* * One man’s exit from NASCAR

John Holst has always been interested in cars and traffic flow. And earlier in his life, was a big car racing fan, especially stock cars, especially NASCAR. Now, the thrill is gone. Noticing that attendance at races was diminishing, I asked him why he thought that was.

“I grew up in Virginia Beach,” he told me, “And lived there before coming to Virginia Tech and moving to the New River Valley. My dad, sister, and I attended races almost every Saturday night for years, especially Langley Speedway in Hampton. It was something we loved to do. It’s a 3/8 mile oval track, paved.

“There were different classes of cars. Pure stock. Mini Stock. Grand stock. Limited stock and late model stock.”

They differed by the year of car and the variation from what was sold by dealerships. Some were custom built.

“For us it was a family passion. Dad is from Michigan and has always been interested in cars. The in-person aspect is far different from watching on TV. The sense of speed is greater. You can meet the drivers and the crews. The smells. The sounds. The feeling of the vibration; it’s incredible.”

He explained that depending on the class of race and the particular race course – and all are different – you could have 20 to 45 cars racing at one time. Races could last 100 to 200 laps or more.

“We would get there around 2 in the afternoon and would stay through the evening, returning home near midnight. We got to know racers and their families. Dad became a spotter for one racer, telling him what incidents were ahead of him. I was his scorer. For some races, I was on the pit crew, changing tires and getting the drivers back on the track.

“The allure for me was the whole experience, being at the track, around the action. Nothing sounds or smells like a race car!”

So what happened, I asked him.

“There’s not been enough action. That’s contributed to the decline of NASCAR. Short tracks offer a better value for watching. There are short straight-aways, and there’s lots of bumping around. The speeds are slower, around 70 mph to 110 mph, so drivers in crashes aren’t hurt as bad. At bigger tracks, cars now exceed 200 mph.”

Holst said his declining interest preceded the overall drop in track attendance. “One of the things that drew me in was the history of the sport. Moonshiners souped-up their cars and challenged each other to see who was faster. That intrigued me. As the sport grew, it threw those hard-core roots aside, looking to become more corporate friendly, more family friendly, more marketable to regions beyond the southeast. It turned people away from the sport. It had southern roots, and when it strayed from the south, they cut off the roots. There were other types of racing in the northeast and mid-west, but the south was known for stock cars.

“The tracks became more cookie-cutter, more like each other, a “D” shape. There was good action and they could pack a lot of people around it. The formula worked and it was replicated throughout. The focus was towards tracks near big cities. It was a money-driven decision. But it seemed like every week you were seeing the same race again and again. There was no variety any more.

“They also made tweaks to the cars that diminished the brand individuality. They became standardized. Things became too homogenous. The new breed of drivers are more polished, with less aggressiveness and character.

“Finally, cost is a big factor. Ticket prices got to $50 per seat, twenty years ago. Trying to do this for a family became prohibitive. Track owners made great profits.

“More recently, I’ve considered the environmental aspects. I’m not as conservative now as I was. It’s really wasteful for 40 cars to be burning essentially jet fuel at 3 mpg for hours. A car may go through a dozen sets of tires over a weekend, and that’s each car. It’s resource intensive. This is more of an issue for me now. For current fans, this may not even be on their radar. For former fans, it has been on their back burner. I haven’t been to a big race for 20 years. (Racing) is like: go fast, turn left, and repeat. I can’t imagine what might bring me back.

“NASCAR has promoted a southern heritage. There are lots of Confederate flags. I’m not sure I ever saw a black driver or black fans. It hasn’t reached out to minorities.

“After coming to Tech, I realized I was far more liberal than I thought. That coincided with my waning interest in NASCAR. Now with a warming climate and sea level rise, noticeable in Tidewater where I’m from, car racing seems irresponsible.”