Motorsport siblings

In responding to David McKinney on the Lycoming thread, I enquired if his brother is a 'motorsport nut'.

It would be fair to say that all of us here would come into that category - to one degree or another.

It made me wonder how it happened to 'us' when our brother, and sisters, with often the same (or similar) upbringing may not have been 'bitten by the bug' to the same degree - if at all.

My brother has not the slightest interest in motorsport yet attended races with Dad and me in the late 60s to late 70s. And Dad only went because of me most of the time.

Some of you may have become exposed to motorsport via a sibling and then taken a much much greater degree of interest than that sibling ever did.

I guess I wonder 'why motorsport?' and then 'why not just a passing interest?'

I have a passing interest in cricket yet I do not need to know and read as much as I can - like a 'cricket nut' would.

Your thoughts?

Originally posted by Mac Lark
~
My brother has not the slightest interest in motorsport yet attended races with Dad and me in the late 60s to late 70s. And Dad only went because of me most of the time.
~

I could say exactly the same about my brother. As he's seven years younger than me, it might have started as a rebellion "I'm not interested in anything big brother is". On the other hand he is a keen rugby fan while I only have a passing interest.

I guess I wonder 'why motorsport?' and then 'why not just a passing interest?'
~

For me I think it was being at a school with a strong 'stick and ball' sport culture and being totally inept at any sport, I developed an interest in motorsport as a sort of defence mechanism. i couldn't participate but neither could any of my mates. With only four race meetings a year plus the Safari there wasn't much to actually go and watch so I could hide in a certain green magazine reading DSJ. Armchair enthusiast at arm's length. I don't know if that makes any sense.

Perfect sense

I always wanted to know... being a mechanical inquisitor... but strangely enough it was my brothers who first started to attend races at Westmead (Sydney) Speedway.

We had neighbours whose relatives owned the food franchise at the speedway, so they were close to the neighbours' kids and started riding their bikes to the speedway of a Sunday afternoon.

I joined in a few weeks later, of course. Then, as the older one, I went to work first. On the train I got into conversations with people and one day a friend started raving about how good Frank Matich was in his Lotus 19. This led me to going to Warwick Farm for the first time and you'd have to say I was hooked.

My brothers came with me from time to time, especially as I had a car first. But their interests waned sometimes. One became a fairly serious rally driver and much later (35 years on...) took up racing in a lowly sedan class. The other just tapes every race that's on TV and keeps the tapes in a room more or less dedicated to motor racing tapes. He went to an Adelaide GP, but apart from some Historic meetings never goes to the circuits any more.

As I was constantly travelling to meetings interstate, it was inevitable that I would meet a lot of people. One was Peter Brock, who stayed at our home one night (or at least visited) before he started racing. Later, his racing at Bathurst was a part of my parents' interest increasing enough for them to never miss that race.

My older sister has no interest, though her first husband used to go to the Speedway and she went along (come to think of it, she used to sometimes go in those early days looking for guys...) and younger sister always took an interest in my interest.

But she's terrified now that her eldest son is racing. She says that he's following in my footsteps, but doesn't want to go and watch. But when she does she takes lots of photos...

I once knew someone who thought that Seppi Siffert and Jo Siffert were brothers!!

Without getting too maudlin or turning it into a therapy session I'll say one of the most important things in my life was my older brother getting me interested in motorsports. My childhood was not the greatest as my parents were involved in their own struggles, when I was 12 my brother was a budding 20 year old racing fan. For whatever reason he decided to take me under his wing. He'd take me for rides in his various sports cars, even on weekdays. Suddenly I found myself at the racetrack.....Lime Rock, Watkins Glen....it was awesome! It also created a strong bond of friendship and love that still exists from those events 37 years ago. I so loved camping at the tracks, the travel, the atmosphere....everything! I continued to do it with my wife and step daughters, my nephew, my buddies. Last month my best friend and I did a PDA event at Lime Rock, the 2 of us out on a racetrack for the first time ever, and an even greater bond happened between us, taking our friendship to another level. I would venture to say that my whole personna developed from those early trips to the track, I'll forever be grateful to my brother for taking that shy and directionless kid to the races and giving me something that will last a lifetime.....some of the best moments in my life. Thank you Joe.

Nice

I have two older brothers, one interested in cars and racing (nowadays less, I must confess), the other one not. But first one had last word on name when I was born - he choose Dino, after Ferrari and Fiat models of these times. So I was doomed - there is a picture of me holding Auto Motor und Sport catalogue, barely two years old: all older relatives were fascinated with the fact I could recognize all cars in catalogue at that age! (Well, I can't remember that but I don't believe I knew really all...) At the same age I could recognize any passing car by sound of its engine - not that there were many different cars on the streets in a communist country back then, of course.

Earliest memory I have dates from when I was 3,5 years old and we moved to a new flat, at Veli Losinj. Second one, a few days after that, was driving in a light blue Skoda 1000 MB belonging to previous owner of our new flat. As for motorsport, first thing I remember was a show "Niki Lauda presents fastest cars in the world" at Zagreb fair, in winter after Lauda clinched his first title. Complete F1 grid (who could forget orange March), Le Mans cars, even Bluebird... I still have a clear picture of that show in my mind. At 8 I started buying car magazine (there was only one at the market here back then), not only for motorsport but for the whole car thing. Never looked back since.

So where were my brother, who christened me Dino, and me last night, 34+ years later, when one could assume we should have been totally cured from speed and racing bug? On a highway, of course, testing new VW Golf 2.0 Fsi I'm currently writing about for a magazine. It feels very stable at 200 km/h, I can tell you...