NASCAR Rant

[catchacab]

Here is my Stock Car experience story.

For our first wedding anniversary, my wife bought me a gift certificate to SpeedTech's stock car racing school.  Due to my work schedule, I kept delaying picking a date.  Finally, the certificate was going to expire so I went down to Atlanta in August of 2001. 

I had a 3pm flight out of PHL to arrive in Atlanta by 6PM.  Thunderstorms rolled into Philadelphia about 1:30.  The airport closed.  Flight were either delayed or canceled.  I finally took off at 11PM, getting in Atlanta after 1AM.  I had reserved a Ford Taurus from Hertz, but by the time I arrived they didn't have any, so the put me in a Volvo V70 turbo wagon (nice car).  I arrived at my hotel at 3AM (the race track is about an hour away from the airport). 

I needed to be at the track by 6:30AM, so little sleep I did get.  I pull up in the Volvo, and park next to a bunch of beat up domestic pick ups.  Little did I know, but their owners would be the people I would be driving with.

The school, gave us an hour long classroom session, followed by a ride in a minivan around to track, to teach us "the line."  We were then assigned a car based on our size.  (Most everyone wanted the black #3 Monte Carlo).  We were supplied with helmets, and Nomex racing suits.  To get into the cars we had pretend we were Bo and Luke Duke.  An instructor was in the passenger seat, and they helped strap us in (no cam lock harnesses).  Flick the switches on and then the ignition.

(Part 2 to follow)