Would Tiger Be a Great Driver?
4/21/2008What makes a great "driver"?
I think we all can agree on:
* Focus
* Concentration
* Risk-taker
* Hand-eye coordination
* Physical fitness
* Mental toughness
* Good practice habits
* Commitment to be the best
Who fits that description? Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson . . . Tiger Woods.
It's a different kind of "driving" . . . but . . . could the world's No. 1 golfer have been a winner in NASCAR?
Steve Williams, Woods' caddy who has won races in a Valvoline-sponsored Ford Mustang in his native New Zealand, says: "Yes."
So do David Gilliland, Woods' high school teammate, and Dale Jarrett, Sprint Cup's best golfer.
"Racing has a few qualities that are required, different from other sports," Williams said recently. "But I totally agree that Tiger, had he chosen to be, not particularly a NASCAR driver, but a racing driver, the qualities he possesses would put him at the front of that sport as well. I have no doubt about that."
Williams helped test this theory two years ago. Woods drove a stock-type car on a quarter-mile dirt track in New Zealand in a charity event benefiting Williams' foundation. He won, taking the lead on the sixth of 12 laps.
"It was quite amazing," Williams recalled. "He had never been in a race car before. In order for him to receive a license, he had to go through the usual (training) program, and the people who had put a lot of new drivers through that were staggered how quickly he adapted to racing.
"That was the proof right there. I was quite amazed myself. Within 10 to 20 laps, he had a grip on what he was doing. We all shook our heads."
Gilliland, who drives the No. 38 Yates Ford, played with Woods in 1992 at Western High School, in Anaheim, Calif. Gilliland was on the junior varsity team. They had the same coach and practiced together.
"He was the first guy there for practice and 100-percent dedicated," Gilliland remembered. "He was setting records then and hasn't stopped. He's got a lot of the necessary qualities that it takes to succeed in racing, or anything."
Jarrett, the three-time Daytona 500 winner-turned-ESPN analyst, is a seven handicap. "I don't think there's any doubt that Tiger could be an excellent and probably, if not the best, one of the best, drivers," Jarrett said. "He has that ability and that desire to be the best at whatever he sets his mind to. This just happened to be golf that his father introduced him to at an early age.
"I feel certain that if he would've taken that same time to have pursued driving a race car, he was going to be extremely successful.
"I think you only have a few athletes in the world that reach the status that Tiger, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, people like that have done. I think those athletes could have all been successful whether it be driving a race car or whatever else they set their mind to."
Williams, a NASCAR fan, calls his Valvoline Mustang team Caddyshack Racing. He has 24 top-four finishes in 28 "meetings" this season in two "saloon" car classes. He won the first four races during New Zealand's "Speed Week" - seven events at seven tracks between Christmas and New Year's Day.
"I like the challenge of it," explained Williams. "It's like the golf course. I'm always interested in studying the track to get the right setup. It's a bit of a game, really. You can walk away with immense satisfaction knowing that you predicted what the track was going to do and set your car up for it.
"When you play a golf course over four days, there's a lot of strategy involved. When you're in racing, you can put some strategy in place, and that can go out the window in two laps. The racing game is more change-of-strategy, change-of-setup, change the way you're going to handle things minute-to-minute.
"In golf, you have a strategic plan how you're going to play the golf course over four days. Most of the time, you stick to that plan. That's a major difference."
Williams said Woods "loved" his experience as a "driver" on the racetrack. "He knows how passionate I am about racing and he thinks it's great I've got an interest I can compete in.
"The adrenaline of racing is something you can't experience in normal life. Going sideways on a dirt track in an 800-horsepower car is a pretty good rush."
[ Next column: May 5 ]
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(I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.)
BackAbout I.N. Sider
I.N. Sider is the pen name for an independent motorsports business-person who has a quarter-century of professional experience working in almost every major North American racing series. The writer is not an employee of Valvoline or Ashland Inc. The column is intended to inform, entertain, and stimulate thought on the contemporary motorsports scene. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of Valvoline or Ashland Inc.