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STORIES PAST AND PRESENT
FROM OUR NORTHERN NEW JERSEY REGION ARCHIVES
This month’s story is from the NNJR Pole Position dated September/October 2010 and titled “Nuts & Bolts” written by Chris Mosley, former RE, former Assistant RE and current NNJR Trustee and Race Chair.
“Seems like yesterday (actually it was last year at this same time) that I mentioned that the racing season was winding down. The calendar is getting shorter as are the days. Leaves will be falling from the trees, it will be dark when we get up and it will be dark when we leave work at the end of the day. On the plus side it will be cooler. But, I still don’t like this time of year any better than I did last year. Or any other year for that matter. In just over a month or so, all racing for this year will be done. I guess I better start digging out my favorite racing movies and DVD’s.
Always at the top of the list is ‘Le Mans’ with Steve McQueen as Porsche driver Michael Delaney. When asked why he races he replies ‘Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men that do it well. When you’re racing, It’s life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.’ Real hero stuff there and some of the best racing footage from that era. 2nd on that list is ‘Grand Prix’ with James Garner (or is it Gardner) as American driver Pete Aron. When asked by Izo Yamura, owner of the Yamura team, why he wants to drive a Grand Prix car he replies, ‘Oh, Mr Yamura, I don’t think there’s one of us who doesn’t ask himself at least once in the middle of a race, what the hell am I doing here? Of course when it’s over, we conveniently forget that we asked ourselves that question. I think about it and a lot of reasons I don’t know. Maybe to do something that brings you close to the possibility of death and to survive it is to feel life and living so much more intensely.’ Whoa, that’s heady stuff. That’s really the whole list of movies. Yeah there are others like ‘Winning’ and ‘A Man and a Woman.’ Not quite in the same league as the first two.Then there’s the bottom of the list ‘Days of Thunder’ (rubbin is racin) or Stallone’s ‘Driven’ (which is universally accepted as the worst racing movie ever made), but I myself couldn’t sit through five minutes of either of those. You have to go back to the mid fifties (1955) to find another good one (if you can believe Kirk Douglas as an Italian F1 driver) ‘The Racers.’ Oh, I almost forgot about Elvis in ‘Viva las Vegas.’ Typically some bad Elvis but some really great shots of some great cars, plus Ann-Margret at her best in a Triumph TR3.
We still have several key events coming up!…….The members meeting on September 14th at Il Villagio….in Morris Plains…..Solo at The Meadowlands Sept 4, 11 and 18…….Solo back at Englishtown on the road course, Oct 2 and 16………October 23-24, the NJRRS Jersey Road Racing Classic at Lightning.”
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