Welcome to Meg's Racing Page!
Racing started for me probably before I can even remember! My Dad has raced for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory is of Dad taking me for a spin (literally!) in his Lotus Super 7 at a Solo II event. He drove around a light pole really fast (of course, I was probably about 10 years old, so it seemed really fast!) I just remember loving it!
As I got older, I started working in Timing and Scoring while Dad was racing. For anyone who works T&S now, I can remember being responsible for 4 cars, with 2 stopwatches, and we had to do the math, since the watches were only cumulative! It could get very hectic, but was very fun, and kept me interested, and out of trouble.
Another early memory was when I was not much older than 10, and my Aunt Loretta (not really my aunt, but my Dad's best friend's wife) found a four-leaf clover (she could walk up and find about 10 of them after I had been staring at that patch for an hour!), and I went to Paul Newman's trailer, and gave it to him for good luck! I wasn't old enough to really appreciate whom I was meeting, but even at 10, he had the most amazing blue eyes!
When I was 16, I was allowed in the 'hot' areas (pits and false grid). I remember having my brand new Minolta SRT-201 camera, with the standard 35MM lens, and Paul Newman was racing two cars, in back-to-back races. He had a red Ferarri in BP, and a black and Silver BMW (I think) in BS. He drove the Ferarri into Pit Lane, then got out. Someone else took it back to the paddock. Paul walked over to the false grid, where the BMW was waiting for him! I just stood there taking pictures of Paul while he was talking to a fellow driver. There were photographers on the side-lines, behind the fences, with lenses that looked bigger than my arm! It was kind of funny! I have a shot of Paul, talking, with his hand pointing, and holding a bottle of Gatorade, and I wished I could sell that picture to Gatorade, cause it was a perfect ad!
When I turned 18, well, actually before. When I graduated high-school (I was still 17), my Dad got me a 1978 VW Rabbit for my present. Since I was not old enough to race yet, he used that car for the end of that season. The deal was, I could take it to driver's school in the spring, and if I liked it, he would get another car. If I didn't like racing he would keep that rabbit, and get me some other car.
Needless to say, I LOVED racing! And I was pretty good. And, that rabbit was special. I ended up 3rd in the New York State Road Racing Championship series, and broke the track record on the short course at Watkins Glenn. The day after, the kid who beat me in the race (but I broke the record by about .2 more than he did) lost control in the 90 (the first turn of the race). I was thinking, "if I don't make a mistake, I got first place", when he shot back across the track and dead-center t-boned me. I counted 2 rolls. All I really remember is being about 4 feet in the air, with the nose pointing at the grass, thinking (or saying <grin>) "Holy S$%t!".
When the car stopped, it was on the passenger side, with the tires against the guard-rail, where Seagraves Road crosses the track. At that point, I was crying, and saying "My Car!". The corner worker said "I don't give a s%$t about your car, are you ok?". I said, "I'm fine, but look at my car!". I didn't know how to get out, so the corner worker started trying to saw through the thick, nylon tie-wraps that were holding my window net in. It was going to take him a long time! My dad, who stopped to see if I was ok, said, "Meg, just unhook your seatbelts, drop onto the passenger side, and crawl out the back window". That worked. The window was gone, apparently, it dumped itself into a relatively neat little pile on one of my bounces!
I was fine. I had bruises from the seatbelts, and a bruise on the outside of my left knee that no-one could figure out how I got. Some guy asked me if I wanted to sell the interior of the car while I was walking back to the paddock. I am not sure what I said, probably something about you'll have to talk to my dad! (we did actually sell him the interior, I think!)
Some guy took pictures with an autowinder from on top of the pit grand-stands. Great pics! I just wish I had kept them, because I never saw him again after I gave them back, so I don't have any! He had a shot of the car, about 4-5 feet in the air, perfectly level, looking like it was flying, and I am about 1 foot off the seat-bottom, with my head up against the roof, and my knee is where the little triangle window meets the main window. Apparently, that was how I got that bruise! Tim Elliot (who now helps with the setup and maintenance of my Honda Civic) said he drove right under me.
I actually raced the last race of the year in my Dad's 4-door rabbit. Boy was it slow! And was I scared! We eventually got me another rabbit, but I was never as good, even though I still had lots of fun!
Fast forward about 18 years, and my Dad calls me for my birthday, and asks if I still want to race. I say sure, and the 'revival' is on! Dad got a 1990 Honda Civic, made an ITC car out of it, and off I went.
I have since gotten a 1991 Civic (still red), and am having the time of my life! This season, I have won 5 straight races, set BOTH track records at the Glen, won a race - OVERALL, and just had so much fun I can't believe it!
The SJR Forums link links to the SJR Forums (duh!) where I tend to put up little journal's about my race weekends. Feel free to browse around, and reply. Joining doesn't cost anything, and if you join, you can post replies. My stuff will be in the SJR RR News forum.
