My Cal Speedway Review...Long, with an abundance of irrelevant information, grab a brewskie and dive on in!!!
Posted by Racrgirl
Hi everyone!!! I have returned from California Speedway, with a great tan and even better memories of this years' events. Where to begin? Hows about Friday...
Racrboy (Scott, my darling groom) and myself flew in from Oakland on Friday evening. Got stuck sitting next to a total spaz on the plane, happens to me every time. Non stop talker, kept touching my arm to accentuate every word. I Don't like stranger's touches!!! I was very patient, as it is only an hour's flight. Upon arrival we retrieved a fine Ford P.O.S. (That's a Piece Of Sh*t model for you non-car people, also known as a Contour).
We made tracks to our hotel and decided to stop at Denny's for an Iced Tea and a BLT. Our waitress was a friendly young crankster who bit her lip so frequently we could not understand her psycho-mumble about the day's specials. I mean, who really cares what Denny's has on "Special", you know it's crap, served hot and fast. After our um, food arrived we made plans for Saturday's adventures.
When we got back to the hotel we discovered that they thoughtfully placed us in a ground floor room, conveniently located RIGHT NEXT TO THE ICE MACHINE. So, to finish the equation, take a packed hotel on race weekend, add 200 fans with big coolers who like to get early starts to the track, and what do you get? NO FRICKIN' SLEEP AT ALL!!! I woke up at 3:00 am to 2 dudes arguing at the ice machine about whether it was going to make too much noise when they turned it on. I stumbled over to the door in my chonies, opened it, barked at them that it was a moot point because I WAS ALREADY AWAKE, to get their goddamn ice and get out of my life, and slammed the door. I think I may have frightened them slightly, because they fled without their ice.
So, hubby and I had a 5:00 am wake up call, and after a fine complimenatry breakfast of stale Yum Yum donuts and Tang, we happily headed to the track. We were in the gate by 6:30, and headed to the pits. The cars were finishing inspection and gassing up for practice, we went over toward the paddock and watched various crew members, chiefs and drivers hard at work. The pit experience at California Speedway is incredible, but you must be awake and unbuzzed while down there. Safety of fans is not the overriding factor. And it should be that way. It is a priviledge to be in the pits, but people are working down there, and there's always some dumbsh*t not paying attention who gets clipped by a stock car doing 35 mph down a narrow side path. I actually saw at least 3 people firing up cigarettes not 20 feet away from the gas cans. You must be alert to everything going on to prevent getting run over or pushed aside so a crew can get through with crash carts, tires, etc.
Hubby and I were able to watch morning practice and hang out with the Goodyear crew while they conducted tire testing on the cars coming in. For non-race fans, this must sound very boring, but for us die-hard motorheads, the smell of high-test fuel and the noise, aaahhh, the noise! It's like heaven.
At 10:00 we headed over to the concourse to see the selection of overpriced and way too loud race t-shirts available. Don't get me wrong, but the selection of fan apparel really needs to tone down the neon colors a bit. Racrboy bought me a lovely new No Fear beanie and a seat pad for my delicate little pooters, and we were on our way.
The Busch race started at 11:00 sharp, and was incredible. Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed to have it all wrapped up but the race was won by Matt Kenseth in the #17 De Walt car. Several good crashes, including one with Mike Skinner right outside the entrance to pit road. The Winston West race came next, and this is where good got better. Half way through we decided to stroll down to the infield to check out the stage area. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to find Chris & Co. engaged in a killer sound check! There were maybe 20 people laying out on the lawn in front of the stage, including Nobody Special, with her 40 cameras, and Jules.
Silvertone was ripping out some great tunes, almost like a mini-concert. I asked Racrboy to pull my camera out, it was at this time he informed me that Whoopsie! He had left it in the car. "Have a nice walk", I told him, and bless his heart, he walked 2 miles back to get it. By the time he returned, the sound check was over, but the following fun-time BH'ers had arrived: Vicki & posse, Phyll, Jeryl, Kim, and their gang, we had a total of about 13 people in our group. After sound check we noticed that the roadies had strung hammocks under the stage and were down there swinging away. We never found BV, although I suspect she probably stood only feet away the whole night!!
When the show began we were directly in front, but then a group of way overly-intoxicated youngsters barged in (it's a free country, I realize they have the right, but it's MY review and I can whine if I want to) and proceeded to splash beer all over everyone, step on toes, jump on guy's shoulders, whip hair in everyone's faces, elbows flying, and show their t*ts to the band, who didn't seem too interested, except I saw Kenney's eyebrows moving up & down. I have no problem with ANY of these things except that it was a rated "G" crowd, and there were lots of little ones running around, and this group seemed oblivious to the comfort or enjoyment of anyone else there. They talked non-stop, and in general just made it more difficult for everyone around them to tune into the music.
OK, enough bitching, on with the show. I can say that the show was excellent. The crowd really got into them, I think a lot of people had no idea what they were coming to see, but walked away smiling. Richard Petty and his wife sat on their motorhome behind the stage and enjoyed the show, as well. I could not believe when he sang Only The Lonely how loudly the crowd sang along. People, there was NO security at the show, it was anything-goes. We were only 8-10 feet away from Hershey's ankles. I have great pix to post soon.
Chris really worked up the car racing thing, I forgot to add that during sound check he stopped playing at one point when the WW cars came around turn 2, he just smiled and said "God, I love that sound". He dropped the line "Nascar days and Nascar nights" in while singing SFD...the crowd just loved it all.
Hershel just wailed all night, the band left the stage while he jammed, then came back on, tried everything to distract him, to no avail. The Donovan song, the name of which I cannot remember, was just so damn good. Everyone went off at that point. Another great moment was when he asked for everyone to pray for Johnny Cash, as prayer was proven to help healing. This, of course, worked the American race car fan crowd into another frenzy, then he busted into "Guess Things Happen That Way", it sounded way better live than on the TV special. What else can I say, the show was probably honestly the best I've seen. He crumpled up the set list and threw it into the crowd, and proclaimed that "we're just gonna keep playing". When they came back for an encore they brought Kenney's snare up front and he did a little scat-set with the guys before they tore into another couple songs.
When the show ended we were treated to fireworks. Lou over at the t-shirt stand was just raking the bucks in, selling everything so fast. They had a shirt made just for the event, of "Chris Isaak Racing", with an interesting picture of a stock car with chinese characters on the side. The back had a small logo with dueling checkered flags and said Chris Isaak Racing, as well. I came, I saw, I got the T shirt...We got autographs and then Chris came out, I showed him my shitty picture of him and I at Konocti (he was looking down) and asked if I could have a reshoot, and he gladly obliged. The picture came out good, but he has a sneer on his face that's downright scary! Hersh took a group picture with us all, and Roly was around, but busy with some guests, we never saw the rest of the guys!
We all decided to hit Chevys for some cocktails, and Jeryl went and got Chris [Chris A., her husband] to join in on our fun. Chris and Scott, with 8 women! We had some shots, enjoyed some Top Shelf Margaritas, and shared some great laughs. We had the Stealth Waiter, meaning he was invisible all night, but he did manage to hook us up with our drinks and food. I think we walked in like 15 minutes before his shift ended, and busted in on his Saturday night action!!! He did a good job, I guess...Racrboy and I hated to leave, but had to be back at the track early the next day, so we bid farewell to everyone and headed back to our lovely Ontario hotel. Oh, I forgot to describe Jeryl's crazy shirt, a rugged gray work shirt with a name patch on one side that read "Dr. Evil" and the official "Evil Enterprises" logo on the other side. It was such a conversation piece! Jeryl, hook me up with one next time you make it to Ontario!!
On Sunday we were draggin' ass to get to the track, but the minute we pulled into the parking lot adrenaline set in. We headed back down into the pits, and ran into quite a few drivers, crew chiefs, etc. We snuck into a Hot Wheels pit tour that was in progress but they busted us when they realized we didn't have the dorky mile-high caps on that they gave out. I'll bottom-line it at this point, my man, #24, Mr. Jeff Gordon, in the DuPont Chevy KICKED ASS and won the race. That makes it 4 out of the last 5 races I have attended that he has won. Ya think I'm good luck???
We pulled out of the speedway about 4 and headed directly to the airport, only to discover that our flight was delayed for a couple hours. When we finally boarded, again, I got stuck sitting next to a tweaker, this time it was a pot farmer from Humboldt county who spoke in incomplete sentences. No matter how far I moved my leg over he kept putting his leg right next to it...the whole time my hubby was cracking up, so I had to cool him down by dropping an ice cube down his shirt. He could not get up to remove it, and had to just let it melt. Meanwhile, Ashley Roachclip on the other side of me is discussing "The Business". Hey folks, I certainly don't mind a good toke once in a while, but I really don't care about the long-term effects of Paraquat-sprayed pot farms and it's farmers. "Sh*t buddy, start a union" was all I could say.
I want to thank all BH'ers who came out, and I'm sorry if I forgot to list anyone's names here. I was in overstimulated mode all weekend, and there was just too much input for me to slow down. (Racrgirl is a little hyper). I had a great weekend, I hope everyone else did as well. I'm sure I've forgotten many details, but if you've actually made it to this part, you are to be congratulated and thanked for hangin' in there with me...
This is Racrgirl, over and out...
Back to Reviews