NASCAR

JAG (the works social organization) had been busy organizing more events, the latest of which was a trip to the NASCAR race at Gateway International Speedway in Illinois. This is literally just over the river from St Louis & you can easily see the city & arch from the racetrack. This is a fairly new facility, with 2006 being the 'Turning 10' celebration.

The track has a 1.25-mile 'oval' and a dragstrip. It currently seats 60,000 but can be expanded to 120,000. The main events are the NASCAR (Busch & Craftsman Truck Series) and NHRA drag racing.

We arrived at the track at about 6:00pm (racing started at 7:15) having picked Steve up from downtown St Louis on the way. There was lots of traffic but JAG had got parking passes for the track side car park so we were close to our seats. It did take us about an hour to find a parking space, but this wasn't such a bad thing as about 45 minutes before the race was due to start a strong thunderstorm passed overhead. We were lucky beacuse we were still in the car, but the thousands of people that had been tailgating all day were getting pretty wet.

The rain, lightning, thunder, lightning, rain, thunder, (you get the idea) stopped about 10 minutes before the race was due to start. As we neared the track, all you could here was the sound of jet engines which were the track dryers.

The race eventually started almost two hours late. Brad (who organised the event) had got really good seats that were right by the start/finish line & the pits. The cars didn't seem that loud when they started & even when following the safety car (a new Dodge Charger), but as soon as this pulled in they suddenly got real loud as they all floored it.

The cars were doing close to 200 mph, which made for quick laps but just a blur as they passed us. The best place to see the cars was on the video screen in the pits & on the back straight of the track. The race lasted for 200 laps & although the storm had cleared the humidity, by 11:00pm it was pretty chilly. Probably the best part of the race was when there was an accident or mechanical failure. One car slid into the outer wall & another driver blew up his engine, but other than that it was pretty quiet.

For those that wanted to stay on & party there were fireworks & a free concert by Travis Tritt (a country singer). We chose to brave the traffic but last in meant first out - we were back on the interstate within about 10 minutes of getting to the car.