Being that it is race week here in the Missouri I have been thinking about pit etiquette in general. One of the things that has crossed my mind more than one this week is peanuts in the pits. When I was little many racers were very superstitious about eating peanuts in the pits. So much so that if you even came close to their pit with a bag of peanuts they would jump your ass, "DO NOT Eat peanuts in my pit." To this day no one has ever been able to explain the superstition but it is one that hung on a long time with the old timers. Anyway this is a good place to maybe discuss pit etiquette and superstition. Soooooo what ya got?
Peanuts, green race cars, #13..... I will say, the first time I ever had boiled peanuts was down south at a roundy race. Damn good!
Jeez, I don't know...... "Don't wear white after labor Day?" I did have my own thing for a while. After beating the other guy, other car, I would always slow enough to let the loser make the hairpin and return lane ahead of me, for good luck the next round. That was until there was this one fast talking scammer who pulled up to the time slip/win-lose booth and insisted he was the winner not the loser, so when I pulled up after him, the man wanted to send me home. (This was back in the early days of "class" racing and elimination, not that "bracket" crap.) I had to make a small stink and insist that the time slip in his hand was correct, I was the winner. The next time our class was called, the scammer was right there in staging. I pointed him out to the other drivers like a cockroach when the kitchen light come on. One of the other drivers even said, "Yea, what the hell! I beat him too." Anyway, the short version.... I changed my shut down habit after that.
Here's the most common explanation for the peanut (in the shell, to be exact) superstition. "According to racing lore, prior to World War II when auto racing was held at the local fairground, drivers and crew would work on their rides underneath the grandstands. However, considering the location of the fans compared to the location of the cars, dropped peanut shells were more or less an irritant to the racers. So of course, when a car was wrecked, there would be remnants of peanut shells strewn throughout the carnage. Fatalities were also uncommon during auto racing in that era, so peanut shells have taken on a status as a harbinger of doom to the more superstitious racing contingent."
Fresh goobers. Mmmnnnnnnn Green cars and bikes have always been an issue in my house. I heard someone once say that British Racing green was OK.
I stooged for a guy who would not have anything to do with a car whose number added up to thirteen - ie 49, 58, 67 ,etc. - or that was the same upside down or rightside up - 69, 88 . The attitude racers have toward crashing has always been of interest to me. Circle track guys expect to crash every so often and accept it as part of the deal. It's always been surprising to me how crashing will mess with a drag racer's head and for how long. I had a conversation with Tommy Ivo years ago and the topic of crashes came up and he said that he used to get in the car from the right side, then he crashed. So he started to get in the car from the left to ward off bad luck, then he crashed again and he said from that point on out he wasn't sure what to do.
I figure Force killed the green car deal and Yunnick the 13 thing. Having women in the pits was a big deal at Indy but that has changed. I like to stage first but it's no big deal. Pete
I'm not one to scoff at superstitions but this thing about green race cars has been a joke for a long time. Yeah, first and foremost, you have to consider the racing record of both Lotus and BRM in Formula One. After that, consider that Sam Posey drove a green Challenger SCCA Trans-Am car. Drag racing? For get about it...Wally Booth, Gordie Bonin, John Force Racing, Pat Musi, Walt Arfons, Jim Dunn Racing, Bob Banning Jr., Roland Leong Racing, Pat Foster, etc. Now, what about that pit etiquette?
I hadn't heard the peanut superstition. I however have heard of the green race car and numbers that look the same upside down (88, 11 ect...) I am always interested to hear these superstitions and the stories behind them.
I got car #7 so I guess if we turn it upside down it will be the big loser L And I like peanuts in the shells.
Somewhere there's a story of an endurance race where the whole crew, driver included wouldn't shave till after the race. The crew secretly did so, while the race was going on. The driver didn't know, but won IIRC.
I used to flat track race motorcycles and I moved up in the points until I was # 13 in Colorado. Changed my number plate and the same night broke my leg. Bad luck , maybe but the number plate got changed. Round track racers are crazier when they race under a full moon. I know that for a fact.
Round track racers are a different group, for sure. I had a guy drive my car for a season, before be got into the car, before each race, the guy was a nervous wreck. He would shake, studder, and act pretty goofy. He almost made me nervous! Once he climbed into the car, the guy was all business, the guy could do things with that car no one else could! As soon as he climbed out, he was gone until 5 minutes before the next race, a nervous wreck again. At the end of the night, everything was great, laughing, and talking about the races he had driven. He was like that all season long. The guy could drive, but you sure didn't get that impression just before he got into the car. Gene
LOL This isn't as important in a "modern" race track as it once was, although it may apply to MoKan. You never raise a cloud of dust close enough to someone's pit to give them a good dusting. I actually tuned for a guy once that said any dust at all while the carb was open ( no air cleaner) would ruin the tune. Mostly its just good manners. one should probably also be mindful of who is driving where. Most of our race cars are not comfortable to start with, some damned hard to see out of and almost all of them do not drive like a new import with automatic braking. Just one panic stop can ruin some guys whole day, seems to remove them from the zone.
A heavy dose of adrenaline can make someone act like that. hard to explain but maybe this will work. Nerves-> anxiety-> fight or flight responce-> gonna do it anyways-> endorphin dump to tell the fight or flight to shut up. It can hit a smaller person pretty hard, I've seen it knock people out. Such a huge endorphin dump that they plane pass out!
LOL I don't have a flight response, my big sister says that its a genetic abnormality. When I was flat tracking there was a guy that always pitted next to me, he was a total wreck but he could flat ride. The guy was a stumbly fool for damned sure, but when he got his butt in the seat he was pure poetry. Some guys won't talk about the race until it over, they say its a jinx. If you ever see me in the staging lanes and I am talking to someone you can be assured that it has nothing to do with racing at all because of that.
Superstitions yah I got a few!.................................................................................NOT! Green cars? Hell I've owned one for Forty years I once had Three at one time! The number 13? Shoot my wife and I got married on a FRIDAY the 13th been together for 38 years! Wait a minute maybe that is the problem! I'm gonna have to talk to my wife when she gets home! Joe
From my mom rip, don't put your hat on the table bad luck, so it stuck with me specialy with motorcycle helmets probabley just manners, but if it saves my ass on a bike I'm ok with that. When I remind my buddys when they put there hat or helmet on the table theres never an argument. It just struck me while typing this and growing up on ma and pa's farm may have come from hand milking the cows head up to bessies belly think cow shit, hay and little critters from the barn,,,,memorys.
Back in my roundy round days, I hated green and peanuts like everybody else, but these days it's all good, I guess. Nowadays, etiquette is a burr under my saddle at many events, as most are held on dirt and patchy grass in the pit areas. Steel in Motion is a prime example. Many times we are not only there to drag a bit, but also to show off our rides to the general public and just maybe to some judges, so we like for the cars to look as nice as is possible. Then along comes some asshole in a piece of shit rat rod with his dumps aimed at the dirt, rapping his pipes by revving the engine and sending up clouds of dust on cars we just wiped down because we see the judges coming down the line or just plain like for our cars to look nice. Some of these jerks better be thankful I'm coming up on 80 in 3 months or I'd call them out. But nowadays I can't fight my way outta a wet paper bag.
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