[Jeff Niceswanger]

Ok,I've read several times about " real race cars". This is off topic, so forgive me, but this story is too funny to not share. Back in the late 80's and before I bought a "real race car", I had one of John Lingenfelters 383 package Corvettes. I drove it to work and around town, but on Sundays I headed for our nearby track, National Trail in Columbus. The first time I showed up in that car, I ask to be in Super Pro. That in itself raised eyebrows. That's the class with delay boxes and all the crap. I had hidden a small delay box in the center console and wired in four wheel line locks to operate it. The car looked completely stock, right down to the stock Corvette wheels. No decals, no nothing.The only giveaway was the original size M&H Racemaster cheater slicks on the back. It ran mid 11's, so everybody assumed I would be a typical street guy, go make a pretty fast pass ( for a street car back then) and head home after being smashed 1st round. The car was pretty hot after the 30 mile drive to the track, so my wife and I opened the clamshell hood as to cool the engine down a little, and walked over to the snack bar to buy a couple cups of coffee. Upon returning, the entire engine compartment had been surrounded by onlookers. They were standing there checking out this street car that was sitting in their Super Pro lanes. I thought maybe someone would say something positive to myself and Sue about our new ride ! But instead, two guys that were standing there said "you know, for the money he's got in this thing, he could have bought a real race car" . These guys had no idea that the car belonged to Sue and myself, or I'm guessing they would not have made such an announcement. Sue never said a word, she just gave me a blank stare. The two racers walked over and started getting their car ready. As fate would have it, they were running a Super Pro car. We lost total track of them. And somehow we made it to the semi's. We were in the lanes, up against the fence waiting for the other classes to finish up running so we could run. Any of you old timers that remember the old National Trail layout remember that the exit to the track went right beside the fence separating the entrance/exit road from the staging lanes. These two guys had loaded up, and were driving their rig and racecar within feet of us, as they exited the facility. Out of the clear blue, and as these guys were eyeball to eyeball to us, my Suzie sticks out her hand, politely waves goodbye, and says... "GOODBYE REAL RACECAR" .!! I bout fell over, as she usually wont' say crap, but I sure did enjoy the look on their faces ! So anytime I hear about real race cars, my mind goes back to time when I was just a pup, and learned about making statements that come back to bite