Slipstream - June 2002

Autocrossing as Marriage Therapy?
By Kelly Binek
Well, this weekend I participated in my first official Time Trial
and Autocross. What a fantastic time!! At first I was apprehensive,
even though I wasn’t in their class, Fran, Wendy, and
Lisa were somewhat intimidating. The apprehension alone can give you
a migraine. But to my relief, I had a great time, learned a little more
about the car, and tried really, really hard to beat their times. Maybe next
time, ladies.
Everyone seemed to get along and shared friendly banter back
and forth. I notice quite a bit between Wendy and James. I hope to
antagonize Darwin one of these days with a win.
I had no idea that racing could be so fun. Let me take you back
19 years or so. That’s when I fell in love with a Car Fanatic (Porsche’s
to be more precise). He took an extreme amount of care with his cars.
We couldn’t drink in them, eat in them, touch the paint. Jeez!!
...ifwe got the car,I would lose
my husband forever . . .
We traveled quite a bit, back and forth to California. Imagine no
drinks, no snacks, no crayons, no pencils or pens, nothing. We would
stop and eat at a restaurant, no wait, back then with three kids we
packed lunches, had to stop at a rest area and try to take as little time as
possible and feed three kids. It all worked out and the cars stayed clean.
As our children grew we were more and more serious about buying
a Porsche. After all we deserved it. Here in the metroplex the rat
race can really wear you down and we wanted an outlet. Now I really
didn’t resist, but knew that if we got the car I would lose my husband
forever. I was right. Every night he was out in the garage just staring
at it I think (my mother-in-law calls it the little red rattle trap, and my
mother calls it his girlfriend) But it made him feel good about going
to work, and that made me happy.
When we started becoming active in the racing arena, it was at a
point in our life where our children were older, didn’t need mom and
dad to take them where they wanted to go, they had their license and
could pretty much go where ever they wanted. Darwin and I found
ourselves having to become friends again. He changed and I changed
and we found ourselves sometimes struggling to make conversation.
He wanted to talk about cars, but really couldn’t get too technical with
me and I wanted to shop and spend money. To him that was okay if
it was on the car, and believe it or not, I wasn’t going for it. That wasn’t
working. We agreed that we would each take an active part in each
others interests. Mine was movies and shopping and his was, what
else, driving.
Since we started driving together we have a lot to talk about.
Over time I have learned quite a bit about the car. Darwin can get
technical and I find myself very interested while he explains mechanical
and technical aspects of the car in detail. By listening I learn the
car. When we walked the course Sunday morning, we both had input
on the course and how a corner should be taken, or whether to brake
or not. Then after our laps, we each compared notes. What did or
didn’t work, how it can be done faster, discussed where there were
tight corners, open corners, where to brake, handling the slalom, no
braking in the chicane, no brakes in the big box. All kinds of stuff.
Teamwork!!
I look forward to the next event. I know I can do better. That last
time around the course I found that I am not holding on for dear life
anymore, I’m thinking and processing the course and hitting my
mark. Watch out, Ladies!
Email: mayos@imagin.net or
FAX at (817) 267-4939
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