What is happening to the Sport we love?

What the hell is happening to the sport we love? Every day for the past few weeks, I have logged onto Midsouth Racing, only to see posts full of people complaining about cheaters, folks threatening to intentionally take people out, and people fighting, using their cars as a weapon, people being jumped from behind, etc.

Really?

What is going on here? This is supposed to be a HOBBY, it is supposed to be FUN. Sadly, it seems like all across the mid south, you are seeing more and more fights, more and more arguments, and more and more bull.

I saw something happen at a track one night, and it makes me wonder if things like this are not happening, especially with the economy the way it is today.

I stood in the infield as a gentleman won his feature race, and was teched along with the remaining cars in the Top Five. A lady came running into the infield screaming and crying, insisting the tech man DQ the feature winner, so the second place car, her husband, would get first place money.

The tech man informed her he would not be DQ’s because he was legal. She just continued to go on and on about how the tech man did not understand the situation, and how they just had to DQ the guy.

Finally, the track owner was called over, and he finally asked why she was insisting the guy be DQ’d, even though he was legal.

She replied that her husband had taken all of their bill and grocery money to fix the car in order to get it ready to race, and he had to win in order to have enough money to keep the lights from being turned off, and to put food on the table. The couple had two infant babies, and they were nearly out of formula as well.

The owner pulled out his wallet, pulled out first place money, handed it to her, and told them to never pull through his gate again.

After that, we was talking about how this particular driver was always starting fights, doing everything he could to make sure he won a race, etc. We wondered how many times bills were not paid, how many times food was not on the table, all so he could race. We also wondered how many times that caused him to get stressed out, and made him lose his cool, because he knew he had to finish in a certain position in order to break even.

I can’t help but wonder after reading these kinds of posts day after day, how many are racing on grocery money, and know they have to place in a certain position to break even. How many don’t do what they have to do, and then the stress catches up with them, and they lose it?

People, this is supposed to be FUN. This is also supposed to be a HOBBY. As much as I’d love to put a car on the track, I do not have the money to do so right now, and I’m not going to put my wife and two little boys in a predicament where I’m taking food off of the table, just so I can get my 20 lap thrill on Saturday nights.

I honestly wonder, and you know it is absolutely happening somewhere, how many people are racing on grocery money.