There are no 12 steps for this: An introductory confession

Hi.

My name is Eric and I'm addicted to crapcan racing. I've been following it for about two years. It's caused me to lose sleep, to cheer for car makes I've never heard of, and to bash my head against the wheelwell of a 20-year-old car, shaking the powdered remains of Detroit iron into my eyes. If you're here, you know the affliction well, so I won't elaborate further.

I find myself unable to participate in racing for the 2012 season and am undergoing what I'm told are "withdrawals." Quitting a habit this entertaining and intoxicating, however, is only possible for the willing, which is something I'm not. But how can I maintain? It came to me in one sweaty fever dream: I could harness my tiny bit of car knowledge, my tiny bit of racing knowledge, and my fantastically expensive tiny bit of journalistic knowledge to get an iron oxide fix.



The original kernel of an idea grew in my mind and I eventually reached two conclusions about racing in general (though they apply to crapcan racing better than any form of "professional" racing):

(1) Every event contains hundreds of points of view, from race organizers to the person who put the graphics on the last-place car. Each team (and even each team member) experiences the race uniquely.

(2) Racing, particularly at the grassroots level, has an enormous, thriving oral tradition. In low-spectator events, historical accounts may only be a few notes in some obscure corner of the world or, more frequently, they exist only the memories and stories of the participants and officials. And while much of the crapcan world is indeed photogenic and has so been captured, the stories behind the images are all worth telling and worth preserving as well.

So it seemed only natural to launch a blog where I talk to crapcan racers and call attention to their stories. Of course, it's impossible to tell all the stories, but I seek to tell as much as I can with my meager resources.

For the time being, I plan on running a weekly feature on a single crapcan team and then adding other content regularly throughout the week, so check back frequently for updates. Or make it easy on yourself by getting updates from The Rusty Hub's Facebook page and Twitter account (@The_Rusty_Hub).

Look for our initial interview with Rob Leone of Schumacher Taxi Service in two parts tomorrow and Thursday. In the meantime, browse the site and maybe even answer the Weekly Question in the right-hand column (a new Weekly Question will be posted each Friday).

Feel free to add comments to any post, but for the sake of mitigating spam and libelous comments posted anonymously, you'll have to post comments with an OpenID account.

Finally, if you'd like your team to be added to our database of crapcan teams to interview, please send an email to eric@therustyhub.com with your team name, car type, team website (if you have one), and some general contact information (a name, email, and/or phone number will suffice).

Thanks for helping me keep up with the joneses!

-Eric