Racing In The Street
“Some guys come home from work and wash up, then go racing in the street.” - Bruce Springsteen
I wish I had a dollar for every internet comment I've read criticizing specialty equipment in shooting sports, usually meant as a criticism of the shooting sports themselves. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just click the link and peruse the comments about Jerry Miculek’s shotgun magazine extension in this social media post from Magpul…you won’t have any difficulty finding naysayers.
I remember once showing a friend a video of Jessie Harrison competing in USPSA with an open gun, on her way to becoming the first female to ever qualify as Grand Master (that’s the top 5%, regardless of gender) in that sport. He snorted and said something about how much easier it was with “all that fancy gear.” I asked if he was suggesting that he could do just as well if Jessie loaned him her rig, and he suddenly became all mumble, mumble, unintelligible…
“Well, I might not be able to shoot quite as well, even with Jessie’s fancy equipment, but mumble, mumble…
It’s a silly argument, really. It would be the same as insisting that what makes a great NASCAR driver is the car…and not the driver. Do we really think that the only difference between ourselves and Aryton Senna is our lack of a good F1 car? Of course not. They’re better drivers, and we all know it.
Just another driver? Nah…he’s going to be better than you no matter what car he’s in.
Thinking that there might be some pretty good parallels between racing cars and racing guns…and the people who drive both of them, I reached out to an old friend of mine, Terrance, who races in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events on a regular basis. He explained to me that the type of racing he competes in is done solo, on a closed course for time…which sounds an awful lot like a USPSA stage to me. The course of fire…er, driving…is laid out with cones, and the goal is to complete it as quickly as possible. Hit a cone and you earn a time penalty which affects your standing…much like missing a target or hitting a no-shoot in USPSA.
Terrance doing his thing. And I’ll bet that even if I got to drive his Porsche…he’d still beat me. Just like Jerry Miculek and Jessie Harrison would still beat me even if I were shooting their guns.
Terrance went on to explain that there are also equipment divisions…just like in USPSA. Divisions allow or disallow certain modifications to the cars in order to level the playing field as much as possible within that division. His particular division, he explained, allows only minor modifications to include improved shocks and the addition of sway bars and racing tires (with some limitations). Sound like USPSA Production Division to you? It does to me. You don’t have to compete in Open Division, you know.
Then I popped the $64,000 question: Are drivers who race better than drivers who don’t? Terrance’s response was that as far as being able to get the best performance out of their particular equipment…yes.
“We understand the full range of how our cars handle with extreme acceleration, braking, and lateral Gs. We literally drive our cars to the limit of adhesion and control to get the best possible time. We do it in dry and wet conditions and we learn exactly how our cars will react in skids wet or dry. We learn the limits of braking and the dynamics of whatever car we drive, front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, each with different dynamics.”
He went on to explain that the skills gained didn’t necessarily mean that a driver wouldn’t run a stop sign (obey the law) or have difficulty dealing with other drivers on the road (tactical sense), but that, “There is no better training for driving an automobile in my opinion anywhere.”
I believe that competitive practical pistol shooting provides the same opportunity to those wishing to improve their skill with a handgun. Yes, specialized gear provides some competitive advantage (within the competitive division it is designed for), but having a highly modified gun does not impart the skill to operate it safely and competently…just like a race car. But if you are skilled with racing gear, you’re probably going to be better with your everyday gear, too. Although she may compete with a full race gun in Open Division, I’m pretty sure Jessie Harrison could outshoot me with a Ruger LCP…and I’ll bet Jerry Miculek could out-shotgun me with an out-of-the-box Mossberg 500.
Future SCCA driver?
So even though we don’t race guns or cars “in the street,” we can still take advantage of the advanced practice provided in the specialized environment of racing and benefit off the course from the improved skills we gain there. So you really should go racing…just not in the street.
