. Even at the grassroots level it's a really fun time and you can see competition and creativity at work.

Be good race fans and be sure and take care of your engines. I couldn't resist.

Shalom ya'll,
Dwight

1 comment:

Jennifer Johnson said...

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a race is just a race. Ironically, Freud made that comment about the cigar, and we all know how he died. So, I think he was wrong. A race is never only a race.