Race pics and experiences

Here is my dad and I at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend:

View attachment 34298

Just after my dad bought tickets for the two of us to sit in the grandstands, one of his friends said he got several tickets for a suite. Oops.

We watched a couple of races in a private suite many years ago and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this speedway-run suite was a bit of a letdown.

The suite we stayed at many years ago had a large buffet with food throughout the race. This weekend's suite started putting away the food (mostly burgers) at the end of stage one.

My dad had to throw away the beer in his cooler, and had to pay $7 a beer. He says drinks were free in the private suite years ago.



Overall, we both enjoyed the race itself. It had a lot of action and incidents. My dad is a Byron fan now (since early last year; he watches Xfinity), and is happy he got to witness Byron's first top 10 Cup finish.

.

Looks fun. Sponsor suites include free food and drinks. The last few years at amway arena you could buy a suite for 15 or 20k and it includes 20 tickets. They don't include food or drinks. A guy I know bought a suite for 5 games but it took a while to sell all the tickets and only made about $1,000 so he stopped doing it.
 
Here is my dad and I at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend:

View attachment 34298

Just after my dad bought tickets for the two of us to sit in the grandstands, one of his friends said he got several tickets for a suite. Oops.

We watched a couple of races in a private suite many years ago and enjoyed it. Unfortunately, this speedway-run suite was a bit of a letdown.

The suite we stayed at many years ago had a large buffet with food throughout the race. This weekend's suite started putting away the food (mostly burgers) at the end of stage one.

My dad had to throw away the beer in his cooler, and had to pay $7 a beer. He says drinks were free in the private suite years ago.



Overall, we both enjoyed the race itself. It had a lot of action and incidents. My dad is a Byron fan now (since early last year; he watches Xfinity), and is happy he got to witness Byron's first top 10 Cup finish.

.

looks like a cool view, and looks like you guys were having fun.
 
earhhardt.jpg
earhhardt.jpg
 
Today our Chicago tickets came a month earlier than they were supposed to. We're on the start finish line up at the very top under the overhang out of the sun. End seats next to the elevator for easy access to the restrooms and food. This is one of the last tracks that we've haven't been to. We have camping reservations at the Hollywood Casino RV lot ten minutes from the track. I'm now watching for the rest of the tickets.
By the way, @dpkimmel2001 taught me the "Camp at a Casino" trick. :D
 
Itinerary subject to change without advance notice. :D

Martinsville March 25th
Richmond April 21st
Chicagoland July 1st
Daytona 2 July 7th
Darlington September 2nd
Kansas October 21st
Homestead November 18

We also wanted to make the Charlotte Roval but It's looking doubtful that she can get that week off. We almost always make the Daytona July and Homestead races and the other 5 are races that my wife hasn't been to. She's trying to take time off this year to check them off of her bucket list. We get back home from our "big" vacation the morning of July 5th and leave that afternoon after unloading and restocking the beast for Daytona. A tight schedule but that's part of the fun.
Itinerary update. We missed the first Martinsville and Richmond races because of a sudden need to change plans. The other five are still on and maybe the Sept Richmond race also. Fingers crossed.
 
^ That is one heck of a list, Gator. I envy you. Darlington and Homestead both... the two greatest 1.5ers ever (IMO). Short tracks. Daytona. Quite the itinerary! Enjoy!
 
Had a great time at Dover!

The trackside access pass is awesome! Totally recommend for only $20


5e26b78e70c9513c12029a9614f0bd4d.jpg


d7dae1f4c31f1ed427aafab330160823.jpg


5741fcdd32dcf33290d3f53230cf7d2d.jpg


e17fe03a5348b202bcdd59be7dc1aba2.jpg


1fcdf9a2192a7244bf362032970c3fd5.jpg


7982e390e02e3da199e1a60895ea8239.jpg
I see myself in the last pic, between the guy in light gray and the guy in dark blue about 15 rows down. Black and white Larson hat and black sweatshirt. Haha
 
Chicagoland last Sunday July 1st. This is about the track and race. I'll post the trip in the vacation thread.
We stayed at the Hollywood Casino RV park less than 15 minutes from the track. We went on Saturday afternoon to check the route and where we would park. At the track we had front row parking in the "B" lot just across the street from the main gate. At 9 am Sunday morning it took us 20 minutes from the RV to being parked in the lot. We had an absolute blast all day. The place is not all shiny and new like some but has the comfortable lived in feel of a lot of tracks. The upper sections where we were have all been renovated with new chair-back and arm rest seats. They've also removed every other row and added an aisle length tray table and underneath it some bag hooks. We could see the entire track very well and with the every other aisle seat removal we could sit down with an unobstructed view when the rows in front of us stood up.
The race itself turned out to be one of the greats so we were lucky to have attended it. The food was very very good and not quite as expensive as expected. When we left we were pleasantly surprised that the seat to truck was about 10 minutes and truck to campground only 20 minutes. We met some friends there and had a really good time. Pictures to follow.
 
An R-Fs member posted the week before the race that he had sat in the top row under the overhang the year before and couldn't see the back stretch because the overhang was too low. He must have gotten his tracks confused, or something. We were in row 65, the very top row, and had unobstructed views of the entire track.

At 9:30 am, notice the back and front stretch?

upload_2018-7-7_8-33-25.png


Turns 1 and 2.

upload_2018-7-7_8-35-49.png


Turns 3 and 4.

upload_2018-7-7_8-37-13.png
 
That is a large Chinet oval platter that the huge glob of goodness is sitting on. It's called "The Heart Attack" and has lots of cheese and bacon and I don't know how in the hell to describe what else was in it but it was really good.

upload_2018-7-7_9-2-7.png
 
Hell yeah @Johali, great pictures and looks like you did not go hungry at the track, LOL.

That 454 in the Green Chevelle made me drool, just a little bit.:D
It looked even better in person. And about half of that glob went back to the RV in a doggie (johali & wife) bag. :D
 
What camera/lens setup you use? The quality of the zoomed-in photos is impressive.
I have a Nikon D3200 and I was using a 55-200mm lens that day. The overcast provided perfect lighting. Shameless plug for the page, but I normally take photos for a dirt racing updates page called Riding the Cushion based out of upstate New York. We're on Facebook and Twitter, and provide news and live updates for dirt racing all over the country but mainly the northeast.
 
Back
Top Bottom