Another track checked off the list...the truck race last night at O'Reilly Race Park was really good for a number of things. Ron Hornaday won, fending off an eager Kyle Busch and took Timothy Peters to school on "the slide job." Just plain great.
A bit about the facility:
They charge for parking--I don't really get this. They're obviously jacking the prices for the NASCAR week anyway...$47 for just the trucks and $52 for the Nationwide. This is for a spot on a backless bench, which is much too narrow to share with the rest of humanity. So the extra $10-$15 for a parking spot seems just gratuitous.
With all the extra income from Speedfest...I would ask ORP to fix their score board. They use "7" for the digit "1" and "9" for the digit "4"...which is all very confusing when you're checking what lap you're on. Things just don't seem to be counting up or down. I won't hold the four position board, that's what most regional tracks manage to maintain.
Restrooms...well maintained and plenty. Thank you!
No tunnel...but as I said before. As a local track, that's fine.
The dragstrip is a thing of beauty! Makes me wanna try out some NHRA action. You can see this is where ORP gets the $$$, as they've even got some suites for the strip.
Getting there from Indy...so simple. Especially where we ignored the DOT signs and just followed Crawfordsville Road. Literally only 15 minutes. Leaving was just as sweet, once somebody wth more sense than us opened the gates for the strip, allowing us to leave the way we arrived. Otherwise it was everybody going nowhere as nobody knew which way to go--humans are creatures of habit. Don't give us a rat maze all of a sudden. We knew how this worked when the sun was up.
The racing: Awesome. Two real racing grooves with just enough room to squeeze a third when you had to. Tires gave up after 60 laps, putting a lot of wheel back in the driver's hands. And seats are down close to the action and can still see all the turns. That's the hallmarks of a great little facility.
And a note about the Trucks: Look, when the Top 10 trucks are running a totally separate race from the rest of the field, you don't really have parity. You have 26 trucks in the way of the frontrunners. NASCAR even lowered the threshold for minimum speed, the difference between first and last speed was so disparate. In this case, there is no possibility for the wanna-be's to win. All they can hope for is to stay out of the way of Hornaday & Busch's front bumper.
To me, this is a clear indication that the Truck Series is in far more trouble than the lack of sponsors tells us. Not this year...probably not next. But unless things turn around in the higher series, the Camping World Truck Series will not be long for this world.
Later! (More heat today...ughness)
Showing posts with label auto racing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auto racing. Show all posts
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I'm Melting!
We made it! We're parked just outside the frontstretch of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The famous pagoda is visible from our campsite. The top is illuminated with blue lights, and should somebody be running on the track, there is a massive leader board wrapping around the roof.
We are in a city. This is a unique experience for racing. At the corner of Turn One, there is a gas station, a liquor store and the kind of three-way intersection that makes most urban residents of our nation cringe. The campground is surrounded by pleasant one-level homes built in the 50's. Most of them have RV's renting space on the front lawn. The American Legion Speedway Post is within a stone's throw, and promises a $7 breakfast buffet on Sat. & Sun morning. Also, of note, they claim to have a biker club...only in America.
The weather....100 degree heat index with very high humidity. We shopped for food (A/C), went to the museum (A/C) and took a brief tour of the track (more A/C) then figured out how to fool the RV into allowing the Honda generator to run the A/C without blowing a circuit for a short time. They say more of the same to come for the weekend...it will be a battle between watching racing maintaining our sanity.
What is unique about Indy vs. the other racing venues we've visited is the history. This is where automotive history has been made over and over. It's not all about NASCAR. In fact, their museum deigned to make enough room for two whole stock cars in the collection...that says something. We looked at Daemler carriages from the late 1800's--metal, wood, leather and all moving parts visible. Speedometers run off gears from the front wheel. Suspension parts made out of woven straps. Basic rudder systems for steering. Dashboards? What are those?
It's proof that we've been going as fast as possible since the beginning of time, and we've spent the last century figuring out how to do it with an engine and four wheels. Sometimes with understated elegance, and at other times stripped to the bare essentials. There was one car from the 20's that was pock-marked with an effort to strip weight off the behemoth to meet a race entry requirement--unsuccessfully.
Otherwise...the track is much the same as any other. Grandstands stand empty waiting for the pomp and ceremony of Sunday to arrive. That's when the magic happens.
Until then... :)
We are in a city. This is a unique experience for racing. At the corner of Turn One, there is a gas station, a liquor store and the kind of three-way intersection that makes most urban residents of our nation cringe. The campground is surrounded by pleasant one-level homes built in the 50's. Most of them have RV's renting space on the front lawn. The American Legion Speedway Post is within a stone's throw, and promises a $7 breakfast buffet on Sat. & Sun morning. Also, of note, they claim to have a biker club...only in America.
The weather....100 degree heat index with very high humidity. We shopped for food (A/C), went to the museum (A/C) and took a brief tour of the track (more A/C) then figured out how to fool the RV into allowing the Honda generator to run the A/C without blowing a circuit for a short time. They say more of the same to come for the weekend...it will be a battle between watching racing maintaining our sanity.
What is unique about Indy vs. the other racing venues we've visited is the history. This is where automotive history has been made over and over. It's not all about NASCAR. In fact, their museum deigned to make enough room for two whole stock cars in the collection...that says something. We looked at Daemler carriages from the late 1800's--metal, wood, leather and all moving parts visible. Speedometers run off gears from the front wheel. Suspension parts made out of woven straps. Basic rudder systems for steering. Dashboards? What are those?
It's proof that we've been going as fast as possible since the beginning of time, and we've spent the last century figuring out how to do it with an engine and four wheels. Sometimes with understated elegance, and at other times stripped to the bare essentials. There was one car from the 20's that was pock-marked with an effort to strip weight off the behemoth to meet a race entry requirement--unsuccessfully.
Otherwise...the track is much the same as any other. Grandstands stand empty waiting for the pomp and ceremony of Sunday to arrive. That's when the magic happens.
Until then... :)
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