Unless you’re a big car racing fan, the whole thing about going up and down, or all around a track might seem somewhat pointless to you. Professional racing has become a group of big-name, big-money brands racing around for no other reason than entertainment and bragging rights. Imagine if your son was a non-professional driver involved in one of these races like Race the Runway at the Russ Beach Airport.
It began innocently enough when both my sons drove around the yard in their toy cars when they were young. Then it progressed to “Dad, pass me the superglue, she needs welding!” Both also played video car racing games for practice – did you know Mario Kart is one of the most realistic teachers out there for race car driving? However, in real life, throwing turtle shells at your opponents and letting a monkey drive a car will get you disqualified from most car races.
I knew when my sons got passionately involved with cars I would never have to worry about them looking for money for illicit things because they spent it all on car engines and accessories. Then the periods of the youngest wailing down residential streets, tires squealing around corners soon disappeared. He finally found places to get those urges out of his system as race tracks will let people like him on the track — in his own car, no less to drive like the proverbial bat out of Hell.
As parents we hoped that they both understood that Vin Diesel was actually not doing any of that amazing stuff you saw in the film The Fast & Furious, but sometimes you just didn’t want to break their hearts. Of course the primary goal of the Fast & Furious movies is simply to look cool, but pretty much everything you saw those drivers do would be a really big mistake in real life.
Now adults, the oldest Schuyleur owns a car dealership, and the youngest Perry, pulled up to his first Race the Runway in a Honda Civic instead of an Italian sports car a few years ago and placed 7th. Perry knew that newbies beginning high-performance driving in a Ferrari is like trying to learn calculus before you’ve mastered arithmetic– if miscalculating a derivative could send you to a fiery death.
He was clever in understanding that showing up in let’s say, a shamefully under-rated ride like a Honda would teach him far more than scrimping and saving to buy a Porsche. Last year Perry ended up winning Race the Runway and I knew if his father was still alive he would have been beaming.
Even though their Mother gets another load of grey hair each time she sees them both in fast cars she knows that her sons believe that if you have everything under control, you are not moving fast enough. After all driving a car is boring unless you are going 242kph on the Smiths Falls Russ Beach Airport Runway upside down. Like they say,“Drive it like you stole it!”
See you at Race the Runway August 13th Canada’s Fastest, Most Extreme Car Event –August 13, 2016. 8:30AM to 4PM – Russ Beach Smiths Falls Airport
Rain date-Sunday
Lanark County Genealogical Society Website
Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News
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