{"id":494865,"date":"2015-10-01T02:07:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T02:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=17320"},"modified":"2024-11-02T23:02:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T23:02:03","slug":"my-racing-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/my-racing-years\/","title":{"rendered":"My Racing Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<figure id=\"attachment_553069\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-553069\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-553069 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p1.jpg\" alt=\"Dennis Firestone\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p1-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p1-71x100.jpg 71w, https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p1-293x410.jpg 293w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-553069\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dennis Firestone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I began racing at age 18 in 1962, on TT motorcycles with my brother-in-law, Don Kratofil, and a friend, Tim Shaw, both of whom were truck drivers working with me at my first trucking company, Safeway Delivery. The delivery service had a six-day-a-week schedule so there were some Sundays to spare. I believe it was Tim who first bought a motorcycle to ride and race, then proceeded to talk Don and I into joining him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was before dirt bikes were being manufactured, so we had to modify street bikes for the dirt. I rode and raced for a year and found I was hurting myself a lot as a result of my overly aggressive style of racing. Almost without fail I\u2019d show up for work on Monday mornings with major cuts, scrapes and bruises. Then after one big crash over the handlebars of my 500 Triumph, I put my front teeth through my upper lip and decided to hang up my leathers for a while.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dennis Firestone I began racing at age 18 in 1962, on TT motorcycles with my brother-in-law, Don Kratofil, and a friend, Tim Shaw, both of whom were truck drivers working with me at my first trucking company, Safeway Delivery. The delivery service had a six-day-a-week schedule so there were some Sundays to spare. I believe it was Tim who first bought a motorcycle to ride and race, then proceeded to talk Don and I into joining him. It was before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":553067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,64,17005,11272,261,18207],"tags":[11807,2727,18323,17152,12221,14490,65,13347,11565,17143,17220],"class_list":["post-494865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-ford","category-formula-b-scca","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","tag-scca","tag-1960s","tag-2010s-all","tag-car-culture","tag-formula-b","tag-war","tag-ford","tag-john-crossle","tag-formula-ford","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>My Racing Years<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dennis Firestone explains how his task became more difficult as he climbed open-wheel racing\u2019s ladder.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/my-racing-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Racing Years\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dennis Firestone explains how his task became more difficult as he climbed open-wheel racing\u2019s ladder.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/my-racing-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/steve.natale1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-01T02:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-02T23:02:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LS201510-p2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"708\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/my-racing-years\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/my-racing-years\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Natale\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/237befa83e8e5937247db55880b8cc49\"},\"headline\":\"My Racing Years\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-01T02:07:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-02T23:02:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/my-racing-years\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1531,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/my-racing-years\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/10\\\/LS201510-p2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"(SCCA) Sports Car Club of America\",\"1960s All\",\"2010s All\",\"Car Culture\",\"Defunct Series (Formula B)\",\"Era (Wartime)\",\"Ford\",\"People (John Crossl\u00e9)\",\"Series (Formula Ford)\",\"Special Feature\",\"VRR Column (Legends Speak)\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Car Culture\",\"Ford\",\"Formula B (SCCA)\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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