Race Day

Saturday, May 13… 

Well, so much for feeling reasonably competent in the control room. Yesterday’s sessions were practice and qualifying laps. Today we had races. Things change. The 2nd race had barely begun (like less than 10 seconds in), when we get this call: “Turn 4 to Control. We have 8 or 9 cars tied up and total track blockage. #68 green and…” He goes on w/ details, which others call in to clarify or correct. I have to get the gist of each call, plus each response from Control. I get most of it (and hopefully what I got is right), and the earth won’t stop spinning b/c I missed some, but I like to be on top of things, and this was really frustrating. [And, just so you know, no one was hurt and only 2 cars were damaged, but a lot of time was lost as vehicles were towed and the track cleaned up. If you look at the track map on yesterday’s blog, you’ll see a serious U (sharp right, sharp left, sharp right) not far to the right of START. That’s Turn 4.] There were 2 session after this one, with moments of chaos now and then, but nothing like 8 cars in a jumble. (Picture bumper cars. 😃)

I wasn’t scheduled to work in the afternoon, and the Flag Chief (guy in charge of all the turn workers) asked if I wanted to ride with him as he checked in on trainees and such at various stations. That was quite fun, and something very few ordinary folks get to do. We watched the entire last race from Turn 9, and the top 3 cars changed places almost every single lap – what a kick. 

No pictures from the races, but after supper I went out and walked the track by myself. It's easy to see how much fun it would be to drive. The light was iffy, but I'll share a couple shots. 

Sponsor Corner... Do they think drivers read these?

Just me and the tarmac.

That's a huge sand patch to stop cars that miss the turn. They call it China Beach.