Be it in my personal or professional life, I've always thought of amateurs as people who do things, well, not so well. In fact, Houghton Mifflin defines amateur, in part, as "one lacking the skill of a professional" (noun) and "not professional; unskillful" (adjective).
We've all hear the word "amateurish" often in conjunction with "behavior" or "work"...and that's the way I've always thought of amateur car racing. That is until I've gotten involved with SCCA "amateur" racing this year.
Maybe it's because I'm racing in Spec Miata but I suspect it's across the board. The guys I'm going up against are a far cry from the actual definition of amateur. The way Danny Steyn, Cliff Brown and other front-runners fly past me as I'm being lapped is absolutely astonishing. It can be downright scary how fast these guys are flinging their Miatas through the turns while, at the same time, I feel like I'm on edge flinging mine through the turns!
I see these guys' corner apex speeds and overall data and know without a doubt that the front-runner Spec Miata guys could go head-to-head with front-running professionals in any other racing series given the same equipment. There's no doubt in my mind.
Knowing what I now know, I'm going to stop referring to SCCA (again, especially Spec Miata) racing as "amateur racing". It's really not. Yeah, we all have our careers outside of racing and there's not much money in the races that do pay like Pro-IT...but there's got to be a better way to define what we do.
The driving, the racecraft, the willing assistance in the paddock are all top-notch professional in my book. Great stuff.
I race because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things...
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