New Hampshire race -- an attendee's report

[champcarray]

Thanks to Hurricane Irene shutting down power in much of CT, my office is closed and I have some time to tell you all about our fun weekend at NHMS. I'm writing this from a Panera, which has both power and wifi. But first, a quick break to buy some chocolate milk for my daughter...

[champcarray]

We drove up from CT on Saturday morning and got to the track at about 10:30 am. It was our first trip to the track in a long time: we attended the CART races in 1992-1995. We had tix for the race and arrived at the track on Saturday planning to watch practice and qualifying from the stands and check out the vendor village. At the ticket booth we learned that the price of the pit and paddock passes had been lowered to $75 adults / $35 kids for the weekend. (They were originally priced at $100 for Sunday access only.) They apparently met our price point, because I handed 'em my credit card and we were soon walking thru the access tunnel!

[champcarray]

The facility has changed some over the years. There is almost no grass in the infield nowadays: it's basically a huge paddock and team-parking area. We followed the main road behind pit lane and were soon in the Indy car paddock. The teams had already been there for two days, but the energy level was generally high as the tweaked the cars for final practice. We saw lots of familiar face right away: Jimmy Vasser walking by, Rick Mears on a cart, Bobby Rahal on his scooter smiling widely as my wife high-fived him on his way to the team trailer, AJ Foyt clearly in a "do not go near AJ today" mood, etc. We popped into the pits and enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of the cars up close. I snapped some pics and we enjoyed the behind-the-scenes action as we pointed out drivers and team owners to our daughter (she's 11). We saw almost every driver up close -- either in their cars or on their way between the paddock and the pits. Some of them did more than give autographs: the drivers who have fewer demands on their time chatted with the fans. We spent several minutes talking with and posing for photos with our favorite driver, James Hinchcliffe, who I've been following up the ladder since Star Mazda. Saavedra talked about track conditions. At the end of qualifying, we stood beside the reporters and photographers as Dario received the Peak Pole award. We tried to listen in to his interviews with Thackston and Miller, snapped pics, and then got his autograph as he headed to the paddock.

[champcarray]

The Izod and vendor village was pretty good. We caught the tail end of an Indy lights driver discussion with Josef Newgarden and another driver (I'm drawing a blank at the moment). At the end of the interview they threw some hats, etc. into the crowd. Our daughter was thrilled to come away with a special Izod Indy car hat: it's the one that drivers wear, not the one you can buy in the village. Izod had a huge racing merchandise tent there, too. Unfortunately the Newman Haas team is having problems with their stuff, so I couldn't buy a Hinch t-shirt. Boo. That was the end of our day. I'll report on race day and post some pics soon. But right now it's time to go clean up the debris field that is our yard.

[FIAT1]

Thanks for great report. I was at Milwaukee this year and it was shadow of yesteryears.

[champcarray]

Believe it or not, we got to ride in one of the pace cars! On Sunday morning as we strolled throught the paddock, two track reps asked us to log onto Facebook and friend the track. The reward was unexpected. We were escorted to the end of pit lane, where Indy Lights driver Anders Krohn greeted us. We all hopped in the car, and off we went for two hot laps. He chatted with us as we flew down the straits at 100 mph and thru the corners at over 80 mph. The corners are very sharp and your guts definitely feel the speed! It was an unexpected and thrilling experience for us!

[champcarray]

The crowd felt bigger in person than it appeared on TV. People were everywhere and very excited about the day, though a bit on edge because of the threat of rain. The wait until 3:30 was a tough one! The race itself was good once they got past the initial cold-tires-on-a-cold-track wrecks. It was everything we could ask for: loud and fast with those great racecar smells. We all had a FANTASTIC weekend and would love to go back next year... but heard today that it won't be on the schedule. That is awful news. Frankly, I'm gutted.