Free Day at the Track

Several Fridays ago Jill had convinced me to work from home for part of the day so we could work in garage for the other part. Sorting through all of my old boxes that have been stored in my parent's garage for the last 5 years was not my idea of fun. As we were going through all the stuff (and throwing a ton of things away) we heard on the radio that is was a big car race weekend out at the Miller Sportspark and that there was no charge for admission today. I love how Jill is so flexible and how quickly plans can change. Besides, she was hoping to get a glimpse of Patrick Dempsey who was racing two Mazda cars (#29 and #40) and a Mustang (#54). We worked for another hour then packed up and headed West. The weather was threatening to rain. We stopped and grabbed some lunch thinking that maybe the dark clouds would pass by. I think they did, but more clouds came right behind them. It only rained on us for a few minutes which actually increased the excitement level. We found a good spot to park the car very close to the track by a section called 'The Attitudes'. This section rises to a quick left, right, left turn as it descends again. We saw a few spin-outs here when the track got wet. I spoke to one of the professional photographers briefly about the settings he was using to take his photos. I felt pretty good after that. Other than the difference in our camera gear (by a factor of a several thousand dollars) I was using very similar techniques and settings. All I need now is a lot more practice - and maybe some more expensive camera gear! There was only one race that day (the rest were practice sessions). It was the Mustang race at the end of the day and it got pretty exciting. The Third place car battled it out for several laps trying to pass the Second place car. Lap after lap we saw him attempt passes but could never pull it off. Sorry Jill, unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Patrick's #29 MX-5 car or his #54 Mustang, but I did get a few of his #40 RX-8. I guess it would have helped to actually know his numbers before hand! Here are the rest of the 300+ racing pictures.