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re: So Tony Stewart ran over and killed another driver at a race last night
Posted on 9/25/14 at 12:00 pm to Damn Good Dawg
Posted on 9/25/14 at 12:00 pm to Damn Good Dawg
Marijuana should be a non-issue. Cannabis and race car drivers have always worked well together. Consider the racing success of John Paul, Jr. and John Paul, Sr. They were dominant before the law got them. Consider Bill and Don Whittington.
Around 1974 Car & Driver magazine decided to quantify the effect of the two most popular recreational drugs on driver performance. The magazine staff assembled a group of pro race drivers with identical Porsche race cars at a California track. On the first day of the test each driver went out on the track and established base lap times while not under the influence. Then the drivers toked up and got stoned before going out again and recording lap times. Some drivers got a little slower and some got a little faster but there was no statistical difference in lap times. The following day the same procedure was followed but instead of pot each driver had two alcoholic drinks. Every driver was slower after imbibing and many were either running off the track or spinning out.
I'm 65 and I've smoked and driven for over forty years and never had an accident or a DUI.
Around 1974 Car & Driver magazine decided to quantify the effect of the two most popular recreational drugs on driver performance. The magazine staff assembled a group of pro race drivers with identical Porsche race cars at a California track. On the first day of the test each driver went out on the track and established base lap times while not under the influence. Then the drivers toked up and got stoned before going out again and recording lap times. Some drivers got a little slower and some got a little faster but there was no statistical difference in lap times. The following day the same procedure was followed but instead of pot each driver had two alcoholic drinks. Every driver was slower after imbibing and many were either running off the track or spinning out.
I'm 65 and I've smoked and driven for over forty years and never had an accident or a DUI.
1
Posted on 9/25/14 at 1:03 pm to Whiznot
quote:
Whiznot
Quality of driving as a result of under, over, or proper brain to twitch-muscle reaction is one thing, impaired judgment of decision making and exiting your car and stepping towards the path of oncoming danger, is another.
And like you said, while stoned, some drove slower while some drove faster laps. There's absolutely no way to know which one Ward would have been.
On top of that, there's no way you're going to convince any of us who have actually smoked pot and been high before (many times in my youth) that it doesn't chemically alter brain activity and motor skills for the worse. The only thing close to this I can substantiate is that it always calmed my nerves in highly stressful or highly intense situations and this calming effect reduced mistakes from over-reaction or over-analysis. But that's about it. I've never had my motor skills firing off quicker because I was stoned. And there's more than enough research in to the effects of marijuana to prove that it slows down the firing of synapses which in turn slows down motor skill function and overall brain activity.
This post was edited on 9/25/14 at 1:40 pm
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