November 10, 2008
Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, AZ
We wrapped up our race weekend and made the long trip (15 miles - ha!) back home on Monday morning.
The NASCAR races over the weekend are broken up into three separate series, or classes. Friday night was a 150 mile race for the "Craftsman Truck Series" (basically the same type of race chassis, just with a body that looks like a pickup truck), Saturday was a 200 mile race for the "Nationwide Series" (the "developmental" circuit for NASCAR), and Sunday was the 312 mile (500 kilometers - so they can call it the "Checker Auto Parts 500") "Sprint Cup Series" (the "big time"). At one mile around, PIR is one of the shorter tracks on the NASCAR tour.
Friday night's Truck race was fun, and educational. We learned that ear protection is important (probably should have bought those $2/pair earplugs on the way in). We learned that our $6 seat cushions worked just fine and that we didn't need the more expensive ones after all. And, we learned that closer (lower) seating is not necessarily better, since the fence that surrounds the track also restricts your line of sight for the first 20 or so rows. Lastly, we found out that, while the free tram to/from the track from the RV parking areas is convenient, it's queue is worse than an E-ticket Disney ride when the race is over and everyone wants to head back at the same time. These lessons will help us immensely if we do this again.
Click here for a few pictures from Friday night.
Friday night, we had more of our pre-prepared dinner menu, still wondering how we'd (I'd?) managed to not realize how much pasta was involved in planning two pasta nights, two lo mein nights, chicken carbonara, and meatball stroganoff. We were lucky, though, that Geri had made and brought a "harvest pie" (apples and pears, oh my). After havibg it for the second night, we ended up sharing the remainder with the two couples next door, who had rented an RV locally after traveling down from Grand Junction, Colorado.
Saturday's race was in the late afternoon, and our seats were higher up (row 42). With everything I was carrying, and knowing where the seats were located, I decided to not bring the heavy camera gear because I wouldn't get many pictures beyond the snapshots I'd taken the prior days. These seats gave us the height advantage to see the whole track without too much interference, and we were pleased to see that the three top rows in the grandstand (42-44) all had built-in back rests that the lower rows didn't. With the seat cushions and the backrests, we were much better off.
On the other hand, we got to our seats too early (about 2 hours, to watch the final practice for Sunday's bunch) to sit in the desert sun for so long. We'd applied sunscreen liberally, so we didn't burn, but we definitely baked. New lesson: light-colored clothing is a must. Even with three bottles of water, I was parched by the end. Geri needed a break from the sun early on in the race, and didn't want to tackle the climb back to row 42, so she caught the majority of the race from the concourse and from an empty seat in a low row. We learned a new lesson: seats in the grandstand section on the western end of the track were in the shade for the whole race. To avoid the tram jam (clever, eh?), Geri positioned herself there just as the race was ending. I avoided the queue after the race was over by just walking back to the coach. It took me about 25 minutes; no big deal for me by myself but not an option for Geri.
Somehow, Geri found the time to make a new appetizer recipe: brucetta with white beans and sun-dried tomatoes. We had plenty to share with the neighbors before digging into the night's carb-heavy meal.
Sunday's "big event" started earlier, but the weather was different. As opposed to Saturday's blazing sunshine, we awoke to mostly cloudy skies and breezy conditions. Even though the clouds started to break up just before race time, it was much cooler on Sunday. I decided to do some exploring on the mountain bike in the morning, and ended up riding all the way through the RV parking areas, checking for possible future locations and seeing "the sights". In the areas where the earliest arrivals probably parked, some of the most decreipt and ramshackle "rigs" (and I use that term loosely) could be found. One crowd actually had a 35' houseboat on a trailer parked in amongst the RVs, lawn chairs and gas grill on the roof, "anchored" to a pair on Honda generators. I wish I'd brought a camera.
We decided that I'd wear a white T-shirt, take 3 liters of water, and ride the mountain bike over to the track (I'd seen hundreds of them locked along the fence the day before) and that Geri would take the tram when the race was about 1/3 over, giving the sun time to shift to the west a bit. This was a halfway decent plan, up to a point. That point came as Geri was just leaving the coach.
A series of clouds formed overhead, the wind picked up to about 50 MPH, and it started to rain and hail. In Phoenix. Go figure. Anyway, they actually stopped the race for about 30 minutes, just about the time that Geri was chasing our 9x15' patio mat around the RV parking area and trying to make sure that our chairs didn't blow away. At this point, her plan changed ("Why don't I just stay here and watch on TV?") and I started making the trek down 42 rows to the loo (not so parched after twice as much water). In true Phoenix fashion, the "weather event" was soon over and the only lingering evidence was thedust in the air from the winds. The race finished later than expected (Geri sasid the final few laps were cut off from the TV coverage; something about "America's' Funniest Videos" being a more important commitment) with another exciting ending.
I was glad I had the bike for the trip back to the coach, and glad I'd remembered to bring my regular glasses (it was well after sunset and the sunglasses needed all day would have been a hindrance). When we got back settled and chatted with the neighbors, the offered up a couple of grilled rib-eys for dinner - how could we refuse? They were great with some left over mashers we had from earlier in the week and a side of corn, along with a nice Aussie Shiraz/Cab blend ("Pillar Box Red", a Costco special).
Monday dawned sunny and bright, even if a lot of the inhabitants of our little temporary city were "slow moving". If I wasn't for the fact that most of the RVs and camping equipment deployed near us was relatively new and in reasonably good shape, you'd have thought we were in the midst of a refugee camp, or something out of the "Mad Max" movies. With the smoke from dying campfires and people milling about or packing up, it was in interesting sight.
Since we didn't have much stuff deployed, breaking camp was pretty easy. I packed up the patio mat and chairs, took down the generator exhaust stack, and put up the window awnings while Geri secured the inside and brought in the slides. Since we were so close to home, we decided that we wouldn't bother to hook up the car for towing. Geri headed off with the pups for home, and I took the coach over to the local Flying J truck stop on the premise that I'd top off the fuel and propane tanks, both of which were about 1/4 full. What a great idea. Too bad everyone else had the same idea first; the access road to the truck stop was jammed 1/2 mile all the way back to I-10. I ended up doing a drive-by, not getting stuck in the jam up, and just headed for home. I'll make a run over there some time over the next few weeks, as it's always a good idea to store the coach with a full tank of fuel to prevent condensation, but it's not critical here this time of year.
Overall, we had a pretty good time at the races, learned a bit about what to do next time, and met some niice folks in the process. I'm pretty sure that tickets go on sale in March, so I may send an email to a few folks in January/February to see if anyone wants to join us next year.
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