autoXing* cuda

First post for 2009. Go figure...

Anyway, it's Sunday morning right now and I'm way too excited to sleep anymore for today. Today is the next event for autoxing (pronounced, AW-tow-kross-ing) at the Aloha Staium and I've been waiting for this for a LONG time.

For those that know me very well, being behind the wheel of a car is an extreme passion, it's second nature, and it's where I belong. I drive because I can and I would rather be driving than sitting in the passenger seat.

I thank my good friend for introducing me to it, his thoughts and mentality about racing are way above par, so if you have any questions about that, feel free to ask him! Dude is TALENTED!!

And now to the point:

I RACE. And I love it!

What pains me is seeing and hearing all of this stories and people talking about how fun it is to go racing on the freeway. I don't condone any type of street racing. In fact, I will go on to say that I HATE street racing.

There was an incident that happened a few years ago which involved two Mitsubishi Eclipses that thought it would be a great idea to go racing speeds on the H1 freeway Ewa bound at 3-4 in the morning.

The story is that around that time, there are workers in the Safety Systems truck that work about that time and they clear the far left lane on the H1 freeway Ewa bound so that the Zip Mobile can open up the zipper lane.

Both (yes BOTH) of those cars slammed into that truck right before the overpass to go to Leeward Community College, which caused everything to go into flames.

Those of you who think that "yeah I can control my car at those speeds" or "I'm really careful" and whatever else mentality that's similar to that, think about this: Both (again I say BOTH) cars hit that truck which was on the FAR left lane of the freeway. How wide is that freeway? And if you think about it, what are the chances that BOTH cars hit another car that was pretty much stationary on the FAR left lane of a freeway that about 4 lanes wide?

I'm willing to bet that the two guys in the Eclipse (by the way they had passengers too I believe) thought they were "in control at the time" yet they were driving so fast, so recklessly, that they both hit another car hard enough for there to be a fire that got so hot AND (I quote) "that they were so burned into the seat, you couldn't tell if the occupants of the cars were male or female"

And if that wasn't enough, this is what makes my blood go into a boil:

Innocent lives were lost.

Those guys in the Safety Systems truck were where they were SUPPOSED to be. They were WORKING. They had nothing to do with the two Eclipses racing on the freeway, yet because of them, the people on the safety systems truck were affected, and so were their families...

It's one thing to go speeding on the freeway by yourself and put YOUR life in danger, but its another ball game when other INNOCENT lives are at stake too.

...


My friend who introduced me to autoxing was one of those "punk street racers" who thought he was invincible. In fact, he's totalled like 3 cars to date because of those antics. Now I would be lying if I said that I've never street raced before, and I am VERY thankful to have stepped out of that mentality long before something terrible could have happened and my friend is also thankful his mentality changed LONG before something terrible happened to and he's also admitted that he's had some pretty close calls....

I will say this one more time: I race.

Yes, I do race... BUT I race safely, in a closed, controlled environment. I race legally and I wouldn't have it any other way. How many people can actually say that? Well, according to my brother, there's "about 100 of them, once a month at the Aloha Stadium" and I will see some of them today :)

Now how big is the street racing community? I'm willing to bet way bigger than 100...

I hope that those out there find that altered state of mind before something bad happens too and I invite you to come out to autoxing at the stadium. It's pretty fun and addicting and definitely worth it!

Please be safe on the roads everyone?

Oh and don't worry, its early and I'm not sleeping, but I've had enough rest for the events today :)