Youngest racing memory.

"McChiken116 - Patrick H." (mcchiken116)
04/30/2015 at 16:51 • Filed to: F1, Personal

So, my dad just sent me this photo of myself at the 2001 USGP. I went with him and enjoyed all the action, noise, and atmosphere. Looking back on this is crazy to me. Does anyone else have some early memories of their love of cars and racing?

DISCUSSION (14)

MonkeePuzzle > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 16:59

pretty much the entire LaLD kinja blog is my first memory of car love.

towns made from encyclopedias, racing around the carpet streets with my matchbox cars

SVTyler > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 17:03

Dude this is so weird, the 2001 USGP might be one of my first racing memories too. I’m not sure what series it was but a black-on-white car (Mika Hakkinen’s West-liveried McLaren?) won the race and the track was a really flat, open road course exactly like IMS. That’s literally all I remember about it though.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > SVTyler
04/30/2015 at 17:06

Mika did win, it was F1!

tromoly > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 17:19

Mud racing at Great Lakes Dragaway, was probably 3 years old.

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 17:27

Watkins Glen circa 2002 or 2003 when I was like 5 at Watkins Glen playing with die casts in the dirt. Can’t seem to find any pictures of myself at the track on the computer that aren’t from 2011 or later. I’ve got a picture of myself in front of a 3.0 CSL and a picture of my self in a Rahal Can-Am car on my wall.

Kinja'd!!!

Here’s one near the ‘78 Championship winning Lotus though from last September.

Montalvo > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 17:36

I haven’t been to raceways until recently but my first memory is back from 1996 when my father was flooring it off an exit ramp in his Lincoln LSC. Everytime I pass that exit I always smile and give it a bit of gas for old times sake. There has been a performance coupe/sedan with v-8 in my family since I was born.

BaseTrim > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 17:53

It’s important to point out here that you have one seriously cool dad.

Hot Takes Salesman > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 18:20

I think the first race I ever saw on TV as a kid was at Indy- I can remember a yellow car, probably an Indy or CART (before it broke up) car

TheVancen- In Pursuit of a Greater Payday and Car Parts > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 18:47

A little three eighths mile dirt track in up state New York called Lafargeville. Me and my dad would drive over from Kingston, it was so long ago you didn’t need a passport to get into the states.

The first time we went the Outlaw Sprint Cars were there, and I remember pointing at the Pennzoil car and saying, “I want that one!”

SVTyler > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 19:32

And a red car (Schumi’s Ferrari) passed another red car (Barrichello’s) in the last few laps, that was it. Crazy how much the brain remembers once it’s reminded of minute stuff like that.

The Compromiser > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
04/30/2015 at 20:08

I was 12 and went to the drag races on the back of my dad’s Harley. The baffle weld blew and the bike got much much louder.

My first race was when I was 4. Dirt bikes. I came in last. Got a lot better.

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > BaseTrim
04/30/2015 at 22:18

Absolutely Dude.

wafflesnfalafel > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/01/2015 at 00:52

I remember vividly having a conversation with my dad why there wasn’t more racing on television instead of other sports. (Football - meh; baseball - boring; basketball - dumb, Bill Elliott’s T-Bird at Talledega - freakin’ awesome. )

BATC42 > McChiken116 - Patrick H.
05/02/2015 at 03:08

First thing I remember vividly, motrosport-wise (and probably life wise too). Was 1996 at a local rally in France. A couple minutes away from where my grandmother lives, and we would spent the weekend there with my mother while my father was busy with the rally (he was a co-driver back then). Anyway, we were on this stage, hanging around in the local church parking lot. The way the stage was done the cars were coming from the left of the church, making a 90° right turn to go around the church, another turn, and exit and climb a hill on the right of said church. The start of the hill (I know it quite well, since it’s part of the road to go to my grandma’s, and one of my favourite road to drive on, and I’ve been riding on it since I’m born so...) is straight line after the church, then right turn (I would say 105°) then left hairpin turn followed by a long straight where car would hit the redline in several gears, then the finish line 500m after the hairpin. That hairpin is the main part of that memory. There was this car coming up, a Simca 1000 Rallye 3 (I do remember the car because the guy is well know, and a friend of my father and I rode in the car several times. An I had a poster of it in my room). The guy driving it is known for fancy entrance and showing off (is freaking fast though). He comes in the hairpin turn, overshoot it a bit, pulls the ebrake slides around, the back end of the car hanging over the drop, back wheels in the grass, goes full throttle and off he goes in the straight.

I don’t know why I remember this so vividly. I have this image of that dark blue rally car sliding over that edge stuck in my head. And for having riden on this road twice almost every weekend until I was 12 or 13, and driven it quite often since I got my licence, this corner is still scarry as hell when you arrive full throttle in it.