Indy race at TMS

Grab your Natural Light and Beef Jerky.... I fear I have made this longer than necessary (Although, if you don't mind - I will grab my Shiner and some lightly salted mixed nuts).

Saturday I went to my first ever live motor sport race - the Bombardier Learjet 550 at Texas Motor Speedway. Awesome stuff! I got to go with my friend Brandall. We have known each other since I was 16 and we lived in San Angelo. It was nice to get to go with someone that has a great understanding of the sport and the patience to help me understand. I am not sure if I needed more explaining during the race or during the Robbie Knievel stunt, but Brandall put up with me nicely. I enjoyed the experience immensely.

It was amazing. Every moment was new to me. EVEN the hot dog eating contest and Robbie Knievel jumping 20 something Hummers.... It was all part of the experience. Hard for me to decide what my favorite part was. The race was incredible, nothing like it. The people watching . . . OH! The people watching was something else entirely.

Ok - I will try to gather thoughts here...

If you have never been to TMS- it is a gigantic beast of a venue. Imagine it full of an incredible mix of Indy car & NASCAR fans that have been drinking since yesterday. Yeah, see why I can't decide what was more fun?

We got there somewhat early and found our seats. The pre-race entertainment was interesting to say the least. There was a hot dog eating contest that was unreal. I had not eaten dinner at this point (lucky Brandall) and was certainly not hungry after watching part and then suffering through listening to the rest of the contest. The thing is, these guys were not just eating hot dogs. They were required to eat 10 hot dog which also had BBQ beef and jalapenos piled on them. The contestants were visually shaking by the time they had stuffed three dogs down and then to watch them try to stuff 10 in there.... eeew. Only know of one guy that had to use a bucket... see, it was kinda gross. The winner won a trip to another race . . . where I presume he would be dubbed the champion and get to do it all over again. Wow, really?
It was actually more appealing than the girl that sang the pre-race song. That is a whole other story.

Then Mr. Knievel started his little jump tease.... otherwise known as a death defying jump over 21 Hummers, it was supposed to be 24, but there were high winds. I believe it took 45 minutes of showboating to get the man to risk his life for a somewhat unenthusiastic crowd. After he called "us" Dallas . . . the crowd was not as Texas Friendly as one would have hoped.
Still, an amazing feat. Brandall was kind enough to take a photo so I could have something to blog about and mom could have something to scrapbook with.

Feel the heat!
An amazing feat for Mr. Knievel against the wind!

So then we get to the good stuff. The race was about to begin, the crowd had filled in nicely.
I wanted so badly to hear a voice boom "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!". I hear "Indy car racers, start your engines." and want to boo! No time to complain though, the race was on!

It is impossible to describe the feeling, the sound, the thoughts that run through your mind when you watch these guys take off, then when they come around the track again at full speed and you break your neck trying to keep up with them. My heart was pounding!
I had watched NASCAR on TV - those guys go about 170 MPH. To see these guys zoom around the track at 214+ MPH (when not under a yellow caution flag) was incredible.

Brandall described it perfectly, he said it was terminal velocity. That it is. When asked my thoughts, I said something to the effect of "Holy Shit!". I know, always the eloquent one.

Here are some photos from the first laps - the downforce on the cars is so great, they were scraping the track and sending sparks flying going into turns 2 and 4.

Sparks fly at Turn 2

More at Turn 4

We picked who we thought would win before the race. I had to go with #3 Helio Castroneves. I had heard of him before, but had become more interested in him when he was on Dancing with the Stars. That man is funny, he can dance and it does not hurt that he is easy to look at. On top of all that, he is quite good at his sport. He is the only Indy race driver to finish top 5 in the seven races held this year. Brandall on the other hand actually picked the winner, #9 Scott Dixon. No bets were placed, so we are still friends.

Quite an experience, I would go again. What I am actually looking forward to is a chance to go to a Formula One race. To see that live, to experience that firsthand - I imagine I wouldn't have words to describe it (lucky you...).

Windblown and happy at TMS.

All in all, for something I thought I might miss due to other crazy life things going on, I had a blast. I had a great time catching up with Brandall and hanging out with 83,000 or so people.

I will update you soon on other things. . . I still need to catch my breath from these past two weeks and regain my hearing from this weekend!