Racing Towards the Big Time?

Henry Ford couldn't possibly have imagined that men would want to drive automobiles as fast as possible around a course when he tinkered with horseless carriages before the turn of the century. When Daimler and Benz, those great German mechanics, put together their first cars in the 1880s, they certainly didn't have motor racing in mind. Yet since the early days of automobiles, there have been the ordinary passenger cars and, in a class by themselves--the cars designed for racing. Perhaps it is a manifestation of human curiosity and a love of danger, or maybe just an obsession with speed, but in every generation since Ransom E. made his first Olds, a small but dedicated group of people have oriented their lives around one thing--motor racing.

Harvard University, with its highly touted diverse student body, has within its current population two men bitten by the racing bug and actively pursuing careers in the sport. Gordon Medenica '73, a first-year student at the Business School, and David Aronson '79 are manager and assistant manager, respectively, of the Gordon Medenica Motor Racing team. Last season, the Medenica team, piloted by driver Herne, won the New England regional Formula Ford road racing championship.

Most Americans associate racing with either the Indianapolis 500 or Richard Petty and redneck stock car races on Southern oval tracks. Like actors and baseball players, racing enthusiasts are regarded as somewhat declasse. But the Harvard-dominated Medenica team defies all the stereotypes, both in racing style and in personnel. They compete in Formula Ford road racing, on Grand Prix-style courses with single-seat cars equipped with 1600cc. Ford Fiesta motors. While Formula Ford cars can't match the flat-out power of Indy types they still average 90 to 100 mph on twisting, graded courses.

Logically enough, each member of the Medenica team got involved in motor racing through a childhood fascination with automobiles. "I was just always into cars," Medenica says. "At 12, I was into slot cars. When I got my license, I drove fast...it's a long continuum that just kept building." "It's basically the same for me as for Gordon, although I never thought of racing until my brother took me to a race at Watkins Glen, when I figured it was something I wanted to do," Herne says.

Aronson, a Social Studies concentrator and a talented graphic designer, says his fascination with cars dates back to early childhood. In 1975 he worked on Roger Penske's Formula 1 (the big time of inchildhood. In 1975 he worked as a mechanic on Roger Penske's Formula One (the big name of international road racing) team, staying on until driver Mark Donahue died in a practice run crash late in the season. During his freshman year at Harvard he met Medenica on the street in Cambridge, and eventually the team was formed.

of motor racing. "It's one thing to be into S&M here, but motor racing is something entirely beyond their ken," Aronson says. "Part of that is due to their misconceptions about racing--they think it's just going round and round a track." As Herne jokes, "Harvard students automatically put racers on the greaser level."

"I think the response David gets from students is like what I got five years ago," Medenica says. "It was just generally unacceptable." Still, there was a very small group of us into cars. Five years later I'm back at Harvard and I find a lot more positive response. I think it's a combination of the Business School and it being five years later."

A season of racing competition at any level is not just plain fun for these men. Racing requires money, a fact of life that leads to conflicts between their personal politics and the world of racing. "It's a frightening sport. You've got to do everything big money demands to get it," Medenica explains. "A lot of people who are big in racing are big-time fascists. Even in Europe, road-racing itsn't necessarily considered right-on. There's a lot of politics in racing, and for the most part, I don't agree with a lot of the people involved."

"In the United States, road racing types are a lot more liberal," Medenica says. "I don't try to justify it anymore, because I know it satisfies me." Aronson admits to a "constant struggle" between his politics and his racing involvement, but for now he says his commitment to the sport remains strong.

Aronson and Medenica supervise the fund-raising and mechanical aspects of the team, but the really essential member is 23-year-old Herne, whose hair-raising driving exploits earned him the sobriquet "Hero" at the beginning of the season. A soft-spoken native of Williamstown, Mass., Herne is so devoted to the sport that he poured all of his savings into the team. Currently, Herne's finances are so tight that he is forced to sleep on a friend's couch. He is now looking for a job to help meet expenses for next year. Herne says that like every racing driver, he depends on two qualities to be competitive: car control and strategy. Also like every other driver in this frequently over-romanticized sport, he must face the very real possibility of injury. "My first year I had a crash at Lime Rock[a Connecticut track where several New England divisional races are held] in one of the faster corners, and every time I went through that turn later, I felt a little afraid. You have to play little mind games with yourself. Every driver has to deal with the possibility of injury. The concentration involved is so intense, it's hard to describe. One little mistake can really hurt you, so you can't do it half-assed," Herne says.

Medenica, a former driver, knows all too well about what that one little mistake can mean. On Labor Day, 1976, while in third place in New England Formula Ford standings, Medenica crashed in a practice session at Lime Rock, plowing into another car that had spun out into a blind spot over a rise. Medenica's fragile car collapsed around his legs, fracturing both ankles. It was five months before he could walk without rutches, and he may still need another operation to regain full use in his right foot.

Although he could no longer drive, Medenica wanted to stay in motoring racing, so last spring he decided to form a team with Aronson. After shelling out $6000 for a car, the next necessity was a driver. Medenica had seen Herne in races the previous year, so he wrote to the young racer and offered him a job. "The whole thing just snowballed from there," Medenica says. After several fits and starts, the team got untracked late in the spring, racing through mid-September whenever possible. Herne rolled up 30 points to the runner-up's 27 to capture the New England championship, an unusual degree of success for a first-year team with a largely untested driver.

TheFormula Ford division in which the Medenica team competes occupies the bottom rung of the Sports Car Club of America's (SCCA) racing structure. This organization, which sanctions all American road racing and is the official U.S. representative of the international regulatory body of road racing, also sponsors Super Vee and the new Atlantic series, which compares roughly to European Formula Two. In all, the SCCA covers 28 classes of racing, from weekend drivers to professionals. In every class, racers must begin at the regional level of competition. There are 80 regions in the United States, among which New England and Southern California are by far the largest and most competitive. Above the regional classes are the eight divisions, and the top six drivers, based on accumulated points, in each division go to the National Run-offs in Atlanta at the end of the season.

The Ford division, chock-full of young drivers seeking a permanent career in racing and teams looking for a way to hold on, is the most competitive, Herne says. Founded in 1968. Formula Ford is an internationally recognized beginners' class. The successful first season cost the Medenica team about $12,000, but they managed to break even when they sold their car at the end of the year. A normal weekend of Formula Ford racing costs about $500, Medenica says, including entry fees, a set of tires, gas, hotel and travel expenses and repair work on the car. The $500 figure, of course, does not include any "unusual" expenses--such as crashes or minor damage. Aronson, Medenica and Herne all dipped into their own pockets throughout the season to keep the team on the road, but now they are seeking some sort of sponsorship for the next season.

Medenica and Aronson will spend as much time as they can this winter putting together promotion kits, trying to pour some advertising dollars into the car. While top-level teams have no problems selling and space on their cars (witness the E-Z Wider car of two seasons ago), it may be difficult to sell potential advertisers because of the obscurity of Formula Ford races. The two entrepreneurs will also seek patrons wherever possible. Medenica's commitment to the effort is complete--he says he decided to attend Business. School in order to make enough money to keep racing. The search for sponsorship, like almost everything else in the sport, will be time-consuming and expensive, but all three are willing to make the effort. "The struggling artist analogy is appropriate," Aronson says.

One way or another, the Medenica team plans to enter racing competition next spring. "The next step is to stay in Fords no matter how much money we have this year," Medenica says. "What I'd like to do next season is have a real national/professional season," he says, adding that such a season will cost the team about $20,000.

Just where the team is heading remains unclear. If they continue to win they will attract attention and consider a move up in class to Formula Vee, or, if they can afford it, they might attempt to race in European Formula Three. "Five years ago every up-and-coming road racer wanted to go to Europe, but now the important thing is to do as well as you can, wherever you are," Medenica says.

Although the distant future is cloudy, it is a pretty sure bet that at this unusual team will be terrorizing New England Ford races throughout the 1978 season. Aronson's attitude typifies that of his teammates: "I'm very interested in racing, if not totally obsessed. It's not something I want to do my whole life--I do have other interests--but I'd like to get more involved and try to progress."