Summer Thunder
Memorial Day weekend is commonly recognized as unofficial beginning of summer. The kids are out of school, all grinning ear to ear, imagining the adventures that await.
Perhaps there remains a kid in me!? Year to year I too anticipate the warm months of summer by planning to be present for the first big drag race event at Great Lake’s Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin. Yesterday I celebrated the start of summer with a friend Tom, walking around the pits, and 
observing the action from our spot a short distance from the starting line.
Why is my imagination, my interest still captivated by drag racing? I recognize there is a link to an adolescent time of life for me. My first exposure to quarter mile drag racing happened when I was sixteen. In company with teenage friends I remember feeling amazed at the roar of race engines that echoed through 
the pine trees. On a hot summer day, windows rolled down, waiting our turn to pay the entry fee, in a long line of cars, the unmistakable sounds of racing came from a short distance away. I am certain my heart beat faster.
Then there is the shear spectacle of the motorsport. Man/woman and machine are dedicated to one purpose: to cross the finish 
line ahead of one’s competitor. The goal demands much thought, learning about the relationship between the asphalt surface of the track and the characteristics of a race car, in addition to building and tuning a race engine to produce a great deal of power, and I must not fail to mention learning about one’s own capabilities as a car owner or a driver or a crew member. You can appreciate that this competition activity is very complicated. And 
also unpredictable as one can never be sure how all that I have mentioned, and much more, will come together when the tree flashes green, and the driver launches a car in a fraction of a heart beat.
We walked around the pit area viewing, appreciating the variety of race cars parked, prepared, being prepared for competition. Tom commented that he liked the old cars best. I agreed. Why did we feel more satisfaction with a 
machine from an earlier time, a car featuring more simple, essentially mechanical solutions to the problems of overcoming inertia, achieving greater acceleration to cross the finish line ahead of the competitor? By contrast late-model drag cars have many computerized, advanced features. We liked the “vintage” cars best… Tom also offered that there is nothing viscerally exciting about a state of the art computerized, electric-powered race car. Is there not a tactile quality about the fire and metal of 
an internal combustion engine that grounds us to generations that came before? Those that came before us solved, overcame problems with ingenuity and mechanical means.
I love, am entranced by the ground shaking thunder of a race car heating the tires, a great smoky burnout half way down the 1,320 foot quarter mile race track. Then there is the measured backup to the starting line, the staging, and suddenly a heart stopping, max horsepower launch. This is ritual, a communal celebration of our American identity.
These photos were captured yesterday.
