Do you drink the night before motorsports?

I hadn't thought about it before but I essentially fast as a rideshare driver. If I have to use the bathroom I go to McDs buy a $2 sammich and then go at it again. Light breakfast to start the day. Toast egg tea and only take about three small bottles of water throughout the day with a handful of lifesavers also.  I'm very susceptible to 'food coma' so a big meal means I don't even make it out to drive.  If I feel the slightest bit weird ( not tired but heavy headed ) I come in and then eat go to bed go back out at least 6 hours later.  That's usually on the Dulles Access road seemingly every time. 

I have tried 5 hour energy lately or the generic 7-11 stuff and am looking at the Aldi/Costco knock-offs.  Not sure if they work but they at least seem to not 'not' work. 

z31maniac said:

volvoclearinghouse said:

I used to play pool sorta seriously.  I quickly discovered there was a point, after a beer or two, that my concentration increased and I shot better.  Naturally, there was also a point after 3 or 4 beers where I was worse than when I was sober.

This effect has been pretty well documented.  Some studies have shown an improvement in reaction times, etc after one or two drinks.  

As others have said, there's a lot of real estate between cold sober and stumbling, puking drunk.  Anyone here _ever_ driven after having one drink, on the street?  How about 2?  The law says I can slam 4 beers and go for a cruise.  (0.08 BAC).  No way would I ever do that on a public street.  

Its impossible to talk about this nowadays and not be called on the carpet and made to seem like a totally irresponsible asshat.  But the reality is, drinking and driving is a lot like speeding.  Doing a nickel over is illegal, but generally harmless, usually.  Doing half a buck over the posted speed is reckless and going to land you in jail or a grave.  MADD and SADD have just conditioned us to think otherwise.  Not that that's a totally bad thing- most people are bad enough drivers sober.  But there comes a point when you yell and scream abut some hot issue enough and people start to tune you out.  

Full disclosure: I have never gotten in a race car under the influence of any drug.  I hydrate like a mother before and after, and keep a little bit of a hunger on.  

Having a beer or two at dinner, which I do, is way different than getting on track.

I didn't realize this would be a controversial opinion.

 

EDIT: Not you, just in general.

I think you’re the only one making it out to be a controversial opinion. Everyone is agreeing with you. 

In reply to poopshovel again :

Duly noted.

Keith Tanner said:

I don’t drink and I aim to have my car ready long before the night before.

Nothing's more fun than putting the car back together as they are calling you up to grid.

Knurled. said:

UT had better maps, better AI (that you could tune!), better power ups, and better weapons with alternate fire.

Q3 did have more consistently decent maps, not just three or four really good ones.  Combine this with the generally smaller maps used and we'd end up with things like the max number of bots va. three humans, 50 frag limit, in the training level, and the match would last two minutes tops.  Sheer madness.

Im going to not respond only because I think there is too much to cover.

Funny bit of experimenting my buddy and I did with this. 

We hooked up the simulator. And put a Miata on a track. We did three laps each and recorded our lap times. 

We then Cracked open a beer each. We casually talked and sipped until a 1/4 beer was gone. Letting the suds kick in.

Went back to the laps, and we were both astonished to find we actually did even better on lap times! 

We repeated the process, this time drink down to half of a beer. The lap times got worse. And the more we drank, the worse we did! 

We have also tested this same scenario in bowling, darts, golf, snowboarding, frisbee golf, video games, and even cornhole. 

The “take a nip” strategy works from our research. What we think is happening is that the “social euphoria” and the psychological value of “starting to take a drink” play a role. Like when a smoker first lights a cigarette after a stressful situation. 

The next test is doing the same thing but with a blind test of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks to see if it is psychological. 

Our sister LeMons Sho team had a couple of wild and crazy guys. The night before the race they were out drinking til late, like past midnight. One of them starts the race, about an hour in he punks in his helmet. 

Racing in Texas even in June and September races are hot. We always started drinking water about 4 days before the race. Even with a Cool shirt and all, you could drink a camelback in a 2 hour stint. 

Way back when I remember reading a book about early races, before WWII and it said drivers would drink champagne during a pit stop. Of course stops would take a while with wheels with pound on center nuts. I guess back then you had to me a little drunk to race in those cars on streets or tracks lined with trees. 

At the circle tracks we ran, if you were an entrant and seen imbibing or acting inebriated you were sent home.

I drank excessively a night before a hill climb.    Never again.

irish44j said:

I will have some drinks the night before but almost always liquor mixed with something caffeinated, usually not beer. But not a lot of them ,  I don't want a hangover.

There's an easy fix for a hangover

At one of the national challenge events at National Trail (not the one you were at), a certain person who I won't name (it's not who you think, he's not in Ohio anymore anyway) consumed so much on Saturday night that he couldn't drive on Sunday not because he was hung over, but because he was still drunk.

That was the year that ZB had brought back to the US a bottle of Zubrowka and was pouring shots to anybody within arm's distance after the Saturday runs were over.  So it was like this;

ZB:  "Here Pete have this."

Pete:  "I have been standing in the sun all day and I haven't eaten for eight hours.  Not now."

ZB: "Here Pete have this."

Pete: "Let me go over to the deli wagon and get something to eat first."

ZB: "Here Pete have this."

Pete: (takes shot, drinks)  "Damn, that was pretty good.  Be right back, I'm going to order all the food and come back for more."

Mndsm said:

In reply to Knurled. :

Ask anyone that's played with me hammered (Just about anyone in the Xbox area of simulation central) and they'll tell you, my skill decreases. 

So. Many. GTAV helicopter crashes.

iceracer said:

At the circle tracks we ran, if you were an entrant and seen imbibing or acting inebriated you were sent home.

I drank excessively a night before a hill climb.    Never again.

Saw a guy get disqualified from an offroad arena event for holding someone's beer.

At jmfnb’s wedding I was doing ok. Then Steve said “hey joey48442 drink this!” I did alright for a while then somebody took this pic of me