White Pants

[dcarelli]

Bring back the White Pants in the pits. Not very practical but still cool looking!!

:cheers:

[webby]

Bring back the White Pants in the pits. Not very practical but still cool looking!!

:cheers:Your preaching to the choir here.

I loved the white pants in the pits for many reasons:

- Saftey. (much easier for the drivers to see the people in the pits)
- Respect for the sport. (I don't expect tuxedos but gee whiz people look a little bit professional)
- Status. (fans can spot the drivers by their racing suit, they also like to see the crew members and be able to distinguish them as crew members)

[lakeside #29]

Count me in too. Even dirty white pants at the end of the night looked better than Levi's or somebody in shorts. While I'm on my soapbox, shoes. Only real shoes should be worn it the pits, no sandals or flip-flops. I've worn sneakers, but usually work boots. Drop a jack stand on your foot or run a floor jack over a toe and you'll learn the lesson like I learned the hard way.

[rapid30]

I too am a big fan of the white pants for crew members, many a times I have came off a well lit race track into a dark pit area and have had nearly hit someone as they are wearing dark colored clothing. Also I think that the crews just looked more professional in the whites. JMO
Bruce

[indybigjohn]

Started wearing white pants early in my flagging career and stuck with it throughout. That was before I was married, and I can remember my mother saying, "No matter how dirty you get those things, people know you came to the track clean."

[Mitch G.]

Oh boy, a hot topic for me. Local weekly auto racing really lost a lot of it's credibility when they lowered the standards for anybody buying a pit pass, and not mandating white pants, (except for the trophy girl, and maybe a celebrity driving the trophy car). Honestly, and lets be honest, if you go in the pits today it looks like they let all the homeless in for free. It's not just local racing, but that's what most people see, if I owned a race track it would be mandatory that everyone buying a pit pass would have to wear white pants. There's always some moron who has to wear his, or her's, favorite black t-shirt, and black jeans, and man you can't see them at night until they turn toward your coasting, but still running race car, and you burp the throttle, like a horn, and they turn toward you, eye's as big as frisbee's, they freeze for a second, then make the juke to the right, then to the left, then leap to safety as they soil those black Levi's, and you laugh out loud inside your helmet, that part was fun.

[Jeff Isenhart]

Your preaching to the choir here.

I loved the white pants in the pits for many reasons:

- Saftey. (much easier for the drivers to see the people in the pits)
- Respect for the sport. (I don't expect tuxedos but gee whiz people look a little bit professional)
- Status. (fans can spot the drivers by their racing suit, they also like to see the crew members and be able to distinguish them as crew members)

There was nothing better then wearing a clean pair of whites on sunday night and of course having the crew all in matching shirts and jackets aw those were the days. I still have my trophy from the late 70's for best dressed crew.

[webby]

Honestly, and lets be honest, if you go in the pits today it looks like they let all the homeless in for free.:rotfl:

It's also annoying that entire families now go in the pits with their driver. I think that ONLY essential crew members should be allowed in the pits.

[racer99]

:rotfl:

It's also annoying that entire families now go in the pits with their driver. I think that ONLY essential crew members should be allowed in the pits.

Agree with the whites, but you wouldn't get a track owner/promoter to issue that edict. Would be to much revenue lost. Used to be, the pits were for the business of running a race, not for visiting. Just not that way anymore. In some ways, good, and in others, not good. I too, wish it was the way it was in the old days. I sure miss those Sunday nights ae Lakeside!

[dmckim]

i too am a fan of white pants but have you ever tried to walk down from the top of the belleville high banks back in the 80s? it was very funny most of the time. seen many pre race spills.

[TPF]

AAAHH. The white pants, if you didnt have white levis jeans you were not cool. I had a hell of a time finding them. I remember if you didnt have whites you were not allowed in the pits. They saved my *** more than once. My dad always asked me, Are going in the pits? Yes dad I am in the pits. Got your whites ?????????. HHHMMMMMMM. How did the name "The Pits" come abought,The pits and white pants I love it . TIM

[indybigjohn]

I remember being told that "The Pits" came from the days when service stations didn't have lifts, and there was a pit for oil changes, etc. Commonly called "the grease pit" and the name somehow carried over to the area where race cars were worked on.

[Olen McGuire]

I'd say you're right John, and they still have those "grease pits" at some of the "quick lube stations". :cowboy:

[mac miller]

HA! I got my first pair of white "ducks" when I was 14, working, underage, on the Iddings Auto Glass #93 USAC sprint car, in the 60s..... I still have them!
Everybody in USAC wore their white "ducks" and various colored, button up, cotton team shirts back then..... USAC was a very snazzy looking bunch in those days!

[Flagman]

White pants should be mandatory for all people in the pits other than the drivers. I always wore them and continue to wear them as a track official.

Here's another pet peeve of mine. I feel all track officials should wear a track uniform of some sort and they should wear it professionally. It should be clean, pressed and always looking sharp. Keep the shirt tucked in and buttoned.

[left coast tim]

Uh, as far as I know, nothing stopping any of you guys from visiting a Boot Barn or visiting a Levi's outlet store to get a pair of white "jeans" for $35-40 or whatever they cost nowadays. It was a way for the track owners to
talk "safety" when in reality they were too cheap to provide adequate lighting. And gee whiz, one major repair with oil and grease and dirt and blood, and they were junk. Nothing wrong with black or blue jeans (sans holes and rips), as they can be used again and again.
Speaking of "pit uniforms", the day the Sat. night short-tracks start mandating crews were fire suits and those silly helmets as in all (televised)
divisions of NASCRAP, is the day I'll give up 4-wheelers and go back to
Speedway motorcycle racing, where the ONLY safety equipment required
for a rider is a steel-toed shoe and a helmet of some kind.
Life is dangerous and painful, and sometimes you get hurt. That's what
separates the folks in the infield from those OUTSIDE the fence.

[carc7]

I'm for the whites, too. I always thought they looked more professional. The term "pits" was started back in the early years at Indy, I think. Each car had its service area covered with sawdust and actually had a pit dug for a crewman who had to look underneath the car during a stop. The seals were just rope back then, and the cars used up to 18 GALLONS of oil during the 500 - due to leaks! While we're on the subject of fashion, how come I'm one of the few people to wear a jacket and tie to the banquet? I mean, I don't expect tuxes (I don't have or want one of those), but COME ON people, can't you dress up just ONE night a year? The torn T-shirts just don't make it for me. . . . Can't we have some class?

[bobjeffreson]

White pants were also the uniform of choice in Sydney, back in day.
As young guys back then, we quickly realised that if we put on white jeans or even white overalls, we could get into the pits by walking beside cars being pushed through the gate....straight past security...lol.....it was a different world back then!

Two photos of a couple of the premier midget teams confirm this...

The Don Murray, standing in the middle, General Motors Holden powered midget driven by Peter Bowland.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/SCAN_0149.jpg

The Don Mackay, standing on the right, Offy powered midget, driven by the superstar of the day Jeff Freeman. Freeman died driving for this Team on May 9th 1965.

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g181/bobjeffreson/SCAN_0147.jpg

[dirtman]

My wife used to wash 16 pairs of white pants a week in the 70's around Milwaukee! Myself, her, and two kids. They couldn't get into the pits, thankfully, in those days. But we tried to class up the image and had the safety of being seen at night around the track.