Old Dude goes to the Stock Car Races

[Old Dude]

... for nearly seven excruciating hours on Saturday...

Findings & Conclusions.

The cars make a lot of noise and the scent of burning tires is pretty much what I expected.

They went around in circles a lot. I think I understood some of the strategy - - which had something to do with the grade in the curves. I saw some guys who were able to protect their leads at critical times with defensive manuevers. Beyond that, I really didn't understand too much except go fast and try not to crash.

Lots of yellow flags. Really, it was kind of like a football game. The more mishaps, the more restarts, the longer the whole thing took.

It was a hot day, so a lot of the women in attendance were wearing tight T-shirts that showed off a substantial amount of cleavage and midriffs. Some of this was pretty interesting. But probably not worth sitting on a steel bleacher for seven hours in 100 degree heat. The concessions were overpriced.

When it was all said and done, I found it to be a fairly boring experience and developed a severe headache and a mild sunburn. I probably won't go again. But now I can say I've been there.

[Rascal]

Lol!!

[Old Dude]

That's easy for you to say.

Seven hours.

Vroom, vroom.

Around and around in circles.

Vroom. Vroom.

[SoCalBronco]

It could have been worse, Old Dude.

You could have been sitting watching Anime and Manga all day!

:)

[Old Dude]

You have a point there.

Care to make a contribution to the Anime Sucks Foundation?

http://con.ca/news/764

[Mtbrncofn]

Way to go, OD! I can't believe you didn't like it. Wrecks are a blast and all the noise is awesome. Next on your agenda should be an NHRA race. What's not to love about a nitro burning engine that's louder than all **** and goes 330+ MPH?! :woowoo:

[Hotrod]

Way to go, OD! I can't believe you didn't like it. Wrecks are a blast and all the noise is awesome. Next on your agenda should be an NHRA race. What's not to love about a nitro burning engine that's louder than all **** and goes 330+ MPH?! :woowoo:

I could understand going to drag races but Im with OD here watching someone drive really fast making tons of left turns for 7 hours would be abit much for me.

[Old Dude]

Way to go, OD! I can't believe you didn't like it. Wrecks are a blast and all the noise is awesome. Next on your agenda should be an NHRA race. What's not to love about a nitro burning engine that's louder than all **** and goes 330+ MPH?! :woowoo:

Well, let's start with the wreck thing. Sure, I like to see a great big fireball of steel, rubber and humanity just as much as the next blue-blooded American guy, but mostly what we're talking about here are a few sparks, dents and a smoking tire or two. Now and then a fender got torn away. There was one guy who might have got concussed when he hit the wall.

Fine. Okay?

But after about 5 hours of this stuff, I just wanted out of there, and it was obvious that the family would not let me go until all the races were done. Yellow flags delay things. So I wound up in the horrible situation of hoping that there would NOT be any crashes or mishaps. This was no fun at all.

I think this sport would be greatly improved if they would just do away with yellow flags.

Now, as for the noise ...

THere are some loud noises that I like. I like the sound of a roaring waterfall. I like the sound of the Blue Angel Jets flying overhead. I like the sound of thunder on a spooky night.

But there are some loud sounds I could do without. Like jackhammers for example.

A jackhammer is kind of interesting to listen to for a minute or two. THree at the most. But 7 hours of listening to a jackhammer is a little much, if you know what I mean.

7 hours of nitro engines going vrooooom vrooom, vroooom is not all that melodic when you get right down to it. I mean, seriously, after seven hours, I'd even get tired of Mozart.

I suppose this would have been more interesting if I'd actually known or cared who was in the race. There wasn't much to root for except colors or numbers or paint jobs. I like yellow and orange, and the numbers "3" and "7" are sexy sometimes, but I'm not really all that emotionally attached to them.

Call me shallow.

[OrangeShadow]

Guess the races arent for everyone.

[Old Dude]

The race fans were cool, though. Very friendly folks. Very laid back. Most of them were in a good mood almost of the time. Never been around a crowd quite that nice.

I figure they were probably stoned, or something.

[Crushaholic]

I could understand going to drag races but Im with OD here watching someone drive really fast making tons of left turns for 7 hours would be abit much for me.

I've been tempted to go to a few drag races in town because they look fun. I can't get into racing for hours at a time, either.

[Mtbrncofn]

Well, let's start with the wreck thing. Sure, I like to see a great big fireball of steel, rubber and humanity just as much as the next blue-blooded American guy, but mostly what we're talking about here are a few sparks, dents and a smoking tire or two. Now and then a fender got torn away. There was one guy who might have got concussed when he hit the wall.

Fine. Okay?

But after about 5 hours of this stuff, I just wanted out of there, and it was obvious that the family would not let me go until all the races were done. Yellow flags delay things. So I wound up in the horrible situation of hoping that there would NOT be any crashes or mishaps. This was no fun at all.

I think this sport would be greatly improved if they would just do away with yellow flags.

Now, as for the noise ...

THere are some loud noises that I like. I like the sound of a roaring waterfall. I like the sound of the Blue Angel Jets flying overhead. I like the sound of thunder on a spooky night.

But there are some loud sounds I could do without. Like jackhammers for example.

A jackhammer is kind of interesting to listen to for a minute or two. THree at the most. But 7 hours of listening to a jackhammer is a little much, if you know what I mean.

7 hours of nitro engines going vrooooom vrooom, vroooom is not all that melodic when you get right down to it. I mean, seriously, after seven hours, I'd even get tired of Mozart.

I suppose this would have been more interesting if I'd actually known or cared who was in the race. There wasn't much to root for except colors or numbers or paint jobs. I like yellow and orange, and the numbers "3" and "7" are sexy sometimes, but I'm not really all that emotionally attached to them.

Call me shallow.

Shallow!! ;)

On a side note, the Blue Angels are in town this weekend here and the whole family is headed to the air show to catch all the fun. I just love this stuff and they haven't been here since '99.

[Billy Clyde Puckett]

Old Dude - your description of going to the races for the first time reminds me of the (very) old Andy Griffin comedy bit about a country boy seeing his first football game. Bet most here are too young to have ever heard it, but it was hilarious for the time.