Last Saturday we took the kids up to the Miller Motor Sports Park to watch this race that was 7 hours long. We had a lot of fun watching the cars. They have a shuttle that takes you to different grandstands along the race track so you can see from all different view points. We got to see the cars stopping at the pit for maintenance and to switch drivers. It's so cool how they can switch out the tires, fix the car, switch drivers, and be ready to go again in about a minute. Unbelievable!Unfortunately we weren't able to get pictures of any of the real action because either the camera
was inaccesible in the backpack, or the battery was near dead at the end of the day. We wanted to get some pictures of the kids by the race cars.We saw a lot of spin-outs and a couple of wrecks.
The most exciting thing happend in the afternoon. The kids were getting tired of watching the races, so we said, OK - the race is long - let's just go. There was only 1 1/2 hours left to go, but everyone was getting ornery. We walked to the parking lot and got the kids in the car when they started acting disappointed that we were leaving. I talked to them and gave them a choice, stay and finish the race or go home. All 3 kids said "STAY!!". So we loaded back out of the car, walked back into the park, and went to the shuttle stop that would take us back to the grandstands.
While we were standing there waiting, I glanced up and saw huge flames over the wall right next to us! It was a race car on fire and the driver was still driving it! The black smoke was full of pieces of rubber and was very toxic. The kids and I ran into the building because we couldn't breathe. It passed us and the wind carried the smoke the other direction the other way just enough that we were able to come out and take a good look at the workers getting the driver out and putting out the flames. That was our excitement. :) We didn't know we would get THAT close to the action.
I'm glad we went and were able to bring the kids. They all had a good time and still talk about it.
4 comments:
(Amy)
I cannot *believe* you took your kids to a 7-hour car race!! **I** don't even have an attention span for that! I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did...glad you had a good time. Enjoy Mexico!
That's funny. I wouldn't have that kind of attention span either, to just sit and watch for 7 hours. Especially with 4 kids! The only way it worked out was that there are a lot of things up there to fill up the time. We ate lunch, took the kids to a play area up there, rode the shuttle to different grandstands and watched the race from different view points, and rode the shuttle around the park just for fun. We did have a hard time around mid-afternoon, but after we went to the playground, the kids were ready to go again and we lasted until the finish! I was surprised too. We left 3 hours after I expected we would leave.
I'm looking forward to Mexico. Sad to leave the kids, but excited about the new adventure!
Was it the one with Patrick Dempsy...did you see him? I am so jealous that you got to go see the cars race. I wanted to but Trent didn't!
I don't even know who the racers were, I'm sorry. Still, it was fascinating. :)
It was the Sunchaser 1000 event, so if he was in it, then YES, he was there! If he was in a different race, then no, I'm afraid he wasn't. I'm full of knowledge, I know.
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