Favorite Racer Quotes

Well it's not a race quote but is relevant"

1) Second Place...........is first among the LOSERS
2) You can live in your car BUT you can't race your house
3) "There are only three true sports: rock climbing, motor racing and bull fighting. All the rest are just games." Hemmingway

Regards,

Jon P. Kofod
www.flatoutracing.net

 

"The deceleration forces in a F1 are so high, that F1 drivers would be flying ahead of their cars while braking if they weren't belted in."

Niki Lauda

 

Also from Niki: "Today`s cars can be driven by monkeys."

Of course a few weeks later he spun off the track three times on the first lap in Jaguars R3.

What's was he implying? That the monkey's were faster then he?

Cheers,

Jon

 

I forgot to turn left...unknown.

 

"I got tired of driving in circles."

Niki Lauda at his first retirement. The man was always good for a foot in mouth quote.

 

Not a racer quote but it fits in well.

By Raul Julia (sp?) ---while ripping the rearview mirror off his car. "The first rule of Italian driving is......(rip off mirror here).....what is behind you does not matter".

 

Another Jeff Gordon / JP Montoya interchange at their car swap (paraphrased):

JPM (speaking after driving Gordons car): 'This car is fast, but it would be quicker if it had better brakes
JG: 'I tell them that every weekend'

From Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain:
Dave, to Jeff Gordon: 'So do you think you'll ever drive at Indianapolis 500?'
Jeff: (laughing) 'would rather drive the US Grand Prix.....'

When driving formula 1, at Lotus I think, Mario Andretti could not remember how the suspension control lever affected the shock rate. Exasperated, the engineer said 'Look Mario, you push it in it's hard, you pull it out it's soft...'
Mario understood that.

 

Interview with a dirt track racer after flipping his car

TV man What happened out there

Driver I wrecked the fu__king car

 

Niki Lauda about F1 drivers' concerns regarding car safety:

"If it would make them any faster, they'd be willing to sit on top of the front nose."

 

from the late great henry manney III : "a race without ferrari is like an egg without salt"........

 

"You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel..."
-Darrell Waltrip

 

Eddie Irvine talking about a 512BB he wanted to sell:

Although she is 20, she is great and we had a great fun. The car is not bad too.

 

not directly from a "racer"
steve mcqueen in le mans
"when you're racing, that's life; everything that comes before or after is just waiting"
truer words have never been spoken

 

when i went to a skip barber 3 day session, Boris Saiid said to us:
'the track is just a bunch of straights linked together by annoying corners'.

he was generally pretty crazy. took us out in the 14 person van to show us the line and nearly flipped it he took the corners so hard.

 

Reminds me of my Skip Barber class. Famous quote from that one was: "Only a screeching tire is a happy tire."

 

how about "I live my life a quarter mile at a time" ooo..

 

yah... that's right up there with the canyon carver/drifter crowd of monkeys.

 

Actually this quote is attributed to Rudolph Carracciola . The movie ripped it off.

 

Somehow I never bought into this one: Just listen to one of the press conferences AFTER a race and you'll have more excuses and explanations than speculations BEFORE the race. It's appauling. Prost comes to my mind immediately.

 

Stirling Moss:

In order to finish first, you first have to finish.

&

It's immaterial which way the nose of the car is pointing, provided the car is traveling in the right direction.

I LOVE that last one.

Jack