In Gulfport, it's the simple pleasures. Like driving faster 'n hell on a dirt track Saturday night. Turning left was never so much fun.For every Nascar race with millionaires driving in circles like they were looking for parking, there are dozens of small tracks out in the hinterlands where regulars guys (and the occasional high-threshold-for-abuse woman) toss together a car out of spare parts and wishful thinking and indulge their inner hell-raising, moonshine running, full throttle demons.
Out here, it's all backyard mechanics. No fancy corporate sponsors or factory-trained pit crew (your dad's here, and your girlfriend and your slightly retarded cousin), and you're out there with a flashlight in your teeth and sweat running in your eyes trying to figure out why she's missing on that third cylinder.
Not that you can't spend money on this sport all the same. One guy brags he's got more money in his car than his house. I joke, "Your wife must love that."
"We're separated."
Oh.
I take one look at the racing, watching the guys run flat out down the straights then kick the ass-end loose and run through the banked turn in a barely controlled full throttle slide, spitting mud and bashing metal, and I think...damn...that just might be fun.
2 comments:
"Might" be fun?! Who are you kidding! As I recall you've done all those things, mostly in my poor old Mustang, in various parking lots and back roads of Cumberland County.
Paul: Great stuff, as usual. The whole sorta-family reunion out here in Durango, Colo., has been checking out your stuff.
We just left Hole in the Rock outside of Moab, Utah. For ultimate kitsch if your travels take you this way, don't miss it. http://theholeintherock.com/
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