Driving out to Altamont Motorsports Park on the night after a full moon, just a few days before Halloween, even my metal-maimed eardrums could faintly hear the sound of Mick Jagger’s famous plea for peace, uttered from the Altamont concert stage in 1970’s Gimme Shelter: “Who’s fighting, and what for?”
The cars that go boom.
Well, I’ll tell ya, fighting on Oct 27 were some 50 roached-out, jerry-rigged race cars, hellbent less on victory than on the glory of completing 300 laps — or in many cases, somewhat less — at the track’s annual Pumpkin Smash.
What about them pumpkins? The reason for the season, no doubt — hundreds of orange mofos gave their lives valiantly for this event. The asphalt was luridly smeared with pumpkin guts and gallons of soapy water. Facilitating and maximizing smash-ups never looked so festive…nor made onlookers long so much for pumpkin pie.