Open-Wheels

Imagine if you wanted to play Basketball in High School you had to fork out over $100,000 to the school. Then to play in College you needed to pay over $700,000, just to get a spot on the team. Now, if you want to enter the NBA, no matter how good a player you are, somehow, you have to come up with $3,000,000 plus to secure your spot. That’s crazy right? How many people can do that? Well that is the situation in auto racing worldwide. Always has been, always will be.

Does that stop me? HELL NO!

If you had asked me back in February I would have told you I thought I had it all figured out. We nearly had a large sponsor signing on the dotted line, but just as I would have triumphantly proclaimed that to you, shortly after, I would have looked like the proverbial idiot. The deal fell apart.

So it didn’t quite come together this time but I take comfort in the fact that we came so close. No cigar just yet but I did get the faintest whiff of its peppery, earthy and aged aroma – and that vague sense of “nearly” making it, gives me hope that I’m on the right path to finding that Mr. Right.

No doubt this is a tough sport. The dollar always speaks louder than the resume  but I’m not going to sit here and moan about it. I’m going to embrace the challenge and knock on every door – bang on it even, perhaps i’ll attempt to break a few down – eventually one will open. And when it does I will be ready to walk in confident, prepared and focused. One of these days I will walk out with a deal to get back behind the wheel of an IZOD IndyCar – and that thought alone keeps me going.

I have a fantastic group of guys working with me on this quest and you will see me back on the track very soon – I really hope I don’t have to eat those words like last February and return to being that proverbial idiot again – but I believe.

In the mean time, I have a few fun things going on. I have been doing a lot of driver coaching, utilizing my new software, which allows me to overlay video of 2 drivers and analyze the difference between them – like a ghosting effect. This is a pretty rare software to help drivers and engineers see where those crucial, subtle differences are between their competition.

I have also been partaking as an instructor in various teen safety driving schools – most notably with a new school that opened up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway called “Miles Ahead”. In these schools we take kids who have just passed their test and teach them how to control a car in evasive situations, prove to them how dangerous distractions are and help prevent them from becoming one of the eye watering statistics of teen drivers that are injured or killed in car crashes every year.

Also keeping me busy, with a new love I have recently developed, is writing and I have been fortunate for Yahoo! Autos to take me on reviewing various vehicles for their Motoramic blog. So far, I have reviewed the new 2013 Ford Mustang, Nissan GT-R and will be doing the Porsche Boxster in the next month also. This has quickly become one of the most enjoyable things I have done. Mix in my love of writing – although I am still learning A LOT about this – driving fast cars and discovering a vehicles true essence and you have a very happy Mr. Lloyd. I hope to become a regular in the auto writing industry and this is a great start.

So as you can tell, I am trying to keep myself busy and keep working on the task at hand of getting me back in a race car. I want a taste of that sweet cigar and I’m not stopping until I get a drag. All I need is that right opportunity to present itself – and if it does – i’ll be ready to throw it down in the final seconds of the 4th, hit that winning 3-pointer and remember how lucky I am to be a part of this crazy, magical sport we all love so much.

 

 

 

 

Tags: alex lloyd, blog, indy 500, indycar, motorsport, race car driver