Thursday 17 June 2010

The Hare and the Tortoise

Some of you might have noticed an absence of recent posts. Some of you will have realised that this once again coincided with the running of the Le Mans 24 hour race.

What a race it was.

The Pugs appeared to unbeatable, until their engines blew up. The Audis seemed to have an impossible target, until somehow their reliability delivered a 1-2-3 podium finish.

A little bit of me felt this was a hollow victory, until I realised Audi won having covered an incredible record distance. They did not luck into this victory.

And then there were lots of interesting discussions about how a class win compared to an overall win.

But beyond anything else there was that over-riding commitment to doing the best you possibly can.

I had dinner on Sunday night with the Autocon Lola mechanics.

They had come all the way from the USA to see their car do...6 miles...less than a single lap of the Le Mans circuit.

The messages I would love to get out to you is this:

Racers get excited.Racers are driven by a motive that other people don't get.

Racers, although they are driven by winning, don't need to win.

Racers appreciate the effort needed to win, and above everything else, care about trying.

2 comments:

  1. The camaraderie of folks like that tells the tale. When you see the winners and losers together later, all clearly having enjoyed the day, you know its all about being there, not being first.

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  2. Rick,

    Absolutely. As usual I was sat in front of the Peugeot pits and the Audi guys were amongst the first to commiserate with them.

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