Trouble Family Racing Geneology, Explained

My great-grandmother was a Colby, of the short-lived Iowa company Colby Motors, producer of the fantastic Red Devil racer.

My uncle Don built buggy racers and raced them in the desert, and drag raced funny cars and hot rods in contests (legit and under the radar) all over the Southwest and at Bonneville and Las Vegas. The photos he has of those days are breathtaking.

My mother is a Corvette fanatic and, at 67 years old, races her Z06 at Spring Hill. My father races his Miata all over rural Pennsylvania, spooking the horse-and-buggy crowd and terrifying the minivans with his skilled, leaden feet. My brother-in-law is a NASCAR groupie (Rusy Wallace is his favorite) and a former sport bike racer (until my little sister made him stop). My son favors Lamborghini in his Hot Wheels/Matchbox collection and is more knowledgeable about cars than most of the automotive "experts" I interview.

I tried to soup-up Barbie's pink convertible, and had an unrelenting passion for the stupid Delorean. A poster of which had a prominent position on my wall, next to Led Zeppelin and Sean Cassidy. I have always driven like I'm trying to keep my lead in the Paris-Dakar rally.

What did you expect me to be, a clerk at Express?