Restoring racing’s fourth wall

(Originally posted by Steph to Planet-IRL.com.)

In another installment in the continuing series on how to make our drivers back into heroes, let’s take a look at how they conduct themselves in their business dealings away from the track.

Once upon a time, fans were permitted to see racers as hardened warriors who desired nothing more in life than to strap themselves into metal-and-carbon-fiber contraptions and fling themselves around bullrings at record-breaking speeds.  It seemed as though little else mattered to them — as though, if necessary, they would do it without compensation, so long as the hunger for danger and adrenaline was sated.

How times have changed.

When the racing world was flush with financing, talented drivers didn’t need to concern themselves with things like procuring sponsorship and getting paid on a regular basis.  However, the politics of the split and the unfortunate economic climate we face today have forced these issues out from behind boardroom doors and into the consciousness of the fan base.

On its face, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Many fans enjoy being involved in discussions about any facet of the sport.  And, to be fair, the populace in general is much more aware of marketing than they have been at any point in history.

But at what point does awareness go too far?

There’s a term in the entertainment world known as “breaking the fourth wall,” which is derived from the setting of a play or a television sitcom.  Traditionally, a set has three walls that enclose the performing area, leaving the fourth open through which the audience watches.  Breaking the fourth wall, by its original definition, happens when a performer addresses viewers directly, thus removing the perception of a barrier between the audience and the action on stage.  The meaning of the phrase eventually expanded to encompass any instance of viewers becoming witness to something they weren’t intended to see — a boom microphone in a shot, an out-take reel, that sort of thing.

This concept can quite naturally be applied to the sporting world.  Fans want to believe that athletes do what they do for the love of the game, and the fourth wall is broken any time a fan sees or hears something that creates a breach in that belief.  In the racing world, this happens when, for example, a driver speaks publicly about developing his or her brand or allows words like “marketing activation” to pass over his or her lips.  It forces fans to view the drivers as part of the business side of the sport and shatters the perception that they’re out there solely for the love of racing.

That’s not to say that these things shouldn’t be discussed, however.  The more dedicated fan base is well aware of the financial aspect of the sport, and it’s fair for the topic to remain open to those who care to be more deeply involved.  However, this type of discussion should originate from the people whose job it is to handle it — the IRL brass, the team owners, the press — rather than from the drivers.  No one is naïve enough to think that fame and danger pay don’t influence a driver’s career choice, but there are many who would prefer not to consider such things, and bringing these factors into their consciousness blows the illusion apart.  Casual fans should be allowed to believe that their favorite drivers’ hearts beat for nothing else but to climb into race cars and run them to the hilt, and they should be able to cheer those drivers on and listen to them speak without being made aware of the finer details behind getting them onto the track.

A single-minded passion, a desire to win at any cost, a need to be the best of the best — these are traits that the sport’s greatest legends have demonstrated from its earliest beginnings.  If we’re to regard our current drivers as being of similar caliber, we need to be permitted to believe that they’re driven in the same ways today.

As an aside:  on behalf of all the contributors here at Planet-IRL, we wish you and yours the very best for the coming new year.  Here’s to a great season of racing in 2010!