Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

This gets kicked around quite a bit, and various monitoring devices have shown race driver's heart and respiration rates get quite a workout. The higher up the racing food chain you get, the more pure athletic ability and conditioning is required. Talent and equipment can easily put someone ahead in a 15 or 20 lap short track bomber race interupted six times for cautions, but when you start talking professional racing, in USAC or WOO, for instance, the flatter bellies have an advantage. I really think years of beer and cigarettes have finally started to catch up with Steve Kinser, for instance, when he has to race against guys who really are in shape. NASCAR used to be full of rotund good ole boys, but not any more. Are pro golfers athletes? A lot of them weren't until Tiger Woods showed up, then they decided to hit the gym and give their ability the tools it needed to get the job done. As much as anything else, athletic conditioning allows someone to concentrate longer and focus better on what they're doing, especially under pressure. When your arms weigh a ton and your head is hanging out the side, you're not thinking about the job, just about how you feel. Result? Brain fade. Even at the local level, some "mental errors" are probably actually physical. Too many words to answer your question, but IMHO, the really good ones are athletes, and the ones who aren't in shape mentally and physically are cheating whatever talent they have out of a chance to get to the front.

Well put Galen. Just ask Jim Trabor about it. When he drove the #90 car a few years ago he got out and said he's never gonna say that race car drivers are not athletes again. That ole fat boy got lapped by an old man that night and i remember he couldn't even get the thing up to speed. Still he was wore out afterwards.

In the conventional use of the term - I'd have to say no. But it really depends on what your standards are for that. yes I'm giving an outside opinion here. I think Bobcat has a point - when you race that many laps - you had better be in some sort of shape - I would guess that if you wore out big time through that many laps - the fatigue could affect you the natural instinctive talent a racer already holds with quick reflexes and quick decision making. I base my opinion of that off the amount of indoor soccer I use to play. On average - in each game - I probably received about 35 shots - plus more that I had to guard against that went wide and even more plays I had to handle in some shape way or form. We use to play around 5 - 50 minute games a weekend - at crazy times. like 8pm sat. midnight sat. - then 7am sun. 2 pm sun. and 11pm sun. this happened a lot. and by the 4th and 5th games - even with sky high adrenaline I was dead on my feet. This could be relative to drivers pulling double duty in stock or open wheel classes on extremely rough race tracks. yeah on those being physically fit would have to play a big advantage. But IMHO - racing is a talent sport. some of the best drivers are some big fat guys. from an outside perspective - racing may not take athleticism in the way we view it (kinda like football, basketball, soccer, tennis, and others..........but if viewed as ratio I bet it takes more natural talent, experience, brains, and most definately balls - then many other sports. In football and other sports - if you are not good you don't make the team. In racing - if you got the money and the desire - you're out there................and if you don't have those natural abilities or experience and good decision making - you could kill someone. I just think it takes more overall smarts than other sports. As other athletes train and play and that is what they do for a living - getting millions. Racers have to spend a crazy large amount of time working ont he car and getting it ready. all while still taking care of families and themselves - while working REAL jobs.

So whereas racing may not have the "athletes" as we think of it................I think there are certain aspects of it that trump other sports. just because of the power and speed and the unpredictability of trying to guide a fast car on hard packed mud. Sorry for such a long response - but I had this argument a year or 2 ago with a fella trying to say racing wasn't a sport. and that the only true sports were football, basketball, and wrestling (wtf?). I guess maybe - this is sort of a "eye of the beholder" type of thing. My abridged answer would be - racing is every bit as much of a sport as more popular sports. And in some ways - is even harder.................and yes - in an unconventional way - racers are athletes. ah oh - Touchdown OU - finally! makin a game of it...................

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

That was Mark Rogers in the 73 car ...That was a joke ...He was scared to hit the gas .......But when he got out he said that he now had a lot of respect for what racers did ...

I was bored one day and picked up one of those local papers cant remember the name but it used to be the oklahoma Gazette and this guy wrote an article downgrading racers and its fans ...It really pissed me off I sent him all kinds of hate mail and crap ...but besides the point he stated "RACING IS NOT A SPORT , ANY 16 YEAR OLD WITH A DRIVERS LICENSE CAN GO IN CIRSLES FOR 500 LAPS THERE'S NOTHIN TOO IT " HE ALSO STATED PEOPLE IN SPORTS ARE BORN WITH THE ABILITY , he used Tiger Woods as an example saying he was born to play golf it just came natural . He also said Jeff Gordon was not born as a racer , thats just something he picked along the way ...I beg to differ there are racers out there that were born to race ..!!!!!!!

That article really pissed me off I will try to find it and put it on here ....

winners dont cry when they lose , they go back to the 
drawing board and come back for round 2 !

Anybody asking this question has apparently not seen my six-pack and sculpted calves.

Drivers are athletes. Have you ever jumped into a monkey suit, strapped on a helmet, and sat in the line-up waiting for Cautions or Red Flags in July or August. The sweat pours from the top of your helmet directly into your eyes. And before you know it your up.

So you enter the track with your visor open in an attempt to clear your vision. Meanwhile your all hot and sweaty inside your suite, and your expected to perform.

Yes, Race Car Drivers are Athletes.

If you ever set in Danny Wood self built gym for an hour and woke up the next day I promise any athlete would beg to differ just my opion.

Tiger Woods is an athlete. But still, he hits a ball, and walks down the fairway. A professional Triathlon competitor is an athlete, yet stick them in a 100 lap Silver Crown car you might wonder if it matters how good the shape their in matters. If he goes to the back, then he isn't mentally conditioned

to go to the front or even stay where he is. Then throw in a baseball player on steriods. Temper issues there, without controlling his emotions he won't finesse like he needs to.

The whole damn world keeps telling us roundy-round racing isn't a sport and the drivers aren't athletes. Yet when they come in to prove this point, and you have seen this, they get their asses kicked.

First though, lets take out all the athletes who are on performance enhancing substances that are illegal. Then let's define the term "athlete".

Ty Cobb was once asked in the '60s if he thought he could ever match the level the current players in baseball were at. He said "no". Then to put a known egomaniac in a corner the next question was "why?". Cobb responded "Because I'm 70 years old DAMMIT!"

The term athlete is relative.

The steering wheel with shocks on it?

Here is the definition of an athlete from
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/athlete
"A person who actively participates in physical sports, possibly highly skilled in sports"

So what is a sport.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors.

So if auto racing is a sport then race car drivers are athletes.

The equipment a driver uses such as the car and engine would be equivalent to a baseball glove, bats, shoes etc...

My Signature

There you have it !!!! Case closed. WHAM !!!!! Oh yah, that was Mark Rogers. Sorry bout that Sean. Oh, don't put that article on here please. I don't want to be pissed off with ya over it. I have high blood pressure already. lol

The way I see it Racing is a sport , weather you are short , fat , tall , or skinny anyone can be good at it . It's the sport that does'nt discriminate you for your physical attributes .

winners dont cry when they lose , they go back to the 
drawing board and come back for round 2 !