So Long 2007

It's that time of the year again, and it comes quicker and quicker it seems.

As in years past this is the time when we reflect on all that we've accomplished, failed to do, or brushed under the rug until next time. It's a time for resolutions, and in most cases very high expectations of ourselves in the upcoming year. Whether it's to call a friend after losing touch or losing weight after gaining a few, most of these missions we embark on seem trivial to some while being monumental to others. When I think of the amount of things on my plate alone I can easily see why I can't find time to better take care of myself or tie up some of the loose ends from resolution's past. I'm about three years behind on mine but I'm hoping this year will be my lucky one.

Whatever your resolutions are I hope you attain them. May your burdens be scarce and your joys be plenty. May your houses be filled with the love of family and the laughter of friends. And may you outperform any expectations of yourself and outrage all who don't believe in you.

Happy New Year!

The Health Insurance farce. What did happen to patient care?

Everybody knows how frustrating it is today when you have to visit the doctor's office or an emergency room. It comes as no surprise to anyone when the staff would rather have you bleed all over the floor to make certain that all the insurance forms are filled out properly rather than get you immediate attention. And then regardless of the discomfort you're in, outside of full blown cardiac arrest, you're herded into a waiting room for what seems like days.

For the most part it's not the health care professionals that I feel cause this bottleneck. I find it inconceivable that a doctor or their staff would enjoy the reams of paperwork that needs to be filled out on their patients when they visit. I mean you go to med school for how many years to become a paper jockey? I went to school for a fraction of that time to become an EMT and the last thing on my mind that I choose to do is the run report. You want to practice what you were taught to do. That's what brought you to the field in the first place!

The reason for this inconvenience is two-fold. The first being a need to cover themselves from a malpractice lawsuit and the second is the almighty dollar. I fully understand the first issue. Unlike our European friends we here in the USA live in a litigation crazy world where the loss of your livelihood is only a court appearance away. As aggravating as that alone is, it's the second issue that chaps my rump and a million others like me. It's the fact that the insurance companies are more interested in their bottom line than the policy holder's well being. Gone are the days of a lollipop and a twenty-five dollar office visit. Enter the days of forty-five dollar acetaminophen, aspirin to you and I but it sounds more expensive that way, and about a grand a day for the room alone. And we can't forget the plethora of individuals lined up with their hands out for everything from ten minute consultations to obscenely priced lab time.

It is truly a wonder how far we've come from the days of house calls and real compassion for the patient. Clinics and hospitals have forced everyone working within them to be so aware of their bottom line that they miss the real reason why a lot of them got into the field in the first place. I personally don't feel like I have an identity any more. They just stack them up and run them out so fast that they hardly get to know you. And if you are lucky enough to have the same family doctor for a period of more than a year, chances are you'll pay more out of your pocket sooner than you think when the policy changes and the new list of individuals who share in the plan does not include them.

This is the part where I step aside and let someone take over who writes a bit more eloquently than I do. Someone who's articles I really enjoy reading and who I think puts this whole thing in perfect perspective. It's by Denny Hatch, and he wrote an article titled “Sicko” — Did Michael Moore Get It Right? A Comparison of Emergency Rooms on Two Continents. Even though I'd be the first person to say that anything involving the words of Michael Moore wouldn't warrant my attention, I think you'll find it most interesting.

Click here to read original article

What's all the hype about?

Ten people on every street corner waiving nude photos of women that I can have in my hotel room in twenty minutes.(With most of these cards and flyers finding their way to the ground by midnight) Annoying individuals at every casino trying to sell me a timeshare. And prices for just about everything being so high you almost have to win big just to eat, drink, and sleep here.

If you haven't figured it out by now I'm talking about my trip to Las Vegas Nevada, Disneyland for adults. Chuck Palahniuk was quoted as saying that Vegas looks the way you'd imagine heaven must look at night. EHHHHHH! Wrong answer! Sorry Chuck, I'm a big fan but I hope that was the Satirist speaking when you made that comment.

In my book, heaven at night would include moonlight over surf and sand in some tropical location. Yeah that's it. Take a Corona beer commercial complete with a bucket of brews on ice, throw in yours truly on the hammock, and paint the sky black with only the moon and stars as a back light. Not a million candlepower of the Vegas strip. That my friends is about as close as one could get.

The trip was planned as business but being there for a week provided me time to walk around and see what all the fuss was about. And after all was seen and done I have to admit that the only thing I enjoyed was the climate. Put me anywhere in this world where it's sunny and 80 degrees and I'll be a happy man. I can do without the casinos and the impossible way of navigating them. The crowds everywhere you go. And if I want to get ripped off and pay $37.50 for a printed Hanes T-Shirt I can spare myself the three hour plane ride and get robbed right here at home. I'm not much of a show person either. Topless or fully clothed, I would much rather watch my grass grow than see a Broadway musical or some washed up cabaret singer in a smoke filled club.

Obviously more people than I truly do like all of this or else the town would have fallen off the map decades ago. I'm certain that once will be enough for me but I have a hard time understanding the need to go back again and again. Some people I know will make the trek many times each year and now that I've been there and taken it in I have to scratch my head more than ever.


One thing that did amuse me though is the honesty in the panhandlers. You don't see many of them, but when the local authorities or casino security haven't swept them away you'll find one on a pedestrian overpass or sitting off to the side of an establishment with their sign and cup looking for spare change. The thing that floored me more than once was when a couple of guys had signs that didn't read your average "Homeless, spare change needed, God bless you" type of thing. One said "It's hot! A beer and cheeseburger would be nice right about now" and my favorite, " I need your change for: a meal, alcohol, and a prostitute - and not necessarily in that order". What a guy! None of that "Please help me I have a 3 year old living in a bus station" kind of story. This man knew what he wanted and he wasn't ashamed to be up front about it. You would think expressing needs like that would get you nothing, but the funny thing was - his cup was the fullest out of all I've seen.

Rumor has it that the Las Vegas Tourism board could have members that answer to the name of Knuckles, and Ice-Pick. With that said, I want to make it very clear here that these are my personal opinions and my intention was never to insult anyone or condemn Vegas in general. I realize that a lot of people find this town exciting but I just don't find it my cup of tea. I felt compelled to say this because I'd really hate to have a guy named Tank Calabrese (of the New Jersey Calabrese's) show up at my door some night attempting to liberate me.

The "Old Guy's" turn at the wheel

All year I wrench on my son's kart and envy him for having the opportunity to do this at his age. Ever since I can remember I wanted to have something to do with racing. And when an uncle of mine purchased a kart and began competing with it back in the 70's I knew where I wanted to be.

So I pestered my father and saved my money but nothing ever came of it. Whether it was a lack of money, a lack of time, or my inability to stay focused on one thing and one thing only, the plan never came together. I had to wait until I was much older to pursue this dream.


Most of you who know me know that I gave up driving about 14 years ago after a luke warm career racing Formula Fords in the SCCA. Just before Sam was born, I sold everything I had and put it into our first house in preparation for a new life as a family and with it, the terrifying thought of being someone's father. There was no way we could afford to continue in the sport and more importantly, we couldn't afford to have one of us going out and risking our neck on the weekends. So with that I hung up the driving suit for good. And even though I can honestly say that I don't for one minute regret the decision I made, there's not a day that goes by that I don't miss it. Flash ahead 14 years and an opportunity just presented itself.


The annual Backwards Enduro at Badger Raceway is an event that we've had the unfortunate luck of not being able to attend in the past three years. It sounded like a blast. At the end of every race season the club puts on a fun only event where drivers take to the track in the opposite direction of how it's normally run. There's a Powder Puff class that we always thought my daughter would do well in, and an Enduro where my son could share his seat with one of his friends. And what about this Mechanics Race I thought? A quick talk with the troops about who wanted to race in what class and we quickly discovered that even though we could finally attend it, no one really wanted to compete. It looks like the kart is all my own!

Now again, anyone who knows me knows that even though the key word in this event is "fun" I was taking it much more seriously than that. I knew I had to find a seat to fit me but I didn't stop at that. I had to find out all the set-up specs for someone my size and I had to track down a larger pipe that would be less restrictive and be able to handle it's new payload. I dug my old safety equipment out of storage and dragged my family to the track to show them how it's done.

The biggest mistake anyone can make when getting into one of these things is assuming that driving a much smaller and lower powered kart over a race car is going to be a walk in the park. On the contrary it's the exact opposite. It demands much more of your strength, which was apparent in my inability to hold my neck straight through corners, and the variety of deep painful bruising in my ribs and arms. Without suspension, karts are a handful when it comes to keeping them steady. It took me nearly the entire day to find my stride and work up the strength to pilot this thing along something resembling the racing line. Although the entire day I would come off the last turn onto the front straight with one side in the grass I'm pretty proud in how far I came. I would eventually finish 5th with a personal best lap time of 42.02


The student is now the teacher "Your not going flat out through turn one Pop!" "You're all over the place in the sweeper, you need to work on it!" he's telling me. Man is that how I sound every weekend? That kid of mine was busting my chops from the moment I set foot in the thing. And no matter what type of progress I made he would always have some smack talk to back up how much quicker he was than me. I'll give him that. With a 38 second lap compared to my 42 he reserves the right to be a little cocky. What he doesn't realize is that I was going in the wrong direction on the track (which he never drove before) and I'm taking along about 50 extra pounds for the ride. I know, excuses, excuses, but he better pray that we never go head to head on the same track. If I ever get a kart of my own I have no doubt in my mind that I'll show him my backside and hand him his in the process.

So what did I come away with after this experience? Oh where to start. I think the biggest thing that hit me while I was out there is that I couldn't believe I was making my son drive at speeds like this. I was doing everything I could to keep the thing pointed in the right direction and I was expecting my 13 year old to do the same? The rate at which you come up on things is so quick that if you snooze for just one second you can easily find yourself in a world of trouble. Those hay bales come up real quick on you.

Another thing that's become very obvious is that I'm not twenty years old anymore and I take longer to recover than I used to. Two weeks after the race and I'm still nursing wounds from that day. Now I know why some bright individual introduced a rib protector in this market. I just started taking full breaths again without pain.


And the last thing I came away with is the fact that the bug is still with me and now more than ever I'd like to get back into it again. Probably not auto racing though. Unless someone with very deep pockets would like to take a chance on me I'll stick to karting. How else can I prove to my son that his old man is still king?

Shameless Plug

In supporting my son's site over at Sam's Race Page and more importantly the online store that subsidizes some of our racing expenses, I bring you this shameless plug.

Just in time for Christmas and for 2008. We've now added a calendar to our online store with team photos spanning our first three years in this sport. Check it out at the Inch-Hi Motorsports Online Store.

Attention Newspaper Editors: Motor Racing needs mention too!

While watching a Formula One race a while back a breaking news story came across the screen about a former World Rally Champion being killed in a helicopter crash in Europe. Details were sketchy at the time but we were promised more information as it became available. None was given during the allotted time slot for the race so I thought I'd eventually read it in the paper on the following day. No such luck as not even one word was spoken of it.

Back in August I attended my first professional race as a spectator in more than 15 years. Both the American LeMans and Champ Car series visited scenic Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin and the competition was absolutely furious. Not just in the pro races but the supporting events held plenty of excitement for everyone as well. We even had a local kid on hand who's been trying to break into the pro ranks for some time now. He managed to finally find the financial backing to contest the last few events of the Star Mazda series and was making his debut on this weekend. I for one was excited to see this but unfortunately the journalists in attendance seemed to think different. What could have been the making of a good article in the local paper turned out to be one paragraph on the pros and not much more.

In addition to not getting the coverage that this sport deserves, the other thing that chaps my rump is when the media buys in to the mentality that if it doesn't include a horrible wreck then no one wants to see it. This redneck frame of mind is prevalent in some markets but for the most part I truly believe that the masses want to see a good close race. We want to hear about the guy who fought back from 29th spot on the grid to first place in 20 laps. I want to hear about the local guy who beat all odds and gave the pros a run for their money when they came to his home track. And what about the increasing number of karters who moved on to Indy Cars or the Rolex Sports Car series. We have so much talent in this state alone that goes unheard of because the editors feel that for whatever reason it's not news worthy. The sport itself does a good job of promoting these individuals but it seems to be done in vain at times. Without help from the media what good does it do? Unfortunately in this day and age it seems that you have to be in the midst of a scandal to get any coverage.

To that point I have to ask when was the last time you heard of a race car driver driver involved in a doping scandal? How about dog fighting or even steroid use? A few of America's finest past times have been riddled so badly with these issues lately, yet they still demand half page stories after every event. And although it's usually a few bad apples who ruin their chosen sport these are definitely not the role models that I feel our kids should be looking up to.

I had once thought that it had a lot to do with pay scale. Give a man a twenty million dollar contract and he feels he can do any damn thing he'd like. Crash your Bentley into a tree and just buy another. Shoot up patrons at your favorite night club and you'll walk. After all you're a celebrity, and you know that there's a separate judicial system for your kind. And don't worry about using elicit drugs to give you a performance advantage. Everyone does it anyway. Besides, it's a victimless crime to begin with, right? Tell that to the millions of Hank Aaron fans who feel a bit cheated by our new home run record by Barry who?


On the other hand when you sit down and compare these athletes to the majority of today's highest paid auto racers it's night and day. The similarities end at the obscene salaries and endorsement deals. Michael Schumacher made it through an illustrious career without scandal. And just about all of the current Formula One drivers still manage to maintain an admirable profile on and off the track. Even Champ Car's undisputed bad boy, Paul Tracy, pales in comparison to some of these guys. As rude as some drivers can be to each other I have yet to see someone jump in a crowd and beat a fan for heckling them. Have you been to an NBA game lately?

Go to any race. Pro or non-pro, kart racing or car racing, and you'll find countless families contributing to some of the highest attendance numbers for a single day in a sporting event. By the way how many families do you find at an NFL game? You would think statistics like these would speak loudly enough in itself, yet these events are still relegated to the back page of the sports section with a column of about 200 words or less.


This really has to change, and soon. There's a whole world of future champions out there who need, and are very deserving of this exposure. There are dozens of stories about overcoming adversity to be the best at what they do. There are increasing numbers of young girls and women who are breaking down barriers and proving wrong the old stigma of the sport being for men only. And there is plenty of excitement and close competition available to you on any given weekend that would make a great story for any paper. These people are fierce competitors and the closest of friends at the same time. They put on quite a show and don't embarrass themselves in the process.

So if you want to do the right thing for a change and not chase after someone's dirty laundry, stop by a local track and see what all the excitement is about. I can assure you won't be disappointed.

Get on your bikes and ride!

As exulted by the late great Freddie Mercury of Queen, I think everyone should do it.

Turn back the clock about 25 years and you would see that I used to be a distance runner in my younger days. I remember when I'd put in at least 5-10 miles before I even made it to work in the morning. Then, if some of my fellow runners were up for it, we'd put in at least the same distance after quitting time. But after many years of pounding, not only from the miles I ran but the hockey games I played in, my joints aren't what they used to be. Combine that with the fact that I get tired just watching someone jog and you can see this once important part of my life is not so appealing any more.

A little over a year ago a guy I know suggested riding bicycles. He couldn't say enough about the sport. From the health benefits associated with it to the camaraderie of other riders and the new friends that you make. He was sold on it and making a hard pitch to me. This guy by the way isn't some newbie like me who just got started. He's been doing it for years now and boasts 250 to 300 mile weeks! He also has a stable of bikes to handle any terrain that he may choose to take in, with his prize piece being an all carbon fiber road bike that most likely weighs less than my wheels alone. I don't dare ask how much he shelled out for that thing but I can be quite certain that I'll never own one.

So he put in a phone call to his good friends at Bike-n-Ski in Sheboygan and less than two weeks later I strolled out of there with a brand new Trek 7.3 Hybrid. My initial reason for this purchase was first and foremost to stay in shape as well as doing my part in stickin' it to the oil companies for their outrageous prices that we're forced to pay at the pumps. I planned on riding to work and back at least twice a week and see where I could go from there. But the bug bit me, and it bit hard I might say. I now find myself getting up at 5am to put a 15 mile ride in just about any chance I get. Add that to the 30 mile round trips to work and its beginning to add up fast. Maybe that 200 mile week won't be that hard to reach after all?


I decided to take it one step further this year and enter my first ride for charity. The Lance Armstrong Foundation puts on a ride at Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin every year when the ALMS and Champ Cars show up to race. Once the cars are through for the day they open up the 4.1 mile road course and about 400 riders from every walk of life embark on their own personal missions. Mine was two-fold. Don't get lapped by the Pros, and make it at least 5 times around the track in the time allotted.

At least one of two objectives were met as by lap four I was passed by about six of the lead riders. I had eventually pulled away from the group behind me and had a pretty clear road ahead as well. It appeared that it was just me and the road, if only for a brief moment. Heading into the carousel turn the soft sounds of my chain and nature around me were shattered by "Inside, Inside, Inside!" erupting from several individuals who were traveling at a much higher rate of speed and who were committed to the inside line on the track. I held my ground and in one swift pass their train was gone. By the time I got out of the carousel and onto the long backstraight they were barely in my sights anymore. Back to me and nature again.

I did manage to finish 5 laps of the course but that was all I was allowed to complete. I felt I could have easily finished another lap, if not two, but track repairs being done while we were on the course made it downright dangerous for us and tough on the workers trying to do their job. I was a little disappointed at first, but when I realized that on my last lap I almost painted myself on the back of a truck who decided to stop right in front of me I figured I probably should quit while I was ahead anyway.


So my next opportunity comes next month when I enter the Tyranena Octoberfest ride. It's offered in several different distances to suit any rider and I think I'm going to try and complete the 42 mile version. I've been trying to eat right and train as much as I can so I'm pretty confident I should do well. Hopefully you'll be reading about it here and not in the obituaries of the Journal Sentinel.