The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

You can have your Super Bowl and Pro Bowl … racing season is about to begin!

Admitting you have a problem is the first step, right? Hello, my name is Tammy, and I’m a racing addict. Why that should be the case, I haven’t the faintest idea. But I really love racing.

What I like the most is sportscar racing, particularly the endurance races. Because those races feature three to five drivers sharing a single car and driving around a track for as much as 24 hours. The car has to turn on and off every hour or so while it’s fueled (usually), but otherwise, it has to run the entire time. Fast. At the limit of its capabilities. And one of the drivers has to be in there the whole time. Focusing on driving fast. At the limit of his (or her) capabilities. Honestly, I think it’s a freaking miracle that cars and humans are still functioning at all at the end of that.

So while football fanatics are watching their all-star game this weekend, I’ll be watching one of my own. The 24 Hours of Daytona isn’t really an all-star race, but almost all the stars are going to be there, because it’s a race that everyone wants to win. Teams from every corner of the racing world (OK, except Formula 1) field entries and Grand-Am series regulars recruit extra drivers—so you’ll see NASCAR stars sharing cars with Indy champions and sportscar legends, as well as pro-am or “gentlemen” drivers. You’ll even catch a glimpse of McDreamy himself, who runs a team in the series.

Next Saturday to Sunday (the 29^th to 30^th), noon to noon, you know where I’ll be for the 14 hours of coverage that SPEED promises. I’ll be glued to the team drama, the mechanical failures, the tired drivers, the crew sleeping in the pits at 5 a.m., and the final triumph of two teams (one in each class). Plus I’ll be ignoring the disgusted looks my husband gives me by about Sunday morning at 10 a.m.

I can quit anytime. Really.