Talladega in the Desert

(courtesy ABQ Journal who got it courtesy the "Rocket Racing League"..it's "the NASCAR in the sky" you know)

I'm searching the web but I can't find a link to a really good ABC Wide World of Sports tribute site. I hazily remember, however, that in between Jim McKay announcing ice skating barrel jumps, car demolition derbies, Evel Kneivel, and that guy who supposedly caught bullets in his teeth while wearing some sort of Liberace cape outfit that the show used to also have airplane races. Remember? Help me out here, but I recall these little planes flew a large course marked with some sort of pylons like a huge high-altitude giant slalom course. Combined with 1970s TV technology, the event made for some of the worst visual impact sports ever. You could never tell what the hell was going on, but the announcers treated it as every bit as important as the Acapulco Cliff Diving Championships.

And now "Rocket Racing". I'm speechless about it at present, but can't stop grinning at the sheer gall involved. And yes, this sport might be the first video game in reverse in history. Instead of sport first, video game and video game screen shot second, "rocket racing" will have 15 years of video games & screen shots, then become an actual sport. But is there really a difference?

Oh, I can think of a few, such as the outcome when these "sky NASCAR" folks "trade paint" as they say at Talladega and Martinsville. But overall, I'm just admiring the gall at this point.