Road America

I belong to many different sub-cultures. Some of which are common among my generation, friends, and peers, but some are not. One of the sub-cultures I'm a part of is that of where I work during the summer. It's a road course style race track two hours north of my home town. It is a weekend thing and one of the best places I know to be in the summer. People usually are in disbelief when they hear that I work there. This is because I am a female who now lives in the city. People think that only guys know stuff about cars and that racing is a guy thing. But it's not. A lot of females work at the track actually and a good number of them deal with the safety team and control tower as well as at the gate selling tickets and in management. We have our own language as well. The jargon we use is not what people usually expect it to be. I confuse my friends and family when I talk about it because they have no idea what I'm talking about. The gate has its own dialect you could say and so does saftey and the control tower and security. However, we all also have a universal language by knowing where things are and what they are called. The turns on the track for example or the different places to eat or park. Everyone that works at the track knows where they all are and what to call them. We are a community as well. The people I work with up there, the spectators, we all share a common bond. A passion for cars and motorcycles and for true racing. This helps us create the sub-culture of race fans, but its more than that. it's family, friends, and to some people, it's a way of life. I was raised with cars and racing. I got this job because of some friends of the family who are the head of safety and work in the control tower doing disbatch to the safety crews. I use to listen to my family talk about racing and became very interested and even though I do not know too much about cars, I know enough to get me by. I also have learned from sitting with people in the control tower and listenin to them on the walkie talkies and how they communicate. I have an understanding of flags, signs, colors and maps that most people wouldn't understand. Racing is the subculture I belong to and I feel completely accepted in it.