The new year is fast approaching and the one thing a lot of people do before the new year is reflect on the past year. What's happened in their lives, where their lives have ended up to this point, and where its going in the next year. At the beginning of last year I wrote another article about the coming year and asked where everyone would like to see their 2015 head. I had my own thoughts and hopes for this year. Some came true and some didn't. I'm actually more grateful for the things that didn't happen than the ones that did. Racing took me on so many twists and turns this year it became a dizzying ride that I still don't want to get off of. So many things happened in my racing life and in racing period. Many that made me happier than I've ever been in my life and some that made me scream and cry out of frustration. Racing is a passion of mine so it elicits an equal reaction but passionate is my nature anyways, I just roll with it.
At the beginning of the year we all had hopes for the new season of racing and the highs of the year were moments we got to see some of our hopes come true. Maybe we got to check a race we've always wanted to go to off our lists, or maybe a driver finally won a championship they've elusively chased after for so many years, or maybe someone finally won their first race or set a track record. Those are the moments we always hope for in racing, those highs you get in the sport. At the other end of the spectrum, the lows have sent us scratching our heads or saddened us or made us want to break from the sport for a while. We've seen rules at some places change, seen drivers get hurt, series have come and gone, and we've lost some in the racing community we've loved.
The one thing I noticed is that the only thing that is constant in racing is change. Just look at where it started, where it was 20 years ago, even 5 years ago. At its heart it's basically the same in some ways but everything around it has changed. Rules change, promoters change, people change, it just happens. Sometimes the change is for good and sometimes for the bad. You never really know until after the fact. I embrace change, the good and the bad. Some have a harder time than others and loudly voice their complaints. Nothing is ever wrong with voicing an opinion, heaven knows I have one, but every time change comes it doesn't necessarily mean it's something bad. I went from not owning a series, to owning a series, to selling the series. It was a constant change and brought with it its fair share of complaints but the good far outweighed the bad. The constant change could have been scary with all the unknowns but I've never feared the unknown. It's just about one of the only things that makes me feel truly alive.
The change the series brought in my life could have had me complaining, or whining but in hindsight all the changes were good. Just because change comes to racing sometimes it doesn't always mean it's something bad. The thing we all should remember is that change will happen whether we want it to or not. You can't stop it. You might delay it but never stop it. If you never give it a shot how will you even know if it was for good or bad. That's the whole thing about it, you have to at least give it a shot. In anything in life you have to at least give it a shot. My optimistic attitude will never let me NOT see the good in the bad so I give everything a shot because I want to see a good outcome. Its a curse sometimes. Whatever changes come to racing in the new year, they WILL come whether you want them to or not but we should at least give them a shot.
New drivers in new cars, new promoters, new series, new rules, whatever the case may be it should be given a fair chance to prove it's worth in the sport. If its not good for the sport I always feel it will root itself out somehow. If fans and drivers alike see things aren't working it will almost always die out of racing. It is a sport controlled by its people after all. The people decide in the end and always have the last say in what direction the sport goes. They don't like a track or its rules, they simply in the end won't go and the track will be forced to make changes to help everyone come back. Sometimes changes are overwhelming for some people in the sense that it disturbs their wallets more than it needs to and then again I think once the cars dwindle down, if they even do, the tracks will always do what's best to get them back and able to affordably race again. You just won't know until you try it but it is inevitable that change will come this year. The fact is we should all just buckle in and hold on for the ride that racing will bring. I look forward to the future as I always do in racing and I hope for the best every year and I'm taking the knowledge with me that change has brought me to this point in my life and it has brought the people I love with it, so it was all worth it in the end. Change, its always there, but in the end, racing will still be racing and we will all be here hanging on for the ride. I can't wait to see what changes 2016 will bring for the sport I love. Hopefully it will be the best year yet and bring even more fans to the track! I can't wait! See ya'll at the track!
