From me he would get "Turn that off" before even Good Morning.

But, now you got me wondering. Because, its now been some years since I was instructing. Years in which The Suicide of Western Civilization has been proceeding apace. So help me out here. Back when I was instructing, if some joker was playing music in his car, even in the pits, he'd be getting so many dirty looks from so many people even the most detached aloof arrogant poser would have figured out he badly misjudged the situation and turned it off long before I'd even have the chance to set him straight. But since then, like I said, standards falling left and right, spiraling straight in to the abyss. And for evidence, the track video posted here on RL of a guy in shorts and tank top with beads and stuff dangling from the rear view, waving his arms around as he chats up his girlfriend sitting right beside him. So now since you are still doing this (respect for that) I have to ask, would pulling a stunt like this still be seen as the uber faux pas that it is? Or have we sunk so far its now to be expected that people won't have even this much of a clue?

 

 

I like to crank up my stereo while waiting in the paddock but turn it off as soon as we get the green light to enter the track. Usually my early punk playlist.

 

Depends on the track and event organizer. Some tracks are more lenient than others.

My best story on that is with VIR, where we went on an impossibly hot and humid summer weekend several years ago with the Audi Club. None of us instructor types even took long sleeve shirts - it was over 100 degrees and we were used to going to Summit Point, where they didn't care. Get to the first track day morning and the VIR pit boss says at the Instructor meeting "NO SHORT SLEEVES" and certainly no shorts. Great. Wonderful. We need long sleeves, 100% cotton and of course long pants. So a bunch of us instructor types jumped in someone's BMW and headed to Wal Mart in Danville as fast as we could and we were all grumbling at how hot it was to wear blue jeans and long sleeve denim shirts, etc. So I got the bright idea once in the store that we would buy Pajamas instead. Long Sleeves, 100% Cotton and half the weight. So there were five instructors that showed up on the hot pits grid in the brightest pajamas we could find to uproarious laughter and much guffawing. The VIR Track Stewards were not amused as CLEARLY we met the letter of the rules but not the spirit. We did the whole weekend in those pajamas.

 

Right. But that was a rule. I was never talking about rules. I was talking about something far more important than rules. I'm talking about expectations. Like, you expect that everyone there is serious, focused, attentive. Because, if even one is not, 450 hp, 150 mph, awful lot of mayhem can happen awful fast. Now you can wear Nomex, or pajamas, and still focus. Still be serious. Attentive. But, music? Playing music says, anything but.