Trackside-Suzy
06-04-2018, 03:53 PM
This last weekend my Mister (builder, partner in life and overall great human being) drove our car, the Flare Witch Project (1963 Rambler American wagon) in the Optima Batteries Search for the Ultimate Street Car at NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. And I walked away feeling raped by the Design and Engineering score. And, in all honesty, who hasn’t?
As we left the track, I went through a range of emotions. Firstly, anger: A Gran Turismo trophy winner (Best Hot Rod at SEMA) can’t make the top ten at Optima?! Who do these people think they are? Then, I gradually made my way to sad and hurt: We and a few friends worked so hard on that car! Why can’t they see the effort it took to build? A ’63 Rambler widebody made into a race car, is an engineering feat; why don’t they see this? Then, I moved on into self-deprecation: Has my head gotten so big that I can’t see why I didn’t score higher? Seriously Suzy, what’s wrong with you?
After stewing over the results for a couple of hours and speaking with a couple of sponsors, I finally came to a couple of conclusions.
Suck it up buttercup, you knew going into this that not everyone was going to like your car. Don’t rest on your accomplishments, if it’s easy and cheap, do something about it.
Stop comparing the car to the cars that placed ahead of it, if you start judging those ahead of you, you’re falling into the same trap of comparing how good a car is, how pretty it is and how innovative it is, and this is exactly what the judges are doing that you’re condemning. Let the judges judge and agree to disagree with them.
Go back for more. Improve all that you can, run faster and make sure you’re prepared to give the spiel and walk the walk.
Focus on the good – even the great. We had some definite wins personally this weekend and I let a subjective non-racing segment over shadow some great times on the track.
In the end, everyone works their ass off to get a car to Optima – regardless of whether it’s the first time or the 100th time. Even the wallet racers shell out big bucks to keep their cars competitive and running. Why is my experience any different than theirs? Why should I get special treatment because I don’t have a crew at my beck and call and we must do it all ourselves? Why is my job fixing, waxing, fixing… and fixing, any harder than anyone else’s?
If I’ve said it a thousand times, I’ve said it a million: Nobody wants to be told that they have an ugly baby. You cannot prepare for the shock of being told that something that is the fruit of your labor (or someone you paid to do it for you) isn’t good enough. The standards will always change (as do the judges), objectivity will never replace subjectivity and even when the results are favorable there never seems to be a rhyme or reason. Chalk it up to fate, Murphy’s Law, the moon and stars or whatever, but in the end, find the positives and move on or out.
While the car scored 28th with the judges, Rodney on the other hand, drove to 12th place overall in the GTV class, splitting the competition right down the middle. Along the way, he drove the autocross with fuel pump regulator issues that weren’t ironed out until Sunday on the road course. Additionally, a PCV Valve re-route was required during the lunch break on Saturday but Rodney got many thanks for smoking out the entire mosquito population in Kentucky. We tackled some brake pedal ratio and steering issues after Goodguys two weeks before, and those performed flawlessly. A brand-new brake master cylinder took a dump on Sunday just when Rodney was ready to head out to the road track and attempt to lay down a solid fast run – a mere two and a half seconds would have bumped him up to the top ten and we were confident he could have pulled that off and likely more.
All and all, it was a very successful weekend in shaking down the car, we will continue to make changes and be better. We will also learn from our mistakes and move on. I won’t lie, there’s still a slight wound in our pride but we’re going to focus on how far we’ve come and not where we haven’t gone. As Lyndon Johnson said it: “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
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As we left the track, I went through a range of emotions. Firstly, anger: A Gran Turismo trophy winner (Best Hot Rod at SEMA) can’t make the top ten at Optima?! Who do these people think they are? Then, I gradually made my way to sad and hurt: We and a few friends worked so hard on that car! Why can’t they see the effort it took to build? A ’63 Rambler widebody made into a race car, is an engineering feat; why don’t they see this? Then, I moved on into self-deprecation: Has my head gotten so big that I can’t see why I didn’t score higher? Seriously Suzy, what’s wrong with you?
After stewing over the results for a couple of hours and speaking with a couple of sponsors, I finally came to a couple of conclusions.
Suck it up buttercup, you knew going into this that not everyone was going to like your car. Don’t rest on your accomplishments, if it’s easy and cheap, do something about it.
Stop comparing the car to the cars that placed ahead of it, if you start judging those ahead of you, you’re falling into the same trap of comparing how good a car is, how pretty it is and how innovative it is, and this is exactly what the judges are doing that you’re condemning. Let the judges judge and agree to disagree with them.
Go back for more. Improve all that you can, run faster and make sure you’re prepared to give the spiel and walk the walk.
Focus on the good – even the great. We had some definite wins personally this weekend and I let a subjective non-racing segment over shadow some great times on the track.
In the end, everyone works their ass off to get a car to Optima – regardless of whether it’s the first time or the 100th time. Even the wallet racers shell out big bucks to keep their cars competitive and running. Why is my experience any different than theirs? Why should I get special treatment because I don’t have a crew at my beck and call and we must do it all ourselves? Why is my job fixing, waxing, fixing… and fixing, any harder than anyone else’s?
If I’ve said it a thousand times, I’ve said it a million: Nobody wants to be told that they have an ugly baby. You cannot prepare for the shock of being told that something that is the fruit of your labor (or someone you paid to do it for you) isn’t good enough. The standards will always change (as do the judges), objectivity will never replace subjectivity and even when the results are favorable there never seems to be a rhyme or reason. Chalk it up to fate, Murphy’s Law, the moon and stars or whatever, but in the end, find the positives and move on or out.
While the car scored 28th with the judges, Rodney on the other hand, drove to 12th place overall in the GTV class, splitting the competition right down the middle. Along the way, he drove the autocross with fuel pump regulator issues that weren’t ironed out until Sunday on the road course. Additionally, a PCV Valve re-route was required during the lunch break on Saturday but Rodney got many thanks for smoking out the entire mosquito population in Kentucky. We tackled some brake pedal ratio and steering issues after Goodguys two weeks before, and those performed flawlessly. A brand-new brake master cylinder took a dump on Sunday just when Rodney was ready to head out to the road track and attempt to lay down a solid fast run – a mere two and a half seconds would have bumped him up to the top ten and we were confident he could have pulled that off and likely more.
All and all, it was a very successful weekend in shaking down the car, we will continue to make changes and be better. We will also learn from our mistakes and move on. I won’t lie, there’s still a slight wound in our pride but we’re going to focus on how far we’ve come and not where we haven’t gone. As Lyndon Johnson said it: “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.”
153162
153163
153164
153165
153166