Hello, everyone.
Many of you know me by my name and from my previous writing here. After a lot of thought and prayer, I felt that it was time to return “Pipe Smoke” to the internet.
Pipe Smoke got it’s start in the summer of 2000 as an independent site on www.angelfire.com . The mix of local racing coverage, history, opinions, and recovery talk generated a following. It later moved to www.yankeeracer.com and a couple of other regional sites. As a result, I reunited with my good friend and pastor, the late Rev Pat Evans as well as many people I had met during my years of barnstorming the New England scene both as a track drunk and as a sober member of the racing community. After a few years of writing and with no hope of returning to the local scene, I decided to try my hand on a national level.
After a brief stint with a site that wanted to edit me, I found a home here. When an employer came into the sport, I felt the need to leave rather than risk putting pressure on my franchisees.. I was also pretty upset with things that were going on in the sport at the time. I needed a change in lifestyle. Most of my NASCAR material was recycled and historical site that I had built was discontinued. I began to pursue another hobby which I am still working on. The Springfield Southern is a growing model railroad that now occupies about 1/3 of my basement.
Why come back? Simple, I missed the people. Mike, Robyn and the rest of the crew here are a great bunch of people. I would spy the columns and find something missing. When Mike got into Facebook, I joined and got hooked again. Will this be a regular column? Only time wil tell, that and your feedback. I will continue to leave the weekly coverage to others. In these columns, I hope to make you laugh, make you think and maybe make you pray. If I make you angry, that is okay too.
I saw a video by Michele Rahal this week that got me thinking. Here we are sitting in yet another crisis for the sport. Seems like we have been here before.
The first major crisis to hit NASCAR came in 1957. I was three years old when the automakers announced a ban on participation in motorsports. The sport continued with the factories selling off equipment and teams. Holman Moody came out of this and became a major builder of Ford products, GM left the scene and the Mopars were in the hands of a a few including the Pettys
.By the mid 60s engines were getting out of hand. In 64, the Chrysler Hemi made everything else obsolete. They were banned. Ford planned to counter with an overhead cam engine. It too was banned. In both cases the factories pulled out, leaving one sided fields.
The Oil Embargo of the early 70s was the next test. Winston had come on the scene. A reduced schedule coupled with shorter races got us through. I remember cutting a road trip short to be sure I had enough gas to make it home.
In the early 80s,speeds were climbing and the cars were downsized.. While not a crisis in the true sense of the word, both the sanctioning body and teams faced the challenges of the newer vehicles. The era of the production based stock car was over.
In the 90s it was a series of deaths by drivers that brought us to the brink. In the course of a few years, we lost Adam Petty, Neil Bonnett and Dale Earnhardt . Out of this we fot SAFER barriers and the COT.
Through all of this, we have survived as a sport. We have seen tracks come and go, sponsors and teams as well, How about the #88 on the Digard green, the #28 made famous by Fred Lorenzen and later, Davey Allison, How about the soda wars with Lennie Pond with Pepsi and Bobby Allison with Coke, Get my point? Thanks Michele for the column!
Catch me on Facebook, by email at kokoracer@gmail.com or hanging with the friends at www.e-aa.org John
