<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Weird headline, right? <\/span>Let me explain: Why I Don’t Want to Be a Race Car Driver was the original name of this article…until I rode in a race car. <\/span>Then, I kinda\/sorta\/maybe did want to…a little. <\/span>Last week during the Pro\/Celebrity Media Day, sports journalists, God help us, were invited to take a ride-along in the Toyota pace cars, reaching speeds (at some points) of nearly 120 mph as we made two laps around the Grand Prix track. <\/span>I was terrified, what with the traveling nearly 120 mph and all, but I agreed to do it, if only so I’d have something to write about—I figured I’d vomit up my lunch inside the car, make a total embarrassment of myself, and then tell our dear readers about how glad I am I’m a sportswriter.<\/p>\n Then Rocky Moran, my driver, stomped the accelerator and I turned into a six-year old kid riding the Tumbler at the St. Maria Goretti carnival, screaming at the ride operator to make it go faster. <\/span>The long curve around Shoreline was unbelievable, as was the loop around the Aquarium’s fountain, all performed at speeds nearly impossible to believe—you don’t know a road until you’ve taken it at three times the speed limit.<\/p>\n At one point, on Seaside, another Pace Car carrying Raven-Simone’s mom cut us off (it was being driven by Rocky’s dad, who apparently spent most of the day trying to make his son back down). <\/span>The car got right in front of us and then sat on its brakes—refusing to back down to his dad, Rocky got to within a few feet of him and followed closely, AT NINETY MILES AN HOUR. <\/span>You haven’t experienced tailgating until you’ve done it with the scenery around you blurred.<\/p>\n I didn’t get carsick or scared at any point except the first time we made the 90-degree hard right from Pine onto Seaside with barely any braking, which felt like it had <\/i>to put us into the wall. <\/span>And…somehow we came around the edge and were right back up to top speed again. <\/span>It was at that point that I had something like a religious experience—a part of me realized I had no control over myself in that car, that I was a passenger, just like I had no control over the world or really over my life and…and then the car pulled back in, and I realized I wasted my race car ride on introspection.<\/span><\/p>\n I am absolutely not afraid of admitting that driving the streets I’m on three or four times a week at that speed was a life-changing experience. <\/span>It’s like my entire life got sped up—I’ve been writing faster, walking faster, even eating faster. <\/span>This, my friends, this <\/i>is the way to live! <\/span>That said, as amazing as the turns and velocity were, I’m more than happy spending most of my time at Blair field or behind this computer. <\/span>Why?<\/span><\/p>\n As I was getting out of the car I asked Rocky, “How much faster do the drivers in the race go?”<\/p>\n A little embarrassed on my behalf, he grinned and said, “Oh, between fifty and seventy miles an hour faster. <\/span>There’s really no comparison. <\/span>The effect it has on your body is ridiculous.” <\/span>Oh. <\/span>Well, then.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why our esteemed editor does, and doesn’t, want to be a race car driver after his ride-along experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4162"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4162"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}