Photo via Aston Martin Racing
Photo via Aston Martin Racing

Auto racing requires precision, a love for engineering and mechanics, and it also happens to provide a nice adrenaline rush. So it’s no wonder that the elite in tech are taking to it.

That’s the latest trend the New York Times reports on today: Tech executives hitting the race track. “Auto racing, like much else, comes down to math,” writes the Times. “There is an optimal path around a racetrack, a geometric arc of least resistance. It is the driver’s job to find this sweet spot of physics and stick to it, lap after lap, as consistently as a microprocessor crunching through an algorithm.”

But there’s more to a racing hobby than a just a love for the sport, as the Times points out, in this trend that is becoming increasingly popular for “informal groups of drivers at Apple, Facebook and Google who get together to rent out local tracks.” It is becoming a way for tech executives to bond, and as the latest “it” hobby, it also poses another problem for women in tech:

“The maleness of the sport may be of particular concern as it becomes a more popular pastime that, like golf, has the convenient auxiliary benefit of lubricating the gears of business…It’s a connection that, for now, not many women are making.”

Photo via Tesla Racing
Photo via Tesla Racing

These are not typical NASCAR outings. Most Silicon Vally techies are flocking to events featuring high-end European sports cars, like Aston Martin Racing

“These Silicon Valley companies tell me that they’ve got skyboxes at the Raiders, the Giants, the 49ers for their clients, but they can’t fill them,” Kevin Buckler, a former professional driver who owns the racing business TRG-AMR, which mixes a day at the track with high-end activities like wine tasting, tells the Times. “We let you invite your customers to Laguna Seca Raceway for a morning, where they’ll get professional instruction driving Aston Martin racecars, and then we wrap up with a nice dinner or wine tasting. Well, they’re full, everyone wants to go.”

Will the next great deal come out of a day at the tracks? Who knows. But this is one trend that will be fun to watch. Let’s just hope they ask the ladies if they’d like to come along.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.