Curves – The Österreichring – Austrian Grand Prix 1985
In 1967 I attended my first road race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington Ohio. The racetrack is surrounded by farmland in beautiful rolling hills about halfway between Cleveland and Columbus. It was a National Sports Car Club of America event and I snuck through some catch fencing on the side of the bridge across from the pits. At the start of a Formula Car heat the field thundered through the first corner just a few feet away from me and I could see into the cockpits as the drivers fought for position. I had never experienced anything so exciting. As each classification of cars raced I wandered the course viewing the action from different vantage points and experienced a second epiphany. Watching a race car move through the curves of the landscape was immensely pleasurable. Years later I would articulate the feeling as an aesthetic response to the elegance of the arc of the car through the turn. Like a beautiful curve drawn by an artist on on paper or canvas the geometric perfection of the line is thrilling.
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