Feb 28 WOW, a day at the Nascar races!!

Over the years John has photographed lots of Formula 1 race cars in Europe.  Yesterday was our first opportunity to go to a Nascar race and take photos there.  When Ingried called and said they had extra tickets we jumped at the opportunity to go.

If you live in Phoenix and have an RV of any kind, many people go there two weeks early, park their rig in a parking line, then come back on Monday the week of the race to move it in and pick their space.  Ingried & Jack,their friends (and in-laws) Jerry and Bill, and daughter Nicole, husband Steve, and baby Alisa all have rigs that they brought.  They stayed from Wednesday on at the site and just enjoyed the camping and camaraderie, we showed up Sunday morning. Meghan got to visit and spent the day in the RV while we were at the race.

This year they were lucky and had pit passes for 7 so we all had a chance to go in and see the behind the scenes activities.  Nicole, Ingried and I were really proud of ourselves as we worked our way into the individual pit areas for each crew.  They were all finishing up their last minute preparations, some were eating, and cars were in line for measurements and weight.  It was really cool and we had a good laugh that we got in without any issues.  The others were all jealous until we heard from John.

The Menard team John hung out with

Of course he wanted to take very specific photos and got lost from the group.  We were all supposed to be out of the area by 12:30pm because the race was starting at 1pm.  John managed to get stuck in the pit area because he was late.  I think he did it on purpose.  Getting stuck let him smooze with the race teams, meet a few drivers and get better photos.  He spent a lot of time with the Menard team and watched them finish their preparations.  After the race started he was able to sit on the inside of the track right next to the entrance to the pit area, giving him great individual shots without people in the background.

After about 90 minutes he found a tunnel and was able to get to the seats and join us.  I had rented a pair of special headsets and a small handset that had a TV and a a scorecard on it.  It was pretty cool because you could listen to audio from individual cars or scan them all, and there was a way to watch instant replays.  It's a big Nascar thing I guess because most people seemed to have them.

Winner, Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon was the eventual winner of the race, very cool because he was on a losing streak and hadn't won in 66 races.  It was great to be there to see him break the streak.  And John loved it because he had a chance to chat with him before the race and wished him good luck - must have worked.!  He told the pit manager he expected a win also and he got a good chuckle.

The winning car

After the race we all went back to the rigs and had cocktails and dinner.  We had a campfire to keep us warm and some played a bean bag toss game.  Lots of others were staying the last night to avoid the traffic on the way out.  We left around 9 when most were gone.  Turns out Nascar is pretty fun.  Who knew?

Here's a family photo of our hosts:

Alisa, Brad, Jack, Nicole, Steve, Ingried, Bill and Jerry