And, oh my goodness!, what a cute bunch of kids just sang the National Anthem!! Way to go, Kids, you did America proud!! I think the love of God, country and family are one of the main reasons I have grown to love this sport as much as I have. This sport has its priorities in order!
We were in Bristol last year for this race. Our seats were so high up in the grandstands that we were actually looking down on the spotters. (Word of the day: spotter - a member of the race team who stands at the very top of the track, watches the race thru binoculars, and who is in direct radio contact with his driver, telling him/her where to drive the car. These conversations are very interesting, and if you go to a race you should definitely rent a scanner so that you can listen to their conversations. Just FYI, conversations are not edited so they are very raw. I would not recommend letting your really young kids listen; however, if your kids ride the school bus they have probably already heard this stuff :-/ )
The atmosphere of a night race is awesome, and watching them race under the lights just adds a touch of excitement. Here is the drawback to a night race though - people have ALL day to tailgate and by the time the race is over, there are some really really drunk people trying to find their way out. Like I said before, our seats were very high up - so high, in fact, that the elevator did not go that far. Therefore, we had to use the metal fire-escape-like stairs to get down. We decided we did not want to take our chances with these circumstances, so we made our way down when there were 30 laps to go. Even then the stairs were scary, mostly because smoking is not allowed in the grandstands so all those people stand on the stairs to smoke. And the racing starts to get craaaazy at Bristol at the end of the race. We listened to the final laps on our Sirius radio on our way out. Felt bad that I was such a chicken, but Hubby said he was fine with leaving when we did.
We had a GREAT time at this race - met some crazy people who fly in for this race every year from California. We've been thinking about them this week and that makes us wish we were there even more.
Several years ago we took a trip thru this area of Tennessee/Virginia (yes, the city of Bristol actually straddles the state line!) and we stopped and took a tour of the track. Most tracks offer this little perk, and I highly recommend it. You usually get a van ride around the track with a crazy woman behind the wheel and it is a hoot! You get to go to Victory Lane and take a photo or two. At Bristol, we actually got to walk UP the track to experience the banking. I should say try to walk up the track. It was so crazy steep I actually had to sit down and scoot back down because I was afraid I would fall flat on my face! Take advantage of every opportunity you get to do this at any track. You just don't get the feel of it on TV or even in the grandstands. You have to experience it for yourself.
We stayed at a KOA campground about an hour north of the track, which put us an hour closer to home for the next day's five-hour trip home. We met some nice people at the campground who were from the area and who gave us tips on where to park. We exchanged email addresses and have contacted each other several times this year for advice on where to camp for other races. We hope to catch up with them again this fall in Martinsville. Another reason why I love this sport - you meet the nicest people if you just know where to look.
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