The Pitstop

Jack Baruth
by Jack Baruth

This isn’t quite in time for Father’s Day, mostly because it took me a little bit of time to get permission to use the photos, but these photos of club racer Mark Domo and his son Tyler working the pitlane at the recent Grand-Am Continental Challenge are timeless examples of how motorsports bring generations of men together.

Mark wrote to me that he and his son

… were given the honor of being part of the pit crew for the Grand Am races at MidOhio Sports Course.

It was a great opportunity to spend time with my son and to share some of my passion. It was my son’s first exposure to a race of this magnitude. While my boys accompany me to club racing events, neither of my boys had ever been to a pro racing event like this. We had Tyler help us with miscellaneous tasks in the paddock and had him operate the “lollipop” which makes the pit space more visible as the car pulls into pit row.

I can’t wait until my son’s old enough to work a pitlane with me… and by “work a pitlane with me” I mean “do tire changes during NASA enduros and help me from my wheelchair to the race car.”

Jack Baruth
Jack Baruth

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  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jun 29, 2013

    By the time your son is old enough to change a tire in the pit, science will have developed an exoskeleton for you to wear that will look like you when you were twenty. At least, that's what the Singularity proponents keep telling me. I keep asking, "I'll be like a twenty year old again - in all respects?" and look down at my crotch. They fall silent.

  • Mcarr Mcarr on Jul 01, 2013

    Nice use of HDR in the photos.

  • TheEndlessEnigma I'm sure the rise in driving infractions in Minnesota has nothing to do with all the learing centers.
  • Plaincraig 06 PT Cruiser 214k miles. 24MPG with a 50/50 highway city driving. One new radiator was the only thing replaced from failure at 80k.Regular maintenance and new radiator hoses and struts at 100k. Head gasket failed blew out the camshaft seals and the rear seal failed too. Being able to remove the backseats was wonderful. The ride was fine. Took an exit ramp and twice the rated speed and some kid in a Mazda 3Speed rolled down his window and asked what I done to make it handle like that. I said "Its all stock and Walmart tires. I know how to drive not just go fast."
  • Flashindapan Corey, I increasingly find your installments to be the only reason I check back here from time to time.
  • SCE to AUX The first couple generations of Prius were maligned by association with a certain stereotype owner. But you can't deny their economy and reliability is the envy of the automobile world. It's rare for an EV to match the TCO of a Prius. From personal experience, the first-gen Nissan Leaf. Yes, they looked like a frog and their batteries degraded, but the car was ultra-reliable, well-built, and smooth driving, and was a good introduction to electric motoring for its time.
  • DungBeetle62 Mercury Capri. It was never conceived to be an updated Lotus Elan/Brit RWD Roadster with Japanese reliability as the Miata was. If you just treated it as a more fun and airy commute than the Tracer/323 its bones came from - it was pretty quick with the turbo (for the era) and enjoyable. And you still had some Mazda reliability under the skin. Yes, I owned one. But let's just say I'm not perusing Bring a Trailer looking for used examples in decent shape.
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