How I Stumped My Old Man with Alonso and Lauda

If you’ve been reading the editorials written by Casey Annis for a long time, you might already know of me. As his eldest daughter, I’ve had a couple of mentions throughout the years, like when I first learned to drive or when I got into college. Having a racecar driving/car historian father meant that growing up, I spent a lot of time around the racetrack. I remember spending countless hot summer days at Laguna Seca eating hot dogs stuffed in baguettes, or marveling at the shiny cars worth millions of dollars. The first couple of times, I thought it was fun, but as I got into my angsty tweens, spending my birthday weekend around loud cars driving around in a circle was the last thing I wanted to do. In fact, for the better part of my life, race cars weren’t a “thing” for me at all.

As my dad has also written about, my mom became obsessed with the Netflix show Drive to Survive, like so many other Americans who were clueless about the European-centric sport. One weekend, while I was home visiting my parents, I watched a few episodes with her, including the infamous “Man on Fire” episode that showcased Romain Grosjean’s life-threatening crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. I remember watching Grosjean pull himself out of the still-burning fire and thinking, these drivers are both insane and insanely impressive.