Get Your Motor Runnin'

This week, I’m a gearhead. Vrooom!!!!
Okay, maybe I’m not much of a gearhead. But, this week is the T.D. Banknorth 250, the richest short track race in these parts. For our coverage area, it’s one of the biggest events of the year. That means this week, we’re all focused on auto racing. Of course, some of us are also focused on an impending vacation, which begins as soon as my computer is packed, and I walk out the door of the press box at the Oxford Plains Speedway.
I’ve said in the past that I’ve always wanted to write an autobiography, but I didn’t know anything about cars.
A lack of motor skills becomes a bit of a hurdle this week. I’m writing about a sport I don’t know a whole heck of a lot about. Yet, being a good reporter means you either know you’re stuff extremely well, or you can pretend that you do. This week it is the latter.
It used to be most of us didn’t have to worry about the Turn Left people. They could go around in circles endlessly, and we wouldn’t care. We had a person that covered the sport and handled all the auto racing coverage on his own. He spared the rest of us the task. That’s not the case anymore.
We have four writers working on various stories. All of us will be at the race Sunday. We’ll have a couple of photogs there as well. Over a third of the press box will be filled by our people. It’s nice that once a year we can flaunt our numbers and destroy the competition.
This has meant that auto racing has to be part of my lexicon. My duty in recent years has been to cover the big name Sprint Cup drivers that come to the track to help bring in fans. It has been Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Terry LaBonte, Ricky Craven and Kevin LePage. (That's me lurking beneath the stands in the photo above as LePage's car goes by). This year it will be Kevin Harvick. It’s a bit comical that all these race fans go ga-ga over seeing these guys. Me, I’ve got to talk to them and barely know who they are. Though, since I first started covering the 250, I have paid attention a little more to the sport. I’m certainly more knowledgeable than I was, almost to the point that it scares me sometimes.
I also do a feature here or there on some of the local drivers and work up some other stories or notebook items. I usually have three or four stories during the week leading up to the race and another two or three on Sunday. This year, I’m slated for just one Sunday, a story on Harvick’s day. I’ll probably come up with some notebook stuff as well, just for fun.
It actually has become an event I look forward to. It makes for a long day. I get to the track around 10:30 a.m. and leave somewhere after 11 p.m.. I end up walking a couple miles between trips from the press box around the track to the pit area. I’ll make that trek three or four times in a day.
One year, I was on the infield during the race doing a story on Kyle Busch’s pit crew. It was the only time I truly had a deadline story to write after the race. After Busch’s engine blew midway through the race, I was able to sit in the dark on the infield and write out a story in a notebook as the race wound down. Afterwards, I had about 20 minutes to get back to the press box and get the story filed for Page 1.
It’s a chaotic atmosphere to say the least. I’ve been there during practice sessions the Saturday prior to race day and returned the next day to feel the intensity revved to the max. With engine’s roaring, people on edge, crowds of fans and a lot of money at stake, the atmosphere in the pit area is other worldly. A wrong step could get somebody miffed, get me yelled at or get me run over. Or all of the above in one instant.
Talking to auto racing people is a different experience as well. Needless to say, I don’t get too indepth about racing and all the ins and outs. When racers get talking about their cars and their races, they often talk in a language most wouldn’t understand. They don’t even use technical terms like thingamajig or doohickey. It’s kind of like when skiers or surfers talk in their own gnarly jargon. At least hockey players just talk normal, with the exception of an ability to use curse words in the most creative of ways.
It can be a challenge on this beat to tell a story accurately, completely and without making a fool of myself. Fortunately, I’m pretty versatile, and I like the challenge of covering something I’m unfamiliar with. My goal is to do it so well that you can’t even tell I know nothing of what I write. Of course, when I do that, I just get assigned more of it.
This week has been light compared to other years. I had the press luncheon on Monday and got some interviews done. One feature is already written and ready to run. I’ll finish off another preview feature tomorrow. I interview Harvick on Friday and then will likely do something on his practice sessions Saturday. Then, Sunday, is race day.
Being a reporter is about wanting to cover the big events. You want to be there and write about the games or races that everybody is interested in and talking about.
So, I'll get my previews done. Pick out a computer. Find my earplugs and become a true gearhead for the day. I'll get my motor running and get revved up for Sunday's action.
Then, on Monday, I'll put it in neutral and go on vacation.