Motor racing has long been the bastion of “creative thinking” often referred to as “cheating”. Cheating was, all we say, active when the sport was for trophies, but the game went to a whole different level once prize money was introduced, factories got involved and sponsors came on board. The “shade tree” mechanic had no hope of competing against some of the finest kids and engineers in the business.
Trust me this “cheating” thing gets really inventive. For example:
Roll bars filled with fuel
Car bodies dipped in acid to make them lighter
Cars built to look the same but reduced in size by a few scale inches
Engines with some cylinders larger than other booster fuels injected into the intake manifold through hidden tubes
Water added to the tires to help a car “weigh in” during tech inspection
And the list goes on and on. We were once told “The biggest problem with rules is they cost so much to get around." No truer statement has yet been made. So, I must mention the one who is considered be the King of Cheaters, the Grand Wizard of bending the rules, the man whose ideas were seen as genius: NASCAR’s own Smokey Yunick, a repair shop owner who's mind never went to sleep. Smokey took to cheating as an art form. Even NASCAR respected his skills but still ruled most his cars illegal when they could catch him.
Motor racing has always attracted a lot of famous people and celebrities to its ranks. Several of the very rich proved to be good racing drivers and there is a list of many famous actors who tried their hand at the wheel: several pretty talented drivers. James Gardner and Steve McQueen were considered to be highly skilled, just important, and highly motivated. To be a truly good race driver you have to be willing to dig pretty deep into the courage bag and risk injury. But by far and away the most famous actor who became a championship winning, factory-backed race driver because of his skill and determination was Paul Newman. Paul was triple serious as a driver and just as committed to it as he was to acting. He was highly respected amongst true professional and race-winning drivers. He was considered a nice person as well, and he remains sorely missed.
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