Eye hand coordination and reaction time are other characteristics fans mention when they contend that driving a race car is an athletic endeavor. Again, let s back up for a moment. My late father, Jack Evans, raced at Fredericksburg Speedway for a couple of years during the 1950s. I have not been disrespectful in questioning whether race-car drivers are athletes. Some of those games require athletic ability, some don t.
Reasonable people can argue about which category racing falls under.
My opinion was changed by recent conversations with Eddie Payne, Jimmy Dillard and Lionel Johnson, all of whom drove at Fredericksburg Speedway and live locally. At 80, Payne is a fit-looking man who plays a lot of golf and is good at it. As a young man, he was a boxer. Looking back, Payne said he was a risk-taker who liked to compete. Speed was not something that entered his mind during a race, however.