Race Day

We had an opportunity to attend a Nascar race on Sunday. Bobby's work gave away tickets to the employees. We aren't race fans but it seemed a fun experience for the kids so we decided to have a day at the speedway. It was definitely interesting and even fun at times but also quite the assault on the senses, so many sights, smells, sounds. At first we were only going to bring the younger boys but Hayley decided she'd really like to go too. We left at 9:00 AM (tried to leave earlier but it just didn't work out) and didn't get home until 10:15PM.
The speedway is less than an hour from our home but with the traffic it took 1.5 hours to drive there and 4 hours to drive home! Here is a pictorial with comments of the day.

Arrive at Speedway at 10:30, the first sights we see are thousands of RV's, 1000s of Porta Potties, massive amounts of litter on the ground, mainly beer bottles, Tristan said these people are LITTERING, LOL, lots of helicopters and mobil shower units!

We're here, wow this is HUGE!

The kids don't look at all excited, I think thy were just bewildered too. We did miles of walking just to get situated with getting to the stands from the parking area, picking up another ticket (we'd only been given 4 so had to buy 1) and getting to our seats.

helicopters kept flying by to bring people to the track.

Someone needs a nap.

They're off. The roar from the cars is massively loud!

It was fun to watch although after about 100 laps the kids were getting a little bored. It really is a long race for people who have never attended before.

Much more enjoyable with ear plugs!

Colin, who I thought would enjoy the day the best, actually had the hardest time with the noise.

around they go....

Crashes added excitement!

Late in the day rain arrived and a lot of people left.

As the track gets wet the official decide if they will wait out the rain or end the race, it was getting quite near the end anyway.

The rain got harder so the officials declared a winner at 273 laps. Colin had liked 20 and 24 and Tristan liked #2, they were happy their cars, which they chose due to the colors, did well. It turned out that the winner was only 19 years old, the kids thought that was cool.

Bedraggled children

Masses of people trying to leave now that the race is over.

Trying to leave we were in the car for hours! The kids did well waiting, they really rose to the challenge. I know I was getting so tired and impatient so they must have felt even worse. I had a few toys to help them stay occupied.

Very sleepy, we're been in the car for almost 3 hours at this point.

Very silly too.

at last, the road home.....

It was quite an experience.