Hansen: Car racing speaks to his soul

Professional race car driver Rick Knoop flies around the track at more than 200 mph, but on the streets of Laguna Beach he tools around in a VW Bug.

It’s an irony not lost on him, but at 61, with dozens of wins around the world, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, he doesn’t need to prove himself on a gridlocked Pacific Coast Highway.

“I’m not about stoplights,” he said. “I’m about the art of driving. I get my ya-yas out on the weekends.”

Following in the footsteps of his race car driver dad, Knoop started driving at a young age on a ranch in Northern California. Basically, if he could reach the pedals, he was driving it.

“I was driving hay over the Sierra Nevadas when I was about 13,” he said. “I wanted to prove to my dad that I could work with the ranch hands.”

Knoop said he drove “Jeeps and water wagons, bulldozers and backhoes.” After bedtime, he would sneak into the garage and admire the race cars that his father kept.

“I was always in a trance when I was around race cars,” he said. “I grew up with an abnormal amount of respect for machinery, and I was fascinated by it.”

That fascination has led to a long, rewarding career in road racing. While he has tried many types of racing, including NASCAR, endurance road racing has been his favorite. He still races about 18 times a year.

Between races, he operates out of a nondescript shop in Laguna Canyon owned by Jim Busby. There’s no sign; they don’t advertise. They’ve quietly gone about their business in Laguna since the 1970s.

They like it that way. It keeps them productive and less distracted.

This mirrors his approach to racing. Never full of himself, he’s described by those who know him as humble and unassuming.

“I’ve known Rick Knoop for 34 years,” said Michael Ahern of Laguna Beach. “He is extremely low key and doesn’t promote his 40-plus years of racing victories.”

The focus required for racing doesn’t lend itself to hyperbole. Knoop said it’s important to stay practical yet spatial. He calls it “situational awareness.”

He remembers one of his first races. He was in his early 20s, and he became starstruck over one of his competitors and lost his concentration.

“I passed this guy named Bob Bondurant, and he was a Shelby factory driver,” Knoop said. “I got so excited I spun out. Then I saw Bob Bondurant go by me. Bob is a legend. I was so mad at myself.”

In trying to define what’s in the DNA of a racer, Knoop said you have to “tame the untamable.”

It’s a mystique built into some people almost from birth, but it needs to be practiced. He gave another example from the ranch.

“If you get a backhoe upside down in a ditch, well OK, you’ve got to get it out yourself,” he said. “There’s a discipline to it.”

Today’s young drivers may not have that same sense of discipline. Car aficionados are on the decline. In this age of anonymous cars, there is not the same sense of bawdy grace and road feel.

Cars are not as lean and agile. Sure they have power, but everything happens with a push of a button.

“The world of electronics has really played a significant role,” he said. “I think the driver element has been watered down, and the cars drive themselves a lot easier now.”

As a kid he used to hope it would rain so he could “slide the family station wagon around.” Those days are gone.

While not endorsing illegal racing — “race at the tracks, not on the streets” — Knoop knows that teens will always want to drive fast. He hopes they do it responsibly on a track to continue the heritage of smart racing.

For him, it was inevitable.

“It’s the pure joy for racing, the roar of the sound, the smell, the reaction people have. It’s pretty amazing to watch,” he said.

“When I started, I was just like a border collie when he saw his first flock of sheep. It was just something that took me to another place.”

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at davidhansen@yahoo.com.