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Red Neck Weekend


AzRednek

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Spent the weekend camped at the Phoenix 500 NASCAR Race. Race is really 500 clicks or 310 laps. Amazing that a race can turn the desert into a city. Even Safeway sets up a grocery store and there is a tent night club with a live band. Haven't heard the numbers yet. Last year I believe it was 20,000+. Race fans in million $$ RV's to nothing more than sleeping bags in the back of a pick-up or on the ground. Daytime temps peaked about mid 90's.

 

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The two NASCAR races pretty much uneventful and some what boring at times. I didn't arrive early enough for the South American league's only race held in the USA on Friday. From what I was told. Crews ran around buying tires from crashed cars. The race was described to me as being nearly like a destruction derby. The Mexican drivers will deliberately bump into lead cars in turns. During pit stops the Mexican drivers jump out and assist in changing or running in pit area buying or mooching tires from crashed out crews. I wont miss it next time. Friends that watched it claimed they enjoyed it as much as the NASCAR race especially the pit stops. Less than half the starters completed the race due to crashes, mechanical breakdowns and black flags.

 

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According to a fan in the seats with a radar gun. Cars are going between 80 to 90 in this turn.

 

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The opening for Sundays main event was kind of cool. A flyover from Arizona's Confederate Air Force. Only two planes this year both WW2 vintage. Confederate flags are common in the campgrounds. Numerous AR-15 Come and get it flags. Plenty of beer drinking and partying. Plenty of open carrying. From what I'm told cops don't take a second look unless one is obviously drunk and packing. Saw plenty of realistic looking air soft 1911's and Beretta 92's. Cops all over trying to catch those shooting illegal fireworks and launching Chinese lanterns. Cops were some what frustrated by the loud bang of campers and drunks setting off perfectly legal co2 grenades. All night partying, drinking and fireworks going on to well after 2:00AM.

 

By early morning the drunks are awakened with king sized hangovers. Loud trucks spraying water on dirt trials, J-Jon trucks cleaning out the showers and shitters and numerous young girls walking around pulling wagons selling Girl Scout cookies.

 

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Still working on my cell phone photography skills. Had my finger over lens as a P-38 Lightning flew over stadium and demonstrated some fancy rolls and turns. A lot of oohs and ahhs from the crowd.

 

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That sounds like it was fun. I bet the Mexican race was more entertaining than the NASCAR. I'm not a big fan, but I did get Kurt Busch's autographs once. I think I've seen that CAF P38. I think that one flew over Galveston in the late 90's while I was there. There can't be too many of those flying.

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I have never been to one, not a car man. The Hippy, however loves cars and, well when we had the BIG Polara she was not one to want to race against.

She is small 5'4 but she wont quit and you dont want to play chicken with her...unless you are tired of Earth. : ).

karl

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I have never been to one, not a car man. The Hippy, however loves cars and, well when we had the BIG Polara she was not one to want to race against.

She is small 5'4 but she wont quit and you dont want to play chicken with her...unless you are tired of Earth. : ).

karl

Reminds me of one of my teenage girlfriends. While her and I were dating she drove her parents Oldsmobile like an Indy 500 racer. She taught me the art of as she called it. On how to brody around corners by stomping on the gas when the tail end started to slide. She shed tears when they traded their 66 or 67 Olds in for a brand new Caddy. The 69 Cadillac wasn't exactly gutless but it didn't sink passengers into the seats like the Olds could.

 

I'm not a die hard race fan, don't follow NASCAR like my twins do. I enjoy watching amateur weekend racers on dirt tracks more than pros.

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I would like to see that Mexican :D race...

karl

I regret missing it, I was given the impression it was just a bunch of junkers trying to complete the race. According to the father-in-law of one of the guys in my camp. He watched a fight break out in the pits after a driver was caught stealing a tire from another crew. The fight ended after a member of the driver's crew pulled out some cash. He claimed it was more of a show watching the pit stops. Many after going back on to the track were immediately black flagged for things like bald tires or leaking fuel or oil.

 

On the other hand I can give the Mexican drivers and crews alot of credit for being able to participate in a race without cash from sponsors. I've heard but never seen it in black and white. NASCAR sponsors pay mega bucks, sometimes in excess of a million to get their logo on race cars and pit crew and driver garments. It all started back in the late 60's. The first words out of Mario Andretti's mouth after winning the Indy 500. "I did it on Goodyear Tires". According to my father, a former mid-level manager for the now defunct Goodyear Aerospace. Goodyear and Firestone got into a bidding war to pay for the first words from the winner. Dad said the rumor mill said Andretti was paid 50 G's and given a lucrative contract to do tire commercials.

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I regret missing it, I was given the impression it was just a bunch of junkers trying to complete the race. According to the father-in-law of one of the guys in my camp. He watched a fight break out in the pits after a driver was caught stealing a tire from another crew. The fight ended after a member of the driver's crew pulled out some cash. He claimed it was more of a show watching the pit stops. Many after going back on to the track were immediately black flagged for things like bald tires or leaking fuel or oil.

 

On the other hand I can give the Mexican drivers and crews alot of credit for being able to participate in a race without cash from sponsors. I've heard but never seen it in black and white. NASCAR sponsors pay mega bucks, sometimes in excess of a million to get their logo on race cars and pit crew and driver garments. It all started back in the late 60's. The first words out of Mario Andretti's mouth after winning the Indy 500. "I did it on Goodyear Tires". According to my father, a former mid-level manager for the now defunct Goodyear Aerospace. Goodyear and Firestone got into a bidding war to pay for the first words from the winner. Dad claimed the rumor mill said Andretti was paid 50 G's and given a lucrative contract to do tire commercials.

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