To The Races!

It's the season of races.  Preakness, Kentucky Derby, Triple Crown, big hats, mint juleps, all that good stuff.  I was lucky enough to get in on some of the culture and action this past weekend.  One of the girls at work had a few tickets to Rocky Mountain Raceway on Saturday, so some of us went to watch the car races!  Okay, maybe it's not quite the same culture as the Kentucky Derby, but it was definitely some kind of culture.  Instead of mint juleps they had lots of beer; instead of big hats they had big tats; instead of the Triple Crown, they had double-deckers: literally, one car welded on top of another (fourth and fifth pictures below, it's kind of hard to see, but it was like nothing I've ever imagined).  The driver in the top car was in charge of steering and the driver in the bottom car was in charge of gas and braking.  And they weren't what you would consider race cars.  They were like Geo Metros on top of 80's Honda Accords.  It was crazy.  For the final race of the night, they had five or six double-deckers do a half track.  This included a 45-degree angle turn, with the cars going as fast as they dared.  They were wobbly to start, and on that turn it was scary.  One of them very nearly toppled on the last lap.  It teetered on two tires for a few seconds as the crowd gasped and screamed, but it came to a solid landing and won the race.

A couple of the races were for compact stock cars (or something like that).  They were tiny.  I didn't realize how tiny they were (it was hard to get a perspective on the track) until one of them broke down and the crew had to go help it out on the track (sixth picture).  The car probably didn't come up to their knees.  I have no idea how a driver crams himself into one of those.

Despite the overall culture, though, I loved it.  When those engines got roaring I couldn't help smiling.  I think there's something in me that breathes exhaust and bleeds engine oil.    My favorite was what was called 'modifieds' (the first and third pictures below).  I don't know what kind of car their bases are, but they look like sports cars mixed with derby cars.  They're really low to the ground and their right hand side tires stick out a couple feet for stability.  And they're super loud.  Fantastic.  Before any of the races start, the cars would all come out and do a couple laps behind a pace car (picture number 2).  During those laps, they would zigzag along the track and look intimidating and fierce, like they're just chomping at the bit to get out from under the pace car and release all their force.  I guess the zigzagging is to loosen the tires and the steering.  It really added to the whole menacing persona of the cars though.  Going into the evening, I thought four hours watching cars go around a track might get long;  but it flew past (zoomed past?).  About halfway through the evening I started rethinking my career choice.  I could really get into driving menacingly as fast as possible without it breaking the law.