Even though I live in NASCAR-Central, I’ve never been to a race. My wife won tickets to the All-Star race this Saturday from her job so I’m going with a buddy who likes racing. I’m looking forward to it, and it’s going to be a loooong day. Gates open at 2:30, main race starts at 9:00 PM. Any advice from race fans?
Not a race fan, but I’ve heard that earplugs are good to have available. Races tend to be loud.
Thanks, I’ve been warned. They apparently sell them inside, but I have I’ll bring too.
If you need help, I’m available.
The noise is part of the action. I would never cut the noise.
My fantasy has always been to drive a car at Daytona on the high bank. I’d like to just have the right to practice more and more to get the feel of finding a safe line where I could keep the pedal down. Without traffic, I believe most decent drivers could drive 165 on that track and work up from there until they crashed.
But back to Charlotte. Boo Lowes. Never sell the rights to the Charlotte MOtor Speedway again. It’s a beautiful track and great weather. If the wife is not along, your eyes may wonder. Your bladder may be crying at times. Think of that before drinking too much.
Wave to the cameras. I’ll try to pick you out.
I used to go to every NASCAR race at Daytona, about 7 or 8 years in a row.
You can’t cut the noise, really. Bring earplugs if you want, but the cars are so thunderously loud that they reverberate in the core of your bones. The sounds, the smell of the exhaust, the blast of wind as the field passes, It’s truly awesome.
I did the Richard Petty Experience ride-along thing at Daytona. They don’t let you drive yourself at that track like they do at other places (speeds too high, they said), but they strap you into a passenger seat and take you around. It was pretty cool nonetheless.
I’ve been to maybe 25 cup races over the past 18 years, only one in the past 5 years. Watkins Glen(NY), Loudon(NH), Phoenix, Texas, Charlotte.
First thing is, its not as fun as it used to be, but then again, that depends on you. It used to just be fun and crazy, then it got “family friendly”, and then it got boring.
The race itself is usually a let down, practice, qualifying, the support races, thats the fun stuff, just going for the race, not that great.
Tailgating before hand, that’s fun. Meeting and BSing with people, thats fun. What was really fun was sitting with the same people year after year, getting to know them, and then they all disappeared.
The race itself, LOUD, took the girlfriend this past fall to Texas, she has a thing for Carl Edwards. She didn’t realize how LOUD!!! it was. It gets confusing live, you can’t hear the announcers, so at the least I would suggest a radio headset so you can hear the announcers on the radio, the live announcements should be the same as the PRN broadcast. They sell the cheapie headsets at the track for that.
A full blown scanner, that can double as police scanner at home is nice, you can hear the drivers and what they are saying, but if you’re not into it, and don’t really have a favorite driver, its probably not worth it. They do rent a cool little deal that has a TV screen for replays and live action and all the drivers programmed in for like $50 or $100 for the weekend, you can split the head sets to more than one person. May or may not be worth it to you.
It is fun, the traffic sucks, if you’re lucky you’ll meet some cool people. Some are inconsiderate, but odds are they’re just having fun and you got splashed with beer.
Just re-read, you’re going with a buddy that is into it, and hopefully has been before, you’ll have a good time, just bring plenty of beer.
I did this also. Did you too think you were definately not going to make turn 3 going into the embankment? I thought for sure we were going to kiss the wall.
Recent thread on the exact same subject that contains lots of useful info.