Do you remember the moment when enthusiasm for motorsports exploded inside you? Or at least started to smolder? Some of us may have been born burning, in terms of our passion for racing, but probably most needed the right mixture of circumstance and spark. Understanding this combustive process should be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of the sport. We wonder: Is it losing its appeal for today’s younger people? Can we somehow excite more of them? Keep racing…

A Cooper-Triumph being push-started at Thompson, Connecticut, circa 1952. Pete is probably up in the grandstand, drawing pictures of wild animals.
Photo: Ozzie Lyons / www.petelyons.com