Gregg Leary is a researcher/writer for Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain on SPEED. (Photo: SPEED)
2009 is here. Don’t let gloom and doom predictions about the “Big Three” and a sluggish economy ruin your New Year.
How about some inexpensive resolutions that you can try on Main Street despite what’s happening on Wall Street?
Visit your local hobby shop and purchase a plastic model kit. Spend a few nostalgic hours reliving the fun you had as a kid building it. If you can share the experience with a neighborhood youngster, all the better. Remember the smell of the paint and glue...and how anxious you were to put on the decals? My favorites were the “Headman Headers” woodpecker and “Mooneyes.” The first model I remember building was a 1956 Buick that my grandpa helped me assemble. I recall carefully following the instructions on one model…step by step…even going so far as meticulously painting the radio knobs on the 1/24th scale dashboard and dabbing silver on the seat belt buckles…then conducting a demolition derby with the finished model-shooting it with a BB gun and blowing it up with firecrackers. Build some memories of your own.
Buy an inexpensive slot car track and plug it in at your next family get together. Chances are good that many children of the videogame generation have never seen a slot car track or played with one. You can pretend to be Bruton Smith or the France family…on a much smaller scale.
Visit you local short track at least once during the racing season. Go to at least one form of racing you have never seen live.
Broaden your motorsports horizons by attending a racing event outside your usual comfort zone. If you are a stock car fan, go to a drag race. If you are a motocross fanatic…go see a Monster Truck show.
Take a “stick and ball” friend to a racing event.
Start building your motorsports library of books, DVDs and die cast replicas. SPEEDtv.com is a great place to start.
Help out a local short track racer with a small donation.
Write a thank you letter to the primary sponsor of your favorite driver.
