I'm giving up racing.....
 

to move to Hollywood and take up acting! It's clear that acting makes better race car drivers, so screw the wife and kids, I'm moving to California to start my racing career!

Oh it must be great to be so young, conceited and ignorant!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005260/news

Muniz: "No Actor Can Race Like I Can"
1 February 2008 (WENN)
Actor-turned-racing driver Frankie Muniz is in no doubt about his talents behind the wheel - insisting no other celebrity can race cars as well as he can. The former Malcolm In The Middle star walked away from a successful TV and movie career three years ago to follow his driving dreams full-time. And Muniz is more than confident he made the right decision. He says, "I don't want to sound conceited, but I don't think there has been an actor or celebrity-turned-racecar driver that has made it as high up on the racecar circuit as I have. So I don't think there's anyone who can keep up with me. And that's just me being honest." And Muniz's new car confidence has given him a speedy new ambition: "I want to race Michael Schumacher, seven-time (Formula One) world champion."

http://www.improvedtouring.com/forum...milies/OLA.gif

LOL - tool

Wonder who he raced ?
Other celebrity racer is that guy from 90210 - supposedly he did well untill he crashed (don't we all)

He's young (~21), so his entire racing exposure has all been post mid 90's. He's probably never heard about Paul Neuman, other than the salad dressing. :D

Not a bad driver apparently, but just young and inexperienced - on the track and off.

Personally, I liked the humilty that Richard Hammond demonstrated on TopGear when put behind the wheel of an F1 car. Other actors should take note.

-b

Hah, that's the first celeb/racer that came to my mind. TR6 FTW!

But hey, at least he is doing better than Hogan's kid. lol

Jason Preistley ran Indy lights (or whatever they call it now) before he lunched it.

Good luck racing Schumacher now though. Kid needs to read the news.

There's also the guy from grey's anatomy (Mcdreamy or mcsteamy, not sure which), the girls were looking for him all through out the 25 hours at thunderhill event, we were totally messing with them at the race... "look! there he is...Not"

Whatever, even if this kid is the fastest among actors, that doesn't say much about the rest of the race car drivers

I am told that in Formula BMW, his best finish was a 16th. Now that may make you a fast actor, but it's still only an average racer at best. This guy couldn't scrape the lint off Schumi's jock.

Paul Newman
Steve McQueen
Craig T. Nelson
Patrick Dempsey
Jason Priestley

and I'm sure there's more. This kid is undistinguishable from any of the above.

There's a great difference between being a fast racing actor, and being a fast race car driver. One doesn't necessarily equal the other.

Preistley also tried pro rally before indy......until he ran out of teams willing to let him run.

Paul Neuman is like what, 93. He could still wax that little kid.


-billy

I watched him run at Portland last year. I think it was Atlantics, shows how much of an impression he made on me. He is nothing more than a mid packer, with a big bank account, so he can buy the best equipment.

Well, if the talent is there as he would have you believe, his likely available racing budget should have him a bit closer to the front.

I think he should ask Paul Newman's permission to speak before he shoots his mouth off anymore.

:bottom:

Good for him. He was funny as Malcolm. Seems to be focused on his dreams, unlike other Pop figures that can't keep out of the Drugs or Alcohol.

I will support him I guess, rather hear about him coming in 16th than being arrested 16 times for DUII's and checking in and out of Treatment programs!

Sounds like daddy not paying for any of it either.

cagedruss, I agree whole heartedly

Well, I'm here to declare that I'm the fastest person named "Hahn" on earth. I mean, no other Hahn even comes close. Just being honest. Bring on Ayrton Senna.

I think his "success" just shows how few people are ever given the privilege to evaluate their talents as a race driver.

I'd bet a lot of money that if you picked up 12 random 18 year olds and gave them the training/seat time that Muniz has seen, he'd be right in the middle.

Now if he were striking out in, say, track and field, and his mile time puts him in the top of the collegiate ranks, I'll agree he's talented. Because then you know you're faster than millions of people. The pool of potential pro race drivers is small, much less if you restrict it to the ones from Hollywood.

Dave

Way to go Frankie! 25th out of 30 at the MX-5 Cup race last Sept.

Patrick Dempsey took 10th at that race. Frankie forget about him. $10k gets you arrive and drive for MX-5 cup weekend, big deal.

http://www.frankiemunizracing.com/re...ults-1-_16.pdf

I wonder if he races the Jetta he got from FNF ...LOL

http://www.frankiemunizracing.com/




Paul Newman- Hands down the best on this list, won a race at 80 years young
Steve McQueen- Some tallent but a good amature at best
Craig T. Nelson- Lots of money and low on tallent
Patrick Dempsey- Holy shit, he didnt do that bad at the 24 HR this year
Jason Priestley- Lots of money and a concrete wall ended that all fast
James Dean - Alot like Newman , guy had some tallent but we know how that one ended
Steve Allen- Again money helped but he was just a mid pac moving chicane

Well, Frankie did post at least once very fast lap: a 3:22.8. But he finished a lap down. I figured that he pissed someone off and they punted him.

-b

Anyone with assloads of money can buy a race car and seat time.

Doing it with literally no budget and getting to the TOP ala Louis Hamilton is what separates the champions from the wannabes.

I hope he does really well... props for doing it... the fact that he is an actor or that he has a lot of money doesn't mean he doesnt have the passion or the potential to be the best

Nobody's arguing that he doesn't love racing.

But he's talking a lot of smack without having accomplished all that much.

Dave

Yeah, I dont like the smack, but I do like the fact that he DID work for his money... I mean, acting is not exactly as easy as you think. He worked for his money, and is now spending it by doing what he likes.... If he only cut the smack talking..... Well, time will tell.

At least it's not another case of "daddy's $$$ pays for everything" :D

McQueen is flipping him the bird from his grave.

That shitty FnF jetta is the first thing that came to mind. Hope he doesn't race for pink slips! "Dom, I am... so... sorry."

My friend worked on the team that Patrick dempsey raced on during the Koni challenge race for the 24 at Daytona, and said that the team manager was on the verge of telling him to piss off due to his total lack of ability.

This is really the direction in which racing is going in my opinion. These are the people that get non-race fans excited about coming to events, and these are often times the people that bring sponsorship dollars.

Just like any weekend racer I give them props for going after their dreams, but humility is the greatest of virtues.

Hmmm I'm happy that he is following his dream but to talk that way Hmmmm, also how will he race Michael Schumacher, did'nt he retire already...

Does Tim Allen still race ?
Didn't he have his own Saleen/Mustang racecar once...

You guys have overlooked Tom Cruise, who raced with SCCA for a while. He wrecked so many times his crew had shirts that said S(ee) C(ruise) C(rash) A(gain). I personally saw him take out about 10 other cars in 2 consecutive races and still chuckle at the memory of seeing him trying to leave the paddock at Summit Point in his Jaguar street car with a very upset competitor on his hood pounding on the car and trying to get to Cruise after he had just wrecked him for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. By the way as far as I know, this might be the last time Cruise raced.

Good point here, my wife who never is interested in racing on TV watched part of the 24 at Daytona just to see Dempsey. If Mcdreamy can bring fans to the sport who whould otherwise not be interested I'm all for it. Certainly all the celebs can't have the talent of Steve McQuenn or Paul Newman, but I'm sure Dempsey will improve given some time and coaching. Most of the drivers in events such as Koni came thru SCCA or NASA to get experience. If we can get folkes interested in road racing vs. oval track then we can gain some members in these two fine organizations.

Yes, Allen raced in my series for a couple of seasons then Saleen went on to Le Mans. I've run in to Dempsey a number of times at the track and he's a terrific guy, very approachable and loves racing.

Paul Newman is 83.........

Ashley van Dyke>Muniz
http://www.ashleyvandyke.com/home.html

Honestly, I disagree. I think "bringing fans who weren't otherwise interested in the sport" is grossly over-rated.

They bring more money, but the end result is a shit product. Contrived, made-for-tv crap with cheezy sponsor tie-ins and moron commentators explaining drafting for the umpteenth time.

I'd rather go to events with less money, and more purists frankly. The golden age of racing in the late 60's early 70's didn't have the money of todays, but it was a helluva lot more fun in many ways. I had more fun at the Watkins Glen Vintage Grand Prix last year than I did at the Canadian F1 Grand Prix.

James Garner, Steve McQueen, Tim Allen, all sponsored or partnered in racing teams or ventures... but when it came down to continuing to spend the kind of money that was necessary to continue racing at the levels they were at they quit after a couple of years. To them it was all just a fun "hobby", it was not a passion, racing did not define who they were. I think Paul Neuman is the exception. After decades of racing, he still does what is necessary to have a winning team. Racer magazine had a good article about just this topic a couple of months ago.

In a 24 hour race you can have 3, 4, 5, or maybe even more drivers, so the actual seat time of any given one isn't necessarily that much. So a rich person with moderate talent could hire a number of tallented drivers to co-drive and let them do all the hard work and just cruise to an easy finish near the front.

A high placing finish in endurance racing isn't really indicative of the talent of any one given driver.

I read an article that described how Steve McQueen did that in the late 60's, I do not remember all of the details, but I think it was a 9 or 12 hour race. The gist was he bought a Porsche 917 and hired Peter Revson, who drove like 70% of the race. I think they finished second, I remember Mario Andretti had some unkind words to say about McQueen after the race, something about him sharing the glory with Peter and contributing very little.

LOL, now THAT is funny. Was this pre- or post- Days of Thunder?

Dave

unless you're a girl! then he seems to be hard to find..

we've seen dempsey race at 2 25hours of thunderhill, and he may have gotten the ride cause of who he is, but he did hold his own on the track

That's fine for him... but wasn't my point. Point is, I don't think it's a good thing when efforts are made to attract the casual/non racing fan, because the product and the atmosphere suffers. I'd rather spend my time with people who love cars and love racing, and appreciate a product intended for them, not celebrity hounds.

To me, it's just like all of the "crossover" marketing attempts they make with Monday Night Football or the Superbowl by bringing in pop stars for the intro, or commentators from other mediums. I don't need Hank Williams Jr. and Brian Setzer singing a song, Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake dncing, or Dennis Miller yaking in ordfer to enjoy a football game. I like football, and if you don't I'd rather you didn't watch so that I don't have to be subjected to that crap while I'm trying to enjoy the game.

Dave,
This was late 80's prior to Days of Thunder.

Funny how Carma is gonna get you in the end.

In 2000 24 Hours of Le Mans, Mario Andretti was a co-driver with Panoz.
I remember Jan Magnussen bitching about how he and David Brabham would have to strain the car 100% to gain the time that Mario lost while he was in the seat.

Your joking right? Road racing in the 60-70's was dominated by the car companies, talk about sponsors dumping a bunch of money. I don't think were in any danger of road racing becoming over sponsored, more than likely the opposite is true. Most teams are self-funded, either with some sponsor money and selling rides.
I agree that I would rather go to a vintage race over an F1 anyday. I don't race in vintage but I race a vintage car:)

You know what dude? Fuck it! I totally agree! I have seen this happen at least 10 different times for different things within the last 7 years, and I'm beginning to NOT like it.

i see what you're saying, we're lucky enough to have that in reverse here. we do NASA for most of the year and its the same group of people, then in the summer you can go watch all the "famous" people run the montery historics

More fans = More money = More sponsors = MORE SEATS FOR DRIVERS

Sometimes you have to put up with a bit of stupidness if you want a reasonable chance at ever getting a chance to drive (at some point).

I was at an Atlantic series practice this week at MSR Houston and saw ol' Malcolm run. He made some quick laps but defintely wasn't the fastest either day.

I have to give him credit for handling that car around the track. He's just as good as you would expect for someone at the Atlantic series level. He made some nice saves, but also spun a couple of times (like just about everyone else).

His comment is pretty bragdacious but may have been taken out of context, I wish there was more to judge from. We were in line for lunch together and listening to him talk he seemed like a typical young man getting to live a charmed life racing cars and having fun. Most of the drivers for that series are young and appear to be of affluent backgrounds, he just happens to be semi-famous too. (nearly all of them I saw had to be under 30)

I saw him at Portland last year, a couple of track "hotties" were talking to him. It was obvious they were infatuated by him.

The Senna thing might be a bit difficult these days......

There is a guy named Bob Hahn who won the SCCA Runoffs National Championship a few years back at Mid-Ohio driving a Ford Mustang in American Sedan. Nice guy. (He might want to race you for the title of "Fastest Hahn on Earth!") :)

That's the funny part. Right now he's just an average guy running Atlantics without much fanfare. It makes he comments in that interview even more funny (and irritating).

Newman has raced multiple Rolex 24s and was a SCCA National Champion. Tim Allen and Craig T. Nelson raced in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Patrick Dempsey just completed the Rolex 24 2 months ago.

But 'ol Malcolm, he's the real Hollywood deal running mid-pack in Atlantics. Gotta say I think I was wrong about him all this time! :bowdown:

Wow, I didn't now Nelson ran. That's pretty cool.

-bill, who actually really liked "The Incredibles"

Craig Nelson ran Sport 2000 and had a team in the ACRL called Screaming Eagle Racing. As I recall, he was a pretty fair driver.

Didnt Tim get arrested for blowing some dude for coke when he was young?