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Race Weekend…Part I

To give a bit of background, I’m a huge motorsports fan. Because NASCAR is easily the most popular, and accessible motorsport in the US, it gets the brunt of my attention. In reality, I’m a fan of anything on 2 of 4 wheels that goes fast. Road, rally, oval, you name it. The only form of mechanical racing (I’m not into horses) that I don’t care for is boat racing. Formula 1 is by far the most interesting and fascinating from a technology and engineering stand point. But, the F1 following in the US is not very robust. Couple that with the fact the NASCAR schedule is significantly longer, more frequent, and more accessible via media coverage, and it kinda makes NASCAR top dog.

I made it until almost 2 years ago before seeing my first race live in person. A co-worker with roots in Indianapolis took me to the Indy 500 in 2007. No, you haven’t missed anything, I haven’t mentioned IndyCars specifically at all. If I were ranking, they would maybe be 5 or 6 on my list of series to follow, behind F1, NASCAR, and a host of other letters I won’t bother explaining right now. However, not without its own irony, the Indy 500 was my first exposure to auto racing on TV, and birthed my first favorite driver, Rick Mears driving for Roger Penske. So there I was, at the Indy 500 and it wasn’t even in my top 3 of racing series. Turns out it was a good day to attend my first race. Near halfway there was a heavy rain, many people left assuming the race would be halted and continued the following day. This gave my co-worker and I the opportunity to leave our cheap, limited view seats, and squat in the famous dual-grandstand frontstretch, behind pit road. The IndyCars are formidable machines, and unique to see live since they use 100% fuel grade ethanol instead of gasoline. The entire track takes on the the smell of the chemistry lab in high school. I’ll talk more about the IndyCars in a minute.

Although my racing cherry had been popped so to speak, I was still eager to take in my first NASCAR race. About 7 years ago a track was built in the Chicagoland area, a couple hours to the south in Joliet, previously only known as home of one of the state  prisons. So why haven’t I been going to the races here all that time? The Chicagoland Speedway hosts 3 stock car and 1 IndyCar race every year, but, only season tickets are sold. That is, you cannot buy a ticket to say, only the IndyCar race, or to any combination of races. The track only sells tickets in a “track pack.” The 2 NASCAR races in July, another stock car series, ARCA, and the IndyCar season finale in September. The ticket pack was $200, not bad for 4 races in itself, but since I really only wanted to see 1 of the 4, I felt it was absurd. I told myself they would never prosper with that system, and figured I’d just wait till next year..all the empty seats will show them the error of their ways. yep, I did that for 7 years.

I decided to take in a race in Atlanta in March of this year. There is a section with student ticket pricing, (a good section actually)…$20! I jumped at that like a working girl to a john’s car horn! I bought two tickets months in advance, and figured I’d enjoy a break from the Chicago weather when race time came around. Well, I was in for another realization. Once I added in airfare, hotel, car rental, and food, my race budget was well over $200. As I tried to cut expenses by shopping for bargain flights, exploring transportation and lodging options that didn’t require a rental or a full-blown hotel room, I got an offer from a lady-friend, elsewhere in the mid-west, to visit her – on her dime.  I sold my tickets back to the track and put my first NASCAR race on the shelf for the time being.

I had shoulder surgery in March, the week after the planned mid-west trip (that I never took…long story.) I was home from work for a month, and blogged about it a few times. During that time, I heard that the Chicagoland Speedway race had been moved to a night race. After learning that a single race in another city is well over $200, the 4-race-for-$200 suddenly became an excellent deal. I bought my track pack and eagerly awaited July.

Pace Lap	Friday Setting Sun	Racing Under the Lights!

Why is night racing more appealing than the daytime? Besides a break from the hot sun, and the fact it fits better in a busy person’s weekend, night racing is like the HD cousin of daytime racing. Because the background is dark, the colors of the cars themselves, the flames from the tailpipes, the glowing brake rotors, and sparks from the undercarriage hitting the track all show up with striking detail. Everything happening on the track seems to jump out at you against the night sky. Below you can see more images from the Friday and Saturday night NASCAR race:

Saturday Setting Sun	Saturday Night Ablaze!	TreoBenny at the Races

Just this past weekend was the ARCA/IndyCar weekend. I was actually excited to see the ARCA race, although it’s arguably the least attractive race in the pack. The Wallace family, well known in NASCAR, (Cup champion Rusty, Mike and popular NASCAR commentator, Kenny) have a new addition to the racing circuit. Mike’s daughter, Chrissy. She races in the ARCA series along with the only US driver in F1 last year, Scott Speed. However, my beach vBall duties kept me from attending that race. Sunday began cool and cloudy, but the sun eventually broke through and turned out to be a great day for racing. Below you’ll see videos from both racing weekends, NASCAR on the top, IndyCar on the bottom. Each is less than a minute long, but be warned that auto racing is loud. You may not want to watch either clip with sleeping babies nearby, those at high risk for heart attack, or with your boss around…unless he/she loves racing as well

NASCAR at Chicagoland Speedway

IndyCar at Chicagoland Speedway