I know lots of you guys do this stuff all the time, or even put wheels down on race courses yourselves... BUT - I haven't been to hardly any motorsports events in my 53yrs.
And this Sunday, just 2 days from my current job ending - I'm going to the freakin' Pirelli World Challenge at the Circuit of the Americas:
8:30 PARKING OPENS
8:45 - 17:30 GATES OPEN/CLOSE
9:00 - 9:45 BTMG MX5 CUP RACE #2
9:55 - 10:15 GTS SPRINTX PRE-RACE
10:15 - 11:15 GTS SPRINTX RACE #2
11:30 - 12:10 RCNA RACE #2
12:25 - 13:05 TCR - TCA RACE #2
13:50 - 14:10 GT / GT CUP SPRINTX PRE-RACE
14:10 - 15:10 GT / GT CUP SPRINTX RACE #2
15:25 - 16:05 TC RACE #2
16:20 - 17:00 RCNA RACE #3
All courtesy of my "smoke-break buddy" at my current job - we are treating this as an Unemployment Party! He got the tickets gratis, from a neighbor who passed them on (I guess the guy gets event tickets for nearly everything out at COTA).
I haven't done anything like this in ages. In my life, lets see...
Rode my bicycle to AutoX events as a teen in the late '70s/early '80s at Blossom Athletic Center in San Antonio, TX.
Saw the Detroit Grand Prix F1 race from a stairwell a couple stories up above a corner downtown in the late '80s right after I got out of the USMC.
Drove my '98 Mazda Protege ES (Miata engine!) to the AutoX events in Austin, TX (rode passenger in a hotted-up Mustang 5.0 & a prepped Miata through the same course, VERY different experiences between the two...).
Went to a Hillclimb event in Germany with my cousin a few years later - all kinds of killer machinery, also saw a Vintage Rally (auf Deutsch they say Old-Timer Rally) a couple weeks later over there - more cool cars...
And more recently I've watched some on-track practice at a performance driving school at DriveWay Austin, nifty little track on the banks of the Colorado river.
BUT - this is gonna kick some ass this Sunday. We hopefully will be spending some serious time there, going early and walking the pits, not sure yet on our plans for how many races we'll stay for. Kinda up to him, since he's providing the tickets - but I am seriously pumped.
Many pics will be taken!
(watch this space!)
I can't believe I've lived here for as long as I have and this is the first event I'm getting to go to. I've come fairly close to going to a Vintage race, depending on how this goers I will probably make more of an effort to go to the next one - and maybe the upcoming RallyCross at the end of September.
Hopefully my all-time favorite event (WRC) will come to Mexico again next year and I can make it - I've been in Texas (and a short stint in CA) for my entire adult life and have yet to visit - and WRC might just be what will motivate me to go south of the border...
I like to think of King of the Hammers as the Open-class of WRC, without the tarmac stages... drive over wildly varying terrain as fast as you can without destroying your vehicle - so making it out there would be coming up on my list someday... or something similar, at least. I've got a soft spot for Baja and the like as well.
And this Sunday, just 2 days from my current job ending - I'm going to the freakin' Pirelli World Challenge at the Circuit of the Americas:
8:30 PARKING OPENS
8:45 - 17:30 GATES OPEN/CLOSE
9:00 - 9:45 BTMG MX5 CUP RACE #2
9:55 - 10:15 GTS SPRINTX PRE-RACE
10:15 - 11:15 GTS SPRINTX RACE #2
11:30 - 12:10 RCNA RACE #2
12:25 - 13:05 TCR - TCA RACE #2
13:50 - 14:10 GT / GT CUP SPRINTX PRE-RACE
14:10 - 15:10 GT / GT CUP SPRINTX RACE #2
15:25 - 16:05 TC RACE #2
16:20 - 17:00 RCNA RACE #3
All courtesy of my "smoke-break buddy" at my current job - we are treating this as an Unemployment Party! He got the tickets gratis, from a neighbor who passed them on (I guess the guy gets event tickets for nearly everything out at COTA).
I haven't done anything like this in ages. In my life, lets see...
Rode my bicycle to AutoX events as a teen in the late '70s/early '80s at Blossom Athletic Center in San Antonio, TX.
Saw the Detroit Grand Prix F1 race from a stairwell a couple stories up above a corner downtown in the late '80s right after I got out of the USMC.
Drove my '98 Mazda Protege ES (Miata engine!) to the AutoX events in Austin, TX (rode passenger in a hotted-up Mustang 5.0 & a prepped Miata through the same course, VERY different experiences between the two...).
Went to a Hillclimb event in Germany with my cousin a few years later - all kinds of killer machinery, also saw a Vintage Rally (auf Deutsch they say Old-Timer Rally) a couple weeks later over there - more cool cars...
And more recently I've watched some on-track practice at a performance driving school at DriveWay Austin, nifty little track on the banks of the Colorado river.
BUT - this is gonna kick some ass this Sunday. We hopefully will be spending some serious time there, going early and walking the pits, not sure yet on our plans for how many races we'll stay for. Kinda up to him, since he's providing the tickets - but I am seriously pumped.
Many pics will be taken!
(watch this space!)
I can't believe I've lived here for as long as I have and this is the first event I'm getting to go to. I've come fairly close to going to a Vintage race, depending on how this goers I will probably make more of an effort to go to the next one - and maybe the upcoming RallyCross at the end of September.
Hopefully my all-time favorite event (WRC) will come to Mexico again next year and I can make it - I've been in Texas (and a short stint in CA) for my entire adult life and have yet to visit - and WRC might just be what will motivate me to go south of the border...
I like to think of King of the Hammers as the Open-class of WRC, without the tarmac stages... drive over wildly varying terrain as fast as you can without destroying your vehicle - so making it out there would be coming up on my list someday... or something similar, at least. I've got a soft spot for Baja and the like as well.
