A Born-and-Raised Car Guy.(competitions of car racing)(Column)

Byline: KC Crain

No one can explain how it works. Either you have it or you don't. Is it genetic, or are you actually raised to become a car guy?

I was thinking about this as some guys in our car club were talking about shows they planned to attend this summer. There was talk of the usual NSRA and Goodguys shows, and a few were going to check out the Billetproof event for the rat-rod crowd. And there was the discussion that takes place every year about the Pebble Beach/Dream Cruise conflict. Why they haven't figured out how to schedule those events on different weekends is beyond me. That's worth a whole column in itself.

I've been around these discussions for most of my life. As I thought about this, I laughed about how my mom thinks most of us car folk are insane.

I grew up in a household where cars were always a big part of most things we did. We had more Christmas card photos taken in front of cars than not. I always received more comments about the car than the people, whether it was a '51 Ford convertible or my brother's '32 Chevy.

At 13, when other kids were out doing whatever other 13-year-olds do, I was dumping coolant all over the garage floor, learning an important ...