Paul Tracy on Ricers!
02-07-2003, 03:02 PM
#1
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Paul Tracy on Ricers!
<a href="http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...orts/AutoRacing" target="_blank">http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...orts/AutoRacing</a>
"Sometimes the Asian kids when I'm driving my Porsche, you get these Asian kids in the Hondas with the wings on the back. But they want to race anybody. They'll race a bicycler. I don't really get that."
"Sometimes the Asian kids when I'm driving my Porsche, you get these Asian kids in the Hondas with the wings on the back. But they want to race anybody. They'll race a bicycler. I don't really get that."
02-07-2003, 03:54 PM
#2
King of Cool
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<img border="0" alt="[hiha]" title="" src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[hiha]" title="" src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[hiha]" title="" src="graemlins/roflmao.gif" />
He's the man!
He's the man!
02-07-2003, 04:04 PM
#3
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soon2be993TT, your link is wrong...
Life in the fast lane
Dec. 31, 2002. 09:04 AM
Race-car driver and Toronto native Paul Tracy talks about goals, marriage and living in Las Vegas
By Chris Young
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Paul Tracy has never been a guy to stay in one place for too long.
Even when he's at home, he's on the move, cycling to keep in shape, or going out on the town — and in Las Vegas, there's no shortage of town to go out on. With a new deal driving for the Canadian-based Player's team, he's been back to Toronto three times already since the CART season ended. We flagged him down for a ride during one such journey back to hear about his need for speed.
Q Are you a New Year's resolution guy?
A A little bit. It's hard to follow through on all that stuff. You always make yourself a bunch of promises, but never seem to keep them. I think the same as everyone's — lose 10 pounds, make more money, take more vacations, things like that. I never end up doing it, or at least not to the magnitude that you always want. Maybe you do reach your goals, but when you do, you reach for higher ones.
Q Do you make New Year's a big deal?
A It's a nice time to have a good party, and have a good time. I don't go too overboard. I don't want to feel like crap for five days, just for one night. This year I think we're going to the club at Mandalay Bay (in Las Vegas). My girlfriend Simona is setting it all up. She just kind of puts me on a leash and I go.
Q You've been married twice. Any plans for a third?
A I'm not really sure, you never know. But I'm not ready to right now. Things are going fine the way it is. Nothing's going to change.
Q You've lived in Vegas for five years. What's it been like?
A I don't live by the Strip. I'm about 20 minutes away. Patrick Carpentier, Jimmy Vassar, me, we live within a couple of minutes of each other. Alex Tagliani lives there as well. It's a nice place to live. For one, the taxes are good there.
Q Is there a co-relation between Vegas and race-car drivers, with all those you mentioned living there?
A I think it's just a convenient place to travel in and out of. You can fly direct everywhere. The weather is pretty consistent for doing things outdoors.
Q Or indoors, with the gambling.
A The tourists are gambling. I'm not really into gambling. I see how quickly casinos are built, and they're built off gamblers' money.
Q Has your approach changed to your job as you've gotten older?
A I don't think so. The safety of the cars has improved tenfold, since I started racing in CART. I don't think I'd be able to compete at the level I compete at if I thought, `Oh, maybe I'm going to crash if I try to pass this guy.' It's just something at this stage of my life that hasn't come into my mind yet. Maybe it will when I'm older. That's probably the time when you stop. That's probably the way it will happen.
Q How many cars do you have at home?
A Three cars — an X5 truck, a Mercedes and a Porsche 911 Turbo.
Q Have you ever let the Porsche go, out in the desert?
A I have, but only once. I don't want to lose my licence.
Q How fast did it go?
A 193 (miles per hour).
Q You've also got motorcycles.
A Yes, a street bike — a Honda RC51 — and a custom Harley. I can go out and hit the road, and right behind my house I'm in the desert. I don't ride as much as I used to. In the summer the motorbikes get overheated, in the fall and spring it's a good time to ride my bicycle.
Q When you're out on the road driving, do people say hey, that's Paul Tracy?
A Not in Vegas.
Q What about challenges to drag race?
A Sometimes the Asian kids when I'm driving my Porsche, you get these Asian kids in the Hondas with the wings on the back. But they want to race anybody. They'll race a bicycler. I don't really get that.
Q When you come back to Toronto, is there one thing you have to do, or one person you have to call?
A I always got to talk to my parents. My mom lives in Florida, she was just at my house for U.S. Thanksgiving. My dad, I have to call him for sure. My mom lives in Florida in the winter, she hates the cold. She'll come back once a month to do my dad's books. She actually gets to more of my races than my dad does. She saw eight last year. With his work, my dad could only get to a couple.
Q What about your old haunts in West Hill?
A There's not much to see there, really. All the go-kart tracks I drove at were out of town — places like Whitby and Goodwood. When I was a kid I really didn't have a lot of time for partying or hanging out. On weekends I was away racing. I went to the odd house party. A lot of my friends were not just from one high school — there were four or five high schools around where I lived and everybody kind of intermingled. I went to Laurier, we'd go to parties over at Woburn, or other people's areas.
Q What's the most misunderstood thing about you?
A A lot of people just see me at the races. I'm pretty serious about what I do. I don't spend a lot of time, when I have my race face on I seem maybe a little bit unapproachable. But I'm really not like that away from the racetrack. I'm pretty easygoing and mild-mannered, but at the racetrack I'm real serious about what I do. People maybe find it a bit tough to come up to me.
Q That's where the hothead reputation comes from?
A Yes, I think so. Car racing is a lot different than most sports. The general fan can't get into a CFL players' locker room, or a hockey players' locker room, and go up and say, `Can I have an autograph?' two minutes before the guy's going out on the ice. I think if you did that to a hockey player he'd turn around and punch you in the mouth.Q You've always had that superstition of getting in the car from the left-hand side. Where did that come from?
A I once did it from the right side, and I crashed and broke my leg. At Michigan Speedway in '91.
Q What would you have ended up doing if you hadn't done racing?
A I would've been working for my dad's construction company. That's definitely not what I wanted to do. I did it in the summers enough to know that.
Q What's the most embarrassing moment you can remember?
A I was 17, and I wrecked my mom's car. She ... was coming back from Florida, and it was a Christmas present for her, just sitting in the driveway waiting for her.
It was Christmas Eve, and my dad asked me to go get some milk, and I said, `Why not take the new car?' He said sure. I got a couple of my buddies and we went to my high school parking lot, and I'm doing some fancy manoeuvres imagining myself as some hotshot driver — and I wrapped the car around a tree. My dad wasn't very impressed. The phone call from the payphone at the store wasn't very comfortable for me. My dad didn't speak to me for three months after that.
Q This is down time for you. How do you relax?
A I get up in the morning and I make myself some oatmeal, turn on the computer and fire up the Internet. I like to go to CART.com, Velo news for cycling stuff, Auto Racing One, a new site for general news. I'll have a two-hour bike ride, then meet up with my girlfriend for lunch, maybe go to the gym and in the evening, a movie.
Q Anything in particular?
A Whatever's popular. Punch-Drunk Love was pretty funny. That's my kind of humour, even if my girlfriend didn't get it.
Life in the fast lane
Dec. 31, 2002. 09:04 AM
Race-car driver and Toronto native Paul Tracy talks about goals, marriage and living in Las Vegas
By Chris Young
SPORTS COLUMNIST
Paul Tracy has never been a guy to stay in one place for too long.
Even when he's at home, he's on the move, cycling to keep in shape, or going out on the town — and in Las Vegas, there's no shortage of town to go out on. With a new deal driving for the Canadian-based Player's team, he's been back to Toronto three times already since the CART season ended. We flagged him down for a ride during one such journey back to hear about his need for speed.
Q Are you a New Year's resolution guy?
A A little bit. It's hard to follow through on all that stuff. You always make yourself a bunch of promises, but never seem to keep them. I think the same as everyone's — lose 10 pounds, make more money, take more vacations, things like that. I never end up doing it, or at least not to the magnitude that you always want. Maybe you do reach your goals, but when you do, you reach for higher ones.
Q Do you make New Year's a big deal?
A It's a nice time to have a good party, and have a good time. I don't go too overboard. I don't want to feel like crap for five days, just for one night. This year I think we're going to the club at Mandalay Bay (in Las Vegas). My girlfriend Simona is setting it all up. She just kind of puts me on a leash and I go.
Q You've been married twice. Any plans for a third?
A I'm not really sure, you never know. But I'm not ready to right now. Things are going fine the way it is. Nothing's going to change.
Q You've lived in Vegas for five years. What's it been like?
A I don't live by the Strip. I'm about 20 minutes away. Patrick Carpentier, Jimmy Vassar, me, we live within a couple of minutes of each other. Alex Tagliani lives there as well. It's a nice place to live. For one, the taxes are good there.
Q Is there a co-relation between Vegas and race-car drivers, with all those you mentioned living there?
A I think it's just a convenient place to travel in and out of. You can fly direct everywhere. The weather is pretty consistent for doing things outdoors.
Q Or indoors, with the gambling.
A The tourists are gambling. I'm not really into gambling. I see how quickly casinos are built, and they're built off gamblers' money.
Q Has your approach changed to your job as you've gotten older?
A I don't think so. The safety of the cars has improved tenfold, since I started racing in CART. I don't think I'd be able to compete at the level I compete at if I thought, `Oh, maybe I'm going to crash if I try to pass this guy.' It's just something at this stage of my life that hasn't come into my mind yet. Maybe it will when I'm older. That's probably the time when you stop. That's probably the way it will happen.
Q How many cars do you have at home?
A Three cars — an X5 truck, a Mercedes and a Porsche 911 Turbo.
Q Have you ever let the Porsche go, out in the desert?
A I have, but only once. I don't want to lose my licence.
Q How fast did it go?
A 193 (miles per hour).
Q You've also got motorcycles.
A Yes, a street bike — a Honda RC51 — and a custom Harley. I can go out and hit the road, and right behind my house I'm in the desert. I don't ride as much as I used to. In the summer the motorbikes get overheated, in the fall and spring it's a good time to ride my bicycle.
Q When you're out on the road driving, do people say hey, that's Paul Tracy?
A Not in Vegas.
Q What about challenges to drag race?
A Sometimes the Asian kids when I'm driving my Porsche, you get these Asian kids in the Hondas with the wings on the back. But they want to race anybody. They'll race a bicycler. I don't really get that.
Q When you come back to Toronto, is there one thing you have to do, or one person you have to call?
A I always got to talk to my parents. My mom lives in Florida, she was just at my house for U.S. Thanksgiving. My dad, I have to call him for sure. My mom lives in Florida in the winter, she hates the cold. She'll come back once a month to do my dad's books. She actually gets to more of my races than my dad does. She saw eight last year. With his work, my dad could only get to a couple.
Q What about your old haunts in West Hill?
A There's not much to see there, really. All the go-kart tracks I drove at were out of town — places like Whitby and Goodwood. When I was a kid I really didn't have a lot of time for partying or hanging out. On weekends I was away racing. I went to the odd house party. A lot of my friends were not just from one high school — there were four or five high schools around where I lived and everybody kind of intermingled. I went to Laurier, we'd go to parties over at Woburn, or other people's areas.
Q What's the most misunderstood thing about you?
A A lot of people just see me at the races. I'm pretty serious about what I do. I don't spend a lot of time, when I have my race face on I seem maybe a little bit unapproachable. But I'm really not like that away from the racetrack. I'm pretty easygoing and mild-mannered, but at the racetrack I'm real serious about what I do. People maybe find it a bit tough to come up to me.
Q That's where the hothead reputation comes from?
A Yes, I think so. Car racing is a lot different than most sports. The general fan can't get into a CFL players' locker room, or a hockey players' locker room, and go up and say, `Can I have an autograph?' two minutes before the guy's going out on the ice. I think if you did that to a hockey player he'd turn around and punch you in the mouth.Q You've always had that superstition of getting in the car from the left-hand side. Where did that come from?
A I once did it from the right side, and I crashed and broke my leg. At Michigan Speedway in '91.
Q What would you have ended up doing if you hadn't done racing?
A I would've been working for my dad's construction company. That's definitely not what I wanted to do. I did it in the summers enough to know that.
Q What's the most embarrassing moment you can remember?
A I was 17, and I wrecked my mom's car. She ... was coming back from Florida, and it was a Christmas present for her, just sitting in the driveway waiting for her.
It was Christmas Eve, and my dad asked me to go get some milk, and I said, `Why not take the new car?' He said sure. I got a couple of my buddies and we went to my high school parking lot, and I'm doing some fancy manoeuvres imagining myself as some hotshot driver — and I wrapped the car around a tree. My dad wasn't very impressed. The phone call from the payphone at the store wasn't very comfortable for me. My dad didn't speak to me for three months after that.
Q This is down time for you. How do you relax?
A I get up in the morning and I make myself some oatmeal, turn on the computer and fire up the Internet. I like to go to CART.com, Velo news for cycling stuff, Auto Racing One, a new site for general news. I'll have a two-hour bike ride, then meet up with my girlfriend for lunch, maybe go to the gym and in the evening, a movie.
Q Anything in particular?
A Whatever's popular. Punch-Drunk Love was pretty funny. That's my kind of humour, even if my girlfriend didn't get it.
02-08-2003, 10:07 AM
#4
Track Day
Join Date: Dec 2002
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How racist. There's tons of white, black and mexican ricers. I'm sure I'd be way more upset if I was asian but still. What a comment.
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by soon2be993TT:
<strong><a href="http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...orts/AutoRacing" target="_blank">http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...orts/AutoRacing</a>
"Sometimes the Asian kids when I'm driving my Porsche, you get these Asian kids in the Hondas with the wings on the back. But they want to race anybody. They'll race a bicycler. I don't really get that."</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by soon2be993TT:
<strong><a href="http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...orts/AutoRacing" target="_blank">http://waymoresports.thestar.com/NA...orts/AutoRacing</a>
"Sometimes the Asian kids when I'm driving my Porsche, you get these Asian kids in the Hondas with the wings on the back. But they want to race anybody. They'll race a bicycler. I don't really get that."</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">
02-08-2003, 02:07 PM
#5
Three Wheelin'
I think Paul maybe a bit bitter due to Honda dropping him and the entire CART program, and moving on to build engines for Indy cars. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />
