2017 Race Dates and Planning

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da33a7

Guest
Good Day to you all! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beginning of the racing season as much as I am. I have been away for some time vacationing and seems like this site may have disappeared for a while. Well I am back and ready to pick your brains so am very pleased to see the site has been resurrected :D

Next year I plan to head over from the UK for 2 Sprint Cup races and any other things and activities that may fall in between as well. Any idea when the race dates start to be released for the next season? I would like to get planning and booking hotels, transport etc as soon as I can but obviously everything will depend on when and where the boys and girls will be racing :rolleyes:

We will be travelling out around 24th March 2017 due to my Fathers annual leave allocation and looking to take in 2 races to make the most of the time we are there. Now, based on the early Easter this year these dates don't look too great right now as there was an off weekend during this time however, looking at next years Easter dates I am hopeful we can hit 2 x races in consecutive weekends otherwise we are kind of screwed.

Based on this years schedule I could end up being lucky enough to see 2 of the following races which i am totally buzzing for - Phoenix, AutoClub, Martinsville, Texas, Bristol but i do suppose it all depends on how things get penciled in. I would love for a Phoenix/Autoclub or Autoclub/Martinsville double :cool:

I will probably try and request all of your valuable knowledge as much as possible in planning our trip so please try and be patient with me but if i am too annoying then please do tell me to disappear if I do get on your nerves.

Thanks to you all in advance :salute:
 
If I had the option to take in two at that time of the year, my anchor choice would be Martinsville and whichever race falls before or after.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
If I had the option to take in two at that time of the year, my anchor choice would be Martinsville and whichever race falls before or after.
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For sure. I would love Martinsville. Would be good to see 2 different types of track as well, a smaller slower track and a bigger faster circuit. It does all depend on my fathers leave dates as he is tied to what they give him unfortunately. I am more fortunate in that I can take annual leave whenever I need to.
 
da33a7 said:
That sounds good to me - thanks bud :cheers:

So you have been to Martinsville?
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Many times. Martinsville tickets are the only season tickets that we still purchase. We'll continue to go there until it no longer exists on the schedule or it is not within our means to do so.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Many times. Martinsville tickets are the only season tickets that we still purchase. We'll continue to go there until it no longer exists on the schedule or it is not within our means to do so.
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Fantastic! The racing is always great to watch at Martinsville and everything is so close together, non stop action. I hope I do get to that race my friend if only for the hotdog :rolleyes:
 
da33a7 said:
Fantastic! The racing is always great to watch at Martinsville and everything is so close together, non stop action. I hope I do get to that race my friend if only for the hotdog :rolleyes:
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Television will never do that track, or any track, justice.

Yep, gotta have a hot dog.
 
Well the 2017 schedule is out and it looks like I could be at Autoclub and Martinsville. Well chuffed with that :D

Any tips or tricks that anyone could provide me would be very much appreciated. I am looking for any help at all starting with things like nearest airports/best accessible from the UK etc etc. I suppose flying into LAX for Autoclub and flying out from Charlotte after Martinsville would be the best bet for direct flights from/to London. Internally I would need to fly too.

Places to stay? Good locations/decent prices etc. Car rentals?

Tickets - good seats/good packages for each of the tracks?

Anything else to see whilst I am there?

Thanks a lot guys and girls.
 
da33a7 said:
Well the 2017 schedule is out and it looks like I could be at Autoclub and Martinsville. Well chuffed with that :D

Any tips or tricks that anyone could provide me would be very much appreciated. I am looking for any help at all starting with things like nearest airports/best accessible from the UK etc etc. I suppose flying into LAX for Autoclub and flying out from Charlotte after Martinsville would be the best bet for direct flights from/to London. Internally I would need to fly too.

Places to stay? Good locations/decent prices etc. Car rentals?

Tickets - good seats/good packages for each of the tracks?

Anything else to see whilst I am there?

Thanks a lot guys and girls.
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Excellent website for info about attending a race is www.laidbackracing.com It's my go to website when attending a race for the first time. While the pages aren't pretty, they are loaded with information about the area around the track.

Here are links to their Autoclub & Martinsville pages.

http://www.laidbackracing.com/Tracks/CaliforniaSpeedway.html

http://www.laidbackracing.com/Tracks/Martinsville.html

I've never been to Autoclub so someone else can fill you in on that. As far as Martinsville goes.....

Tickets - I always buy directly from the track. Martinsville will begin to offer packages that will feature pre race pit/garage passes for free with the purchase of tickets by a first time visitor. They send out an email leading up to the race date. In any event, you will not have a problem getting tickets from them close to the race date itself.

Seating location - We've been going there for a long, long time. We've sat in each corner, end, front straight and years ago even the back straight. My personal preference, where are seats are located now, are the turn #1-#2 end. We sit there both spring and fall. It is the south grandstands. A great view of the entire track is directly in front of you. The sun is always to you back. We sit in section #201. Awesome view of the cars coming down the front straight. Almost the entire pit road is in view. It is also a great view of the prime pit spots and pit exit on that end of the track. The pits at Martinsville play a huge role in that race.

View from my seat location. Click the pic for the expanded view.

DSC07028.jpg

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Hi All. I must say thanks so far for the help and assistance. The website suggestions are great and will help massively. Slight change in plan now due to the announcement of a family wedding (damn it) right in the middle of our trip :confused:

Looks like we might have to head over for Darlington and Richmond in September of 2017. Which could work out quite nicely just the same but does mean I will miss Martinsville :oops:
 
da33a7 said:
Hi All. I must say thanks so far for the help and assistance. The website suggestions are great and will help massively. Slight change in plan now due to the announcement of a family wedding (damn it) right in the middle of our trip :confused:

Looks like we might have to head over for Darlington and Richmond in September of 2017. Which could work out quite nicely just the same but does mean I will miss Martinsville :oops:
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The wedding can easily be rescheduled to accommodate your trip. I'm just sayin'
 
Richmond has it's own airport, although you may be better off flying out of Washington DC.

For Darlington, the best air connection is Charlotte (which is an international airport). I'd sit in Brasington tower, in the middle sections. The cars come down the front straightaway right at you.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Richmond has it's own airport, although you may be better off flying out of Washington DC.

For Darlington, the best air connection is Charlotte (which is an international airport). I'd sit in Brasington tower, in the middle sections. The cars come down the front straightaway right at you.
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Thanks bud. I like the idea of flying in and out of Charlotte for this trip. Flights are good and reasonably priced to and from London to here. I can pick up a car and drive to Darlington and Richmond from Charlote no problem and it could give me a good chance to hit the hall of fame and visit some work shops whilst in the area. That's the idea around this for now.

Nice recommendation on the seats. Will look into that for sure. View point is certainly a recommendation that helps me out. I have no idea where is good to sit at these races so any advice on that is taken very seriously. @dpkimmel2001 gave a great tip on seating at Martinsville which got me very excited but will have to save that for 2018 :D
 
Is there a place that I can order season tickets for all the races on the circuit for a year or do you need to purchase season tickets through each track? Thanks
 
Acs said:
My gosh, can I have your life please?
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Not doing it this year, but maybe within the 5 year mark. Gotta save up for it. If you look at it though, most tickets average roughly 90 bucks, so for tickets for all 36 races, you're only talking 3,000. Expense is really just in travel to get to and from all those tracks. Needless to say, I really just wanted to know if it was possible to do that, because I don't really want to go to each track for passes individually.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Richmond has it's own airport, although you may be better off flying out of Washington DC.

For Darlington, the best air connection is Charlotte (which is an international airport). I'd sit in Brasington tower, in the middle sections. The cars come down the front straightaway right at you.
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Hey @Charlie Spencer.

Just to let you know that I heeded your advice and booked the tickets for the Brassington Tower - Southern 500 :) I cannot wait!!!!! Thanks for the advice matey, truly grateful!!!

Richmond go on sale tomorrow for September - buzzing to get tickets for there.
 
Gods of us all, I'd completely forgotten about this discussion! If I remember it when the race gets here, I'll try to connect with you!
 
Not been around here much lately but just thought i would poke my head in ahead of this weekend. I hope you are all keeping well!! :)

Flying over on Saturday and cannot wait to see some of those throwback schemes at the Southern 500!!
 
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