As solo chair you have days and even weekends that make your blood pressure rise and the stress levels make you wonder why you ever volunteered for the job. (I am guessing the club racing stewards have the same thing as I have seen them in action and appreciate what they do!) The majority of the issues are never seen or realized by the average competitor and when you are surrounded by good people who are all trying to work things out, it minimizes the stress. Still, I recently wondered if I shouldn’t take up golf as an alternate relaxing hobby. Both autocross and golf are games of one and games of many. They are both about improving your own game as much as beating others. I started looking at the comparisons:

Golf

Financial

• Golfing once a week at most public courses $30 or more
• Joining a club $big bucks
• Golf clubs (Ok I have a set but need the newest, greatest driver) $400
• Golf lessons $200-$500

Stress

• Golf club wrapped around tree or in water
• Lost balls
• Trees/water hazards/sand traps
• Public embarrassment
• Waiting on the group ahead
• Questioning shot counts
• Playing in the rain

Benefits

• Meet new people
• Expand colorful language
• Some exercise (If you walk the course)
• You can pound the $#%$# out of a small white ball
• You can have a beer while playing
• Lots of places to play

Autocross

Financial

• Racing once a week $25-$30
• SCCA Family membership about $150
• New race tires $200-$400 depending on the Kart or the Miata
• Evolution driving school $250

Stress

• Working in T&S
• Resolving unknown cone calls
• Figuring out mystery car numbers
• Public embarrassment
• Determining number of runs in a day
• Keeping places to play
• Playing in the rain

Benefits

• Meet new people
• Expand colorful language
• Some exercise (If you sprint to the downed cones)
• You can pound the $#%$# out of small orange traffic cones
• You get to go as fast as you can (Which means you can scare yourself sometimes!)
• The clock doesn’t lie about results.

Ok so they shake out remarkably close. Still, the one that makes it for me is that scaring myself going as fast as I can. Once the helmet goes on, the smile goes ear to ear! So racing it will be for me because speed and friendships at the track are what still makes it fun for me even after all the stress of putting on an event.

Last weekend I went to help coach at my son’s pee wee football game after our race. I happened to run into the Commissioner of the league. When I saw him he was arguing with a half a dozen parents about how long the games had gone over their time limits. While I talked to him, he had people come up and complain that the game balls were too slippery for the kids to grip, then he had two irate coaches arguing about the legal weight limit of one of the kids running the ball in a game. He turned to my head coach and myself explained that the availability of the playing fields had been delayed by the high school grounds crews in the morning and had thrown the whole day off. When we walked away I thought,” He must have some serious stress. Maybe he should take up a relaxing hobby, like autocross!”

2007 September