Fuel & Fire Ritual
A postscript to what I wrote yesterday. Additional reflecting on my experience of time spent at Great Lakes Drag-a-way.
A forthright form of competition involves two cars driven from exact standing alignment toward a finish line, 1,320 feet distant (a quarter mile) accelerating at the maximum given the engine and chassis design. The first to cross is “the winner.” Drag racing’s concept is rudimentary.
Simply to reach the starting line with a car, to feel the potency of the engine, drivetrain and chassis, to compose the mind, to still the excitation of the body, allowing the flow of power from the engine to drive train to asphalt – indwelling the rhythm of the car with the body, becomes rapture beyond words.
The car becomes the expression of it’s owner/builders, the craft of an engine builder, often of their families too, who provide the detailed important pit-crew services. What is a race car, – especially one constructed out of a heart for racing? The car represents a husbanding of abilities, of the resources derived from a profession (parts are expensive), of good taste too, and often of a racing legacy handed down from father, or from uncle to a follwing generation.
A race car is a singular form of expression. It’s an earthy, rudimentary ritual-display of beautifully crafted steel body, with spectacular color, a focus of fuel and fire to gain another tenth of a second when crossing the finish line.
