Everything Still Feels Weird
Motorsports and car culture return, but with a discernible thud.
A weekly newsletter by Ryan K. ZumMallen | @zoomy575m
Happy Race Day, especially to the Wendell Scott Foundation, which is selling very cool apparel to celebrate the legacy of this pioneering Black motorsports legend. Definitely check it out and see if your size is left.
Everything’s back. The question is, should it be? That much is… unclear. Regardless, here we are, holding live races and meeting up for weekend car shows and rallies.
The world has changed in countless ways since March. But sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. We’re certainly not acting like it. It feels more like we are just trying to push forward out of muscle memory. We don’t know what else to do. So we drive.
People wear masks. The stands are usually empty. Still it feels like we’ve passed an opportunity to really reimagine motorsports in a post-COVID world. What could that look like? I don’t know. But back to normal? In this economy?
We haven’t radically rethought safety. We haven’t dismantled any power structures. These things take time — but COVID and the Black Lives Matter movement made clear that time is up. And they keep colliding in entirely predictable ways. Some F1 drivers knelt in Austria while others, whether they intended to or not, earned praise from racists and the anti-BLM crowd for standing.
Black-owned and nonwhite-owned businesses still struggle to access emergency funds while predominantly white-owned race teams sure seemed to pocket a lot of it. We keep driving a wedge into this divide.
And! One unintended consequence of F1’s return is that peripheral staff that largely consist of women have been kept back for safety. Team manager Claire Williams, who likes Zoom meetings because it means the other male managers can’t talk over her, is a notable-enough exception to clearly stand out amongst the crowd:
I don’t know the answers, but I would like to see some creative attempts to find them. (Again, taking cops off traffic stops sure seems to have some merit.) Instead of bringing us together, the pandemic has highlighted how far we’ve grown apart. When we’ll be able to see the result of all that listening, that hearing, that deep introspection we’ve been promised, I don’t know.
It seems likely that more public outrage will be needed to get the powers that be to move the needle. I just hope those working now are around to see it.
Culture
The BLM movement forced a lot of whispers into the light. One of them was Afshin Behnia, founder of the website Petrolicious, who spouted a string of destructive comments before issuing a bad apology for them.
I’d like to echo these words shared by Dorian Valenzuela, a prominent enthusiast and former Petrolicious subject, who condemned Behnia and the site and openly talked about his struggles with the police and why he needed to say something.
There’s been more inspiring work lately, too. Tony Scott, one of our highest-read Ask A Millennial! subjects, penned a wonderful open letter to the LGBTQ car community — but it’s essential reading for all enthusiasts. “There are people who want to make us feel unwelcome,” broke my heart.
An 11-year old girl won a Formula E design competition. It’s so great:
If you need a talented motorsports photographer in the UK call this lady.
Hazel Southwell, the motorsports journalist who contributed to our sim racing panel back in March, is now the editor of a new website you should follow.
Stop sending disgusting messages to women automotive journalists.
Friend of the newsletter Elana Scherr finished her book about drag racing legend Don Prudhomme! Congratulate her, preorder the book, or do both!
Video Reel
Sure, racecar drivers are tough. But they’ve got nothing on tuk tuk racing.
My former colleague Dan Edmunds is churning out awesome car videos. Watch this comparison of a Land Cruiser and a Lexus LX570 to get him over 500k views.
Car fans generally agree that BMW botched its new 4-Series coupe. One artist took a scalpel to it and the result is, not perfect, but certainly more interesting.
Over at Edmunds we bought a Tesla Model Y, the new electric crossover, and recently got the chance to put it through performance testing on the track:
If you’ve been wondering why cheap Japanese cars from the ‘90s are skyrocketing in value, you’re not alone. Regular Car Reviews got their hands on an Integra Type R, basically the JDM patron saint of Slow Car Fast, to learn more.
Race Results
Formula One made its long-awaited return in Austria, and it looked like — well, it looked like the season started five months late.
Through all the carnage, familiar faces topped the podium. But the real star was McLaren driver and Internet darling Lando Norris. When a penalty gave him a shot at 3rd place, he put the hammer down to get it. The video is pretty incredible.
Do you think Norris was excited to earn his first career podium?
In the U.S., IndyCar returned to the Indianapolis circuit and IMSA took to Daytona. Mazda went 1-2 and the new C8 Corvette picked up its first class win.
Ask A Millennial! Abby Hempy
You gotta love the do-it-yourselfers. The story of Abby Hempy will be familiar to anyone who’s been around motorsports for long. She’s an extremely talented engineer and decorated member of race teams, and she’s looking to fund her next effort. It’s an especially cool one — Hempy is turning a ‘98 5-Series into a tribute of BMW’s famous art cars to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge. Proceeds will benefit a dance studio, another passion of Hempy’s, in her local Houghton, Mich. Buy a t-shirt! But first, here is an edited version of our conversation:
You can have the coolest car in the world, the fastest car in the world, but if nobody knows about it, then it doesn’t really matter, does it? I’ve learned to use my existing industry connections to advertise not only the team, but the car, and myself. It’s been a process but I’m learning a lot about what grabs peoples’ attention and how to make sure I’m heard in the way I want to be.
I wouldn’t be an engineer if I didn’t like nerding out over the details. It is rewarding to spend time figuring out problems to end the day not only being proud of what you have made, but being able to explain — in detail even to an outsider — how it is put together. Technical details and wrenching is how I got into engineering and it is how I would like to stay.
The things that bring me joy have one thing in common: creation. I do my best work when I get to create something original — when someone gives me a canvas and just says “go.” When I worked at Polaris I had a lot of free reign to code, create fixturing, and hardware; it was a lot of fun and I hope I get to do more of this in my career.
I really like being hands on and learning how things work. I feel like the skills I get from any vehicle that I work on are tangible and rewarding. It’s always been a blessing to work with older students or friends on cars because they help me to avoid pitfalls and provide a sounding board to bounce ideas off of, even some ideas end up being really silly. (Like smashing a windshield on a future demo car instead of removing it safely! Thankfully I learned my lesson on the next car.) The driver’s seat isn’t where I envision myself. I enjoy watching a car I have worked on perform at its peak, but I think it takes a special kind of crazy and incredible skill to push the limits. My talents lie in development and trackside support.
Good luck Abby!
And Finally…
Me: Safari cars are over. Also me: I NEED this lifted Nissan Silvia pickup on BFGs.
Drive hard and be safe. Black Lives Matter.
Want your event included? Shoot me a note with subject line “Race Day” at ryan@carrarabooks.com.
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