These days, they just don't have the time.

No longer a just a fan, Laura McGonnell has taken her love of motorsports to the next level.

Instead of sitting in the stands and watching, now she straps into the cockpit and drives.

On a recent Thursday night, the McGonnells — driver Laura and crew chief Scott — towed to Big Diamond with their legend car for some hot laps during one of the Diamond's monthy test-and-tune sessions.

"I've been doing this for less than a year," Laura McGonnell said, shortly before taking her scaled down model of a 1934 Ford Coupe, outfitted with a 1200 cc Yamaha engine, to the Diamond's clay banks. "I started last August, but I never raced before that."

Scott McGonnell isn't new to racing. Prior to his days as a fan at Big Diamond, he raced modifieds at places like East Windsor, Flemington and Bridgeport Speedways in New Jersey.

Laura McGonnell made her first laps last year at New Jersey's Wall Stadium when, for a price, you could take out a legend car and make some laps.

"I fell in love with the car," Laura said.

These days, she races regularly with the Central Pa. Legends, a sanctioning body that promotes races regularly at Path Valley Speedway and Hill Valley Speedway, both in west-central Pennsylvania. The club also runs a few shows at Lincoln Speedway and Susquehanna Speedway in south-central Pennsylvania.

The trip to Big Diamond for the test-and-tune session was a great opportunity for the relatively new driver to gain valuable seat time. The more laps you turn, the better you become.

"I'm just trying to better my lap times," Laura said. "Maybe try out some different things on the race car.

"It's hard to do that on race nights. I'm not only new to driving this car, I'm new to racing. Period."

The Diamond visit also brought back some fond memories of sitting up in the grandstand and watching the Friday night shows.

"This is where we used to come to watch the races," Laura said. "I loved the slide stocks. They'd wet the track down and send them out there.

"Now, we don't have time to watch."

The legends cars offer those interested in driving a race car a relatively economical avenue.

To learn more about them, visit www.centralpalegends.com on the Web.
(Roth is a staff writer)