Marinucci: Auto racing fosters interest in testing

A passion for racing may help educate and motivate a young recruit in unexpected ways.

Many lessons learned in the racing arena apply directly to the development of an apprentice automotive technician or novice service salesperson.

Racing may illustrate and reinforce school lessons in practical ways that classroom lectures do not.

In my case, amateur drag racing fueled my fascination with testing and measurement, the foundations of successful automotive diagnosis.

Surprisingly, drag racing also foretold many issues and challenges I encountered in the auto repair industry.

So, contrary to what adults had said, racing was not a complete waste of a young man's time.

Many of drag racing's more-memorable lessons concerned people rather than cars. For example, judge people slowly and evaluate them individually.

It is easy to prejudge a person based on snap assessments or hearsay from others.

However, being "slow to judge" was — and still is — a more-accurate method; it also gave someone the same courtesy you wanted them to give you on the first meeting.

More recently, female fans and racers seem to be commonplace compared with bygone times. As a kid, I recall drag racing was an overwhelmingly male sport — heavy emphasis on macho attitudes.

Nonetheless, I met female fans at drag strips; they were as car-crazy as the guys were. Often, they were more knowledgeable because they were not afraid to ask questions.

Many female fans and racers were well-informed because they regularly read the enthusiast magazines and drag strip newsletters.

Furthermore, I discovered that some female fans were heavily involved in building, tuning and maintaining race cars. Others were very good drivers, too.

A female-tuned car beating a male-tuned one was a major insult to some guys. For others, the greatest indignity occurred when female drivers beat them.

Let me add some other perspective here. The majority of drag cars in our world utilized four-speed, manual transmissions.

"Rowing" a four-speed gearbox down a drag strip smoothly, reliably and consistently was a fine art. The task required agility as well as enormous finesse.

Some female drivers shifted a manual gearbox so nimbly that the car sounded like it had an automatic transmission as it zoomed down the drag strip.

The rhythmic tone of those agile shifts was something male drivers could not dispute. In other words, you could do it or you could not.

Over the years, some guys always seemed surprised by things their female counterparts accomplished, but drag racing taught me to never underestimate the talent of others.

These observations foretold issues I have discussed in previous columns. For one thing, some guys — racers and technicians alike — believe it is unmanly to show ignorance.

Consequently, they resisted seeking advice from other racers at the drag strip or consulting co-workers in service bays. (The "dumbest" question usually is the one that is never asked.)

My observations also previewed another problem I would encounter for years to come — poor reading skills among techs. People lacking the proper skills struggle to read and comprehend important job-related information.

Mind you, hands-on wrenching was invaluable years ago at the drag strip. It has been equally important to aspiring techs. Ultimately, however, hands-on experience teaches only a limited amount of required skills.

Whether someone is in the pits or a service bay, regularly reading relevant technical literature has been as valuable — if not more valuable — than aptitude alone.

William Thompson, a multi-faceted scientist commonly known as Lord Kelvin, created the Celsius temperature scale that is used worldwide. In previous columns, I have stressed Lord Kelvin's credo that measurement is the basis of all knowledge.

At school, teachers harangued us about making accurate measurements during laboratory experiments. Many chemistry and physics grades suffered due to careless measurements in the lab.

Drag racing frequently reminded me that valid measurements took precedent over the opinions of uninformed bystanders and self-appointed experts. The most-meaningful measurements appeared on a drag strip time card — elapsed time and top speed.

Gearheads frequently boasted about the performance potential of their hot rods and muscle cars. But the bragging often stopped and the excuses began when we saw their time cards at a drag strip.

Racing on a deserted interstate or industrial highway might produce a sensation of rapid acceleration, but seat-of-the-pants evaluations often did not ensure an impressive time card at the strip.

The truly talented racers were fast as well as consistent. For example, they would repeat their stellar performances at one drag strip after another.

The bottom line is that multiple, meaningful measurements — elapsed times and top speeds — earned racers those bragging rights. Interestingly enough, most national champions and record-holding racers I met were modest, friendly folks.

Once again, drag racing previewed some attitudes I saw in service bays throughout the auto repair industry. For example, suppose a competent tech suspects a particular failure is occurring on a problem vehicle.

A good tech faithfully takes the appropriate measurements to confirm those suspicions. An effective diagnosis might involve measuring values such as voltage, current, pressure, volume, temperature and time.

Typically, there are specifications and/or guidelines for normal versus abnormal test values. Traditionally, the more often techs take measurements, the quicker they recognize abnormal readings — a faster diagnosis.

Unfortunately, some techs have a litany of excuses for skipping vital measurements. Imagine a gearhead who has convinced himself that his car will go 120 miles per hour on a quarter-mile drag strip.

Similarly, some techs have convinced themselves that their experience precludes the need for those pesky tests and measurements. They simply hurl one new part after another at a problem, hoping to fix it.

These are a few of the lessons I associate with drag racing. Perhaps auto racing of some kind would favorably influence your young workers, too.