Just two very short weeks ago, I was sitting in the blazing sun at my very first live NASCAR race--and LOVING it. The photo shows our view towards Turn 1 and the Finish Line. I've wanted to tell y'all about it long before this, but the events that are going into my next blog (moving!) have kept me pretty busy. So just stop complaining that I haven't written for so long--you'll get two or three blogs pretty quickly, and that is just going to have to make up for it.
So first, for the two (or fewer?) members of the reading audience who don't know the story of how I happened to be sitting at my first NASCAR race, let me quickly recap. My brother's former service manager and his girlfriend are huge NASCAR fans, and they planned to come to this year's UAW Daimler-Chrylser race that was held here at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS, for short). They also planned to get married here, so it was to be a really special weekend. To celebrate, they bought top-of-the-line tickets, worth $750 each for the whole 3-day weekend event. And then something happened, a family emergency, and they couldn't go. When it became clear to them that they absolutely couldn't go, they turned around and handed the tickets to Charlie, my brother. Free! Two of the best seats at the race--for all three days! That was just amazing! Well, when Charlie got over his amazement, he asked around and tried to find someone else who could come out here (he was coming anyway, to drive my motor home back to NJ--but that's another story!), but no one could come on such short notice, so he was stuck with--his sister! He told me later that, since I "didn't like" cars, he figured I wouldn't want to go, and he warned me before the race that I needed to get AT LEAST $750-worth of fun and pleasure out of the tickets. That was a tall order, but let me tell you, I got MORE than that much fun and pleasure!
But let me not get ahead of myself. Charlie flew in on Wednesday, March 7, we got me moved into my (furniture-less) apartment on Thursday, and then it was "off to the races." The qualifying event was Friday, the so-called "Busch Cup" was Saturday, and the Big Event was Sunday. And just to get this out of the way, the weather on all three days was fabulous! Last year, for this race, it snowed, but this year there was warm sun behind a cloud cover on Friday, and bright sun on Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. Perfect--especially for Charlie, who left a snow-covered New Jersey and returned to 2 feet of fresh snow a week later.
We headed out around mid-day on Friday, took a less-traveled route to avoid traffic, and only ran into lines of cars when we got within site of the track. We knew we were there because the Thunderbirds thundered overhead as we neared the track--five jets flying in VERY close and/or very dramatic formation. They thrilled me: the race track and the many auxiliary tracks and garages and buildings lie lengthwise in the valley, so that we were always looking out at mountains, and the jets would sweep in from the left (the west--where this shot is pointed: actually this shot shows the cars coming around into Turn 4 following the pace car, just before the start of the race), and they would streak across above the oval and the thousands of motor homes arrayed opposite to us up on a ledge overlooking the track (the drivers' motor homes, which you'll see in a bit) or down below beyond the track (the many, many attendant staffers and mechanics, etc.). The sound trailed behind but was stirring--that is, until I heard my first race car come out of Turn 4 and past us high up in the stands! Now THAT is a stirring sound.
I can't give you a blow-by-blow (that would require many blog postings!), but I'll tell you the highlights. Parking was right across from the main entrance to the track (one of the perks of these tickets), our seats were in Y section (up high enough to see everything--literally) and right in front of a large suite where there was ALWAYS food and drink. We had lunch the first day (some pork and chicken dishes) and 20 drink coupons (for beer and wine, of which I used 2 and Charlie maybe 6--we gave the rest away), and a restroom that was never full, and a place where we could come into on Saturday and Sunday to escape the sun (that was a blessing). We had passes to the Neon Garage, a new facility (literally, some of the concrete was still wet on Friday!) in the center of everything where you could see through windows down into each of the 50 or so garages where all the cars were being worked on before the races, and where there was entertainment (saw a passably good Elvis imitator and a very good group doing The Temptations, among others). Charlie also had a Cold Pass, something that let you into the actual garages themselves at any time other than when the race was on (that requires a Hot Pass--next year!). We did a lot of walking (my pedometer said I walked nearly 4 miles one day and 3 miles another!), and we saw a lot of fascinating stuff.
But I've got to stick to highlights or I'll never finish. I'll do that, but first let me point out a few things in this picture. First the mountains! Directly below them you see a line of large brown dots. Those are the owners' motor homes--about 100 of them, and almost all of them Monster Buses! Below them on the far side of the inner portion of the track are the motor homes of the hoi-poloi. Then you see the large new headquarters of the LVMS, an impressive glass structure. In this particular shot, taken at the pre-race events on Sunday, the Blue Man Group is playing on the stage in front of us. They were great--but even more impressive was how quickly all of that stuff was disassembled and removed when it was time to start the race! Quite a feat. Okay. On to the highlights.
Highlight#1: Seeing--and especially HEARING--the first car take off in the qualifying heats on Friday. It did a warm-up lap, and then, as it came out of Turn 4, right below us, as I said, it accelerated into the first of two "real" laps! WHAT A SOUND! The only thing that topped it was the first time I heard 43 cars accelerate as they passed in front of us and the Busch Race began. Charlie bought me earplugs, which was sweet, but I never used them: I loved the noise too much!
Highlight #2: We left our seats after about 1-1/2 hours of the qualifying laps and went down to board a double-decker bus (a genuine relic of London streets, bought by some enterprising soul and available in this country now for events like this). We sat up top as they took us under the track by tunnel and up into the center of the oval. We got off there and started wandering around. When we got to where we could see our seats, I was taking pictures (to send back to Paul and Diane, the poor guys whose tickets we were using), and I heard a car coming around Turn 3 and into Turn 4. I turned my camera on it to track ahead a bit and catch it coming around Turn 4--and suddenly the car (driven by Michael Waltrip) kissed the wall, spun around, traveled backward for some distance and then, I guess, kind of slowed down and stopped. Some time later, I checked out what I'd snapped, and I've got a picture about a second or two after the initial impact: the car is moving backwards from right to left (well, it's still in my picture, but I think you can tell from the plume of smoke that he's facing the wrong way, and that he's clearly not going in the direction he started out in. That was exciting!
Highlight #3: We had an errand to run at the far end of the racetrack when the qualifying heats were over on Friday, which meant that we wound up in a long slow-moving line of cars heading down Las Vegas Blvd., into the city. Charlie is not a patient man (hope that doesn't come as a surprise to too many of you), so I tried to pick a side street to take that could get us home without the lines of traffic. Well, I don't know Vegas very well yet, so my pick was not a wise one. It took us 2 hours to get back to the apartment (less than 20 miles from the track). We both thought of the old "Family Circle" cartoon that shows the trail left by one of the kids who's sent on an errand that takes him all over the place, doubles back over his tracks, and requires 4 times the time it should have taken. If we'd been leaving a trail, that's how it would have looked!
Highlight #4: The Busch Race itself, which was my first. Many of the drivers in this race also drove again the next day in the Big Race (forgotten how they designated it), It was actually more exciting than the "real" one, both because the winner was not determined until the last few seconds of the race (whereas on Sunday, Jimmie Johnson in the #48 Lowe's car, was pretty much a sure thing to win his second (or was it third) cup in a row at this race--and he didn't disappoint). But in the Busch cup, one of a pair of local brothers (Kurt Bush or his brother, again, I forget) and the winner were fighting it out to the (bitter) end, when the Bush car (and the Bush brothers are locals but not well-liked here) bought the farm in the very last few feet of the race, giving the win to someone who WAS well-liked (check out the papers or the web for the name: I just can't remember--sorry!). You should have heard the cheer that went up when that happened!
Highlight #5: (Well, this actually made us pretty sad!) Charlie called Paul and Diane to tell them that our seats in the grandstand had their names on them!! Can you believe it? Charlie's seat had a label on it saying Paul Franek and mine said DT Wheaton--amazing. Anyway, he talked to Diane who told him that they had been notified a day or two earlier that they had been chosen as one of ten couples who would be married in a community wedding ceremony held in the Winner's Circle before the Busch cup race. What a real shame that they couldn't be here for that! But we did our very best to get as much enjoyment as we could from the wonderful tickets.
Highlight #6: Did I mention the food? Breakfast (which, actually, I think we missed on Saturday, but not on Sunday) and lunch both days. The food was good, but the desserts were really the best, though I didn't sample much of them: sitting in the hot sun with a beer didn't lend itself to sweet things.
Highlight #7: Did I mention the sun? It was blazing, my first real taste of desert sun and heat--in early March! Of course, we didn't have sunscreen, so my enterprising bro went to find some. He finally came back (this was Saturday--there really wasn't much need on Friday, since it was sunny and bright but cloudy and there was quite a nice breeze), holding aloft in triumph a tiny bottle of about 4 oz. of sunscreen. He'd been to four booths, and finally, at the last one (funny how that happens!) the guy sold him the last one he had! It was enough, covered us both for both days (though I forgot to cover my neck and I wound up with my first Nevada sunburn, becoming before your eyes Patsy the Ruby-Throated NASCAR Fan.
Highlight #8: Meeting some of the personnel involved with the Thunderbirds, the jets who did flyovers on all three days. Before I tell you about them, let me explain the picture: It's of the Neon Garage, but, to space the pictures out, I'm including it here. The structure in the center is where the entertainers did their thing. Okay, now back to the Thunderbirds. The crews who maintained the jets served as volunteers staffing the elevators at the racetrack, and a finer, more personable group of handsome young men I have yet to meet. We learned from one fellow, whose job was making sure the ejection mechanism worked on "his" plane, that ejecting sent the pilot out into the ether at a speed of 14 Gs, and that a pilot was only physically able to do that twice. After he'd had to eject the second time, his flying days were over (Charlie and I figured that this was because he was now too short to see out of the cockpit!). But seriously, folks, ejection was too hard on the spine to happen more than a couple of times. These fellows were very interesting to talk to (and to look at, though I think I probably appreciated that aspect more than Charlie did!)--and they handled those elevators like real pros! Never took a wrong turn, always got us there in one piece (and no shorter than when we started)! Good job, guys!
Highlight #9: Something I'd never seen before: Stunt helicopter flying! This was a pre-race feature that was really unexpected. Nellis Air Force Base is just a short ways up the valley beyond the race track, and there were constantly jets flying in and out of the base, so there was lots of excitement in the air, when there wasn't a race going on on the ground. And Nellis it was, I believe, that supplied a stunt helicopter exhibition, with this CRAZY pilot doing somersaults, stuttering at the top of a turn and plunging down, and just generally taking his life in his hands--especially since at the time of his show, there was quite a strong wind. But he made it, and we were appreciative (though I don't think he heard our applause.
Highlight #10: And this has to be the last, though I'll think of other things I should have told you, I'm sure! It was extremely impressive to me to see how the drivers and their crews lined up for the opening ceremonies (Invocation, national anthem, etc.). Each crew has its own uniforms and there are 6-8 guys for each car, and they all line up at the front of their pit stop area, so that you look down at this line of 43 short rows of guys in all colors of the rainbow. I tried for a picture, but I was generally just a few seconds too slow to get it. Anyway, it was quite a thrilling site. And I'm closing with another thrilling sight that I just can't resist: here are 4 of the Thunderbird jets swooping in from over the mountains in a pretty doggone impressive bit of formation flying.
Oh, and on Saturday, it only took about an hour and a half to get home, and on Sunday, we made it in just under an hour. If the weekend had lasted one more day, I believe I could have actually found a direct route home from the track to my apartment comparable to the direct route TO the track. Going TO the track was relatively simple, but I think, after three tries, I'd sort of have to say, "Hmmm, come to think of it, you cahn't get heah from theah"! The bottom line is that I'm learning about this city that you do not use the highways, if you can find anyway to avoid them--except for the 215, which was the one I took to and from work when I lived in the motor home. That highway was rarely clogged, and I could always do a reasonable 65 (or a Vegas-normal 75 or 80, while the sportscars would pass me like shots on the left).
Okay, that's it for the races. The next posting will be about my new apartment, and then I've got to tell you about Charlie's adventures driving the motor home to its temporary home in New Jersey. And then I've got to show you how beautiful my part of the city (Summerlin) is in the spring, and then. . . .
