Five of us have been planning on going to Bristol for months. BeeDub and I were traveling together and meeting some guys from Detroit. Our plans fell apart when we were a week away from race day. I was pretty depressed but then things came together at the last minute and we got packed up and left Saturday morning. E.T. was never to show up, but Koz and Matt were there, infact they had got there at 3 am on Friday, so they picked us out a primo camping spot. Since I didn't think we were going I hadn't gotten tickets, so we were hoping there would be scalpers about.
Some Tennessee countryside.
The weathermen also had us worried, threatening rain for the whole weekend. It rained buckets for days in Indy though before we left and it didn’t stop until we hit Kentucky. BW was driving his F150 since Koz said they needed firewood and we couldn’t fit it in my car. The trip went by quickly and we were soon in the Smokey and Cumberland Mountains.
We hit Bristol at 4:30 pm - a bad time - the Busch race traffic was all leaving and it started to rain a little. But we hooked up with Koz in the campground and a ½ later the rain stopped and never started again.
Koz thought Matt was bringing a big tent and Matt thought Koz was bringing his own tent. So it was kind of funny when they ended up having to share Matt's little tent (see above). Luckily for me, BW’s tent for us was huge (see below).
We’d arrived just in time, as they were just running out of firewood and the batteries in their radio were going dead. Koz had his famous Smoker grill and lots of meat.
We also had a variety of beverages… Evan Williams, Gentleman Jack, Bushmills, Ouzo, Vodka, Kahlua, Miller and Bud. The weather cleared up and was perfect. We had a roaring fire and I was happy (and relieved) to finally have made it to Tennessee – 24 hours earlier I thought I'd be spending the weekend in rain-drenched Indy.
Some dude came up to our campsite looking for donations. He left some stickers and he gave Matt a nice hat for his $10 gift. Well the hat was a cop hat and BW started teasing Matt, calling him a cop. Well Matt got fed up with that pretty quick and ditched the hat in the fire! Ha ha!!
We listened to some rock station that played lots of 90’s rock I hadn’t heard in awhile. We all enjoyed it and we threw on an occasional cd as well – mainly Beatles.
By around 11pm, Koz had some BBQ wings cooked up to perfection for us. Matt had just one and then fell asleep! BW was right behind him and snoozed off after a few wings. Koz and I were still ready to rock though. We finished off the wings and Koz put together shishkabobs and started grilling these. Wow! They were tasty! AND, we didn’t have to share with the two sleepers! After that, Koz set some beans on and we went for a big walk around the campgrounds. People had been partying pretty good, but by the time we set off, there were only a few drunk guys out stumbling around. We walked all around and got back to our campsite around 1:30am. and had those beans and then turned in.
SUNDAY 8am - I was first up and so I started the fire and put some coffee on. BW soon got up and we had some percolated campfire coffee. The lines at the shower were real long so I went back to camp. Koz and Matt woke up eventually and we ate some breakfast. It was a a beautiful warm sunny morning. Koz and BW went for a drive to get some supplies. It was getting very close to race time and the lines at the shower had dwindled to nothing, so I went up to take one. I was surprised that there was hot water left. It was warming up to hit about 80 degrees so we were all wearing shorts and tees, except for Matt who was completely covered. I suspect he’d gotten sunburned the day before. I got back to camp and was ready when BW and Koz returned. I had been planning on buying tickets as we walked in, but BW found a ticket for $50 and another for $80 (tickets generally are $150) so he snagged them up and now we were all set for the race.
We started walking toward the track around 12:20. We just had to climb a hill and cross a 4-lane hiway and we were on speedway property. We actually took our time, checked out some car displays and made it to the front row by the start/finish line in plenty of time – about 1:10.
We got to see the driver parade. I was surprised that the whole crowd booed when Jeff Gordon came by considering NASCAR has Tony Stewart! ;-)
There was some country band doing some singing and a few parachutist came spiraling down out of the sky with HUGE flags trailing behind them. They landed right on the track in front of us – pretty impressive.
There was the usual fighter jet fly-by which is always cool and finally it was time to get things rolling.
Ryan Newman had pole again and Jeff Gordon sat beside him. I had Kurt Bush picked to win although he was starting 13th or so. Tony Stewart was his typical jerk and got put down a lap for crashing into people. Kurt played it cool once more and won his 4th Bristol race in a row!
There is no other race like this one! It is definitely one you must see if you are a race fan. The cars zip by less than 10 feet where I’m sitting. Imagine having a non-stop stream of race cars (with out mufflers) screaming by you non-stop for 3 hours!
There is a constant wind created by the cars that will knock your hat off. Your ears will begin to ring instantly if you don’t have earplugs. And the marbles don’t stay on the track! I got whacked on the knee by a piece of rubber that left a mark. It had the power of a paintgun. Its best to be wearing some sunglasses for eye protection if you are sitting down low like that (if not a welder's mask!)
Tattoo guy, Koz, BW and Matt
One of the bad things about sitting down low like that is that you have a fence in your way which is not condusive to taking good photographs. BW and I had tickets up high on the other side of the track from where we were, but we never went to them and remained down on the front row the whole race. Koz and Matt did go watch the last quarter of the race in their seats, which rise 20 stories into the air!
On the way out, we stopped and bought some discount tees and hats.
We continued the party back at the campsite until 1 a.m., unlike most who were in bed early. You can see the party here lessening each day as people get more wore out. We were laughing and having a great time around the fire that night. AWESOME TIME!
More Tennessee countryside
