Darrell Russell died this past weekend. You may have missed the story on Russell's death. There are probably two reasons for that. First, Russell was a NHRA racer. The drivers on that circuit, and the association itself, are hardly household names. Second, it seems like we lose drivers on a fairly regular basis and the loss of yet another is, unfortunately, not unexpected. In fact, it borders on commonplace. That's where I have a problem with auto racing.
Death not only seems to be accepted amongst drivers, teams and fans, but it remains hauntingly part of its lure. There is that edgy, I-may-die-today, bravado amongst the sport's participants that, for me anyway, crosses the line between sport and Russian roulette a little too often.
Ernest Hemingway once suggested there were only three real sports "bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games". If life and death encounters accurately define sport, than Hemingway was certainly right about auto racing. The sport offers us reminders of this struggle on a far too regular basis.
Racing lost another life this week and all the its proponents can do is shrug their shoulders and say "That's racing". They are correct, of course, but that's why deaths like Darrell Russell's get left on page six of Monday morning sports sections. We've just come to expect it. Perhaps, that's almost as big a tragedy.
1 comment:
And that's why racing today sucks. Too many people concerned about making the sport some rubber-room version of ping-pong where everyone wears eye protection and the balls are made of cotton candy. "It should be about the skill of the drivers, blah blah blech."
Drag racing isn't about the skill of the drivers, it's about the engines, plain and simple. The driver's purpose is to keep the thing in a straight line long enough to get through the big end. The worst thing to happen to the sport is the baseball/football/basketball crowd jumping into the fanbase.
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