Raceday in Sonoma dawned sunny and calm. Stepping outside for my morning constitutional, I had a good feeling about the day. Whatever happened, even without the perk of pit passes, we were going to have a good day.
Stopping for some breakfast, we then headed out for the track, bright and early, knowing, from Friday’s trip, that the main road to the track is 2 lanes…it was going to be slow going.
Actually, it was worse…CA 37 was backed right up to before the bridge where it was still 4 lanes…this was going to be a long trip.
It took us an hour to drive a 15 minute drive.
Finally arriving at the track, we hopped on the shuttle, having had enough of the walk over hill and dale to the track on Friday…we were standers on the shuttle, which reminded us of riding the cable cars in San Francisco the day before.
On arrival to the track, we wandered around a bit, then headed over to the 99 souvie hauler to pick up the banner. Coming back through the tunnel from the infield, where the haulers were set up, we immediately headed down to the foot of the main grandstands, where our seats were, to see if we would be lucky enough to at least have the 99 pit stall in sight from our seats.
No such luck. The first half of pit lane is down into the hairpin turn, and the second half was in front of us..and they were down in the first half.
Drat!! We were going to have to make do with watching the 8 team’s pit stops again!!! And we couldn’t even cat call the 99 crew guys to get their attention and wave Hi, because unless you had a pit or garage pass, there was no way to get down there!!
Oh, what’s a stalker to do??
After watching Raceday for a while, and getting the banner the required air-time from a couple of different locations, we snapped a pic of it with my camera phone, and tried to send it to the Jumbotron…I never saw it, so I’m not sure I was successful, but I was hoping Carl and the crew would see it, as we couldn’t get anywhere near the driver intros to stand with it…
Splitting up, we put our impromptu CCN intrepid photographers' plan into action…I say impromptu, because I was returning a text to a certain Edhead, and turned around, and Anne was gone. LOL After scanning the area for a few minutes, I shrugged and figured she’d been to enough races, she was more than able to take care of herself.
When I finally got through to her on the phone, I found out apparently she had figured the same thing, because she was up in her seat.
So we put our 2-pronged plan into action. With Anne in the stands with her camera armed and ready for drive intros from THAT angle, I remained on the infield, and worked my way in behind the souvenir haulers along the fence, until I was right by where the drivers came off the stage and got on their trucks, BEHIND the stage..
I took more than 350 pics today alone. Anne was close behind. I figure she and I are a pretty good CCN photog team, if one missed it, the other got it, and we got the same thing from different angles…Gene, let me know what you think, but I think I deserve some sort of bonus, and Anne DEFINITELY needs to be on staff…oh, and can we talk about CCN’s travel budget and possible trackside perks??? A little golf cart would be cool….
Oooh, and we can be the CCN track weather team, too, Gene…it was sunny, as I mentioned earlier, but as the day progressed, it became QUITE windy!! At one point I was nearly hanged by my ticket lanyard, as it wrapped up in a knot and around my neck…and I have one video shot during the race that features my lens cap, flapping on it’s tether…no sunburn today, I wore my sunscreen, but the windburn…the face is a little tight.
Anyway, with driver intros over, I headed back across to the grandstand, but as my seat was in row 43, (as they were last-minute tickets, Anne and I had separate seats, in different sections of the grandstand) and not quite ready for that climb yet, I stopped down front and stood politely behind the red line about 2 feet from the railing separating the stands from the pit stalls in front of it, that’s supposed to keep fans from falling into the pits and suing the track, I guess, right across from the 99 car. The drivers were finally making their way back around that long track and being dropped off.
And then it occurred to me that if I stood right there long enough, Carl was bound to come along. I mean, that was his office, right there in front of me, and it was time for him to go to work!! There’s a good chance he was going to be there…LOL
So I stood a while, snapping pics at random…until a track employee came along and tried to shoo me away…they were doing that to everyone, trying to keep people from hanging around down there.
With a smile, I politely said “I will move as soon as Carl gets here!” indicating the car in front of me.
Thankfully he just smiled and moved on…temp employee, just doing his job. But if he had tried to move me, I mighta had to do something bad!!!
Before I knew it, there Carl was!!!
As you can imagine, my camera was pretty much continually snapping at this point, and all the way up until the prayer and national anthem, when I just snapped a couple and then put it down…but as soon as that anthem was over, right back at it!!
I take my job very seriously!!!
AND I’ve got a Bob Butt Shot!!! I’m so proud of myself…
Actually, I’ve got a LOT of butt shots, but that’s a topic for a different post…
Finally, the drivers were all in their cars, so I hooked up my scanner, grabbed a beverage, and started the hike…I stopped half way up to take pics of the start, yeah, that’s why I stopped, uh huh, couldn’t neglect my duties…
Finally reaching row 43, I realized a man was sitting in my seat…now, I could have made him move, but his young son was next to him, and I didn’t want to bother them…besides, 2 more rows, and I was standing at the top!
What an awesome spot to watch the race from. Shaded by the suites above. Walk down to one end you had the perfect view of the hairpin turn, turn 12 or whatever, as well as the garage, and walk to the other end, you could see much of the rest of the track.
AWESOME!!!
After a while, it occurred to me that Anne might appreciate that view…a quick text, and she joined me.
We spent the entire race, on our feet, moving from one end, to the other, to the Start/Finish line in the middle.
What a great race!! It was cool, it was different from any race I have attended, from the setting to the track itself, to the fact that the cars are going backwards past us (I’m a round-track girl, I’m used to them going counter-clockwise, not clockwise!!)…but as much as was different, so much was the same…the atmosphere, the fans, the kids in their Dale Jr and Jeff Gordon, and YES, Carl Edwards shirts.
We got to see Juan Pablo Montoya and team in victory lane from above…the garage from above…even the mysterious part of pit lane where Carl and Jamie where pitted that we never could see from our seats became sort of evident to our prying eyes, as we walked around the track afterwards (of course, we walked counter-clockwise…we almost didn’t even talk about it, just did it automatically!!) and peeked around the Goodyear haulers parked in front of it to finally find where he had pitted. Of course, by this time, no-one was around and the stall was all packed up, but at least that mysterious part of the track was revealed to us…with it’s abundance of lugnuts…hehe got some more souvenirs!!
And let me tell you, the TV does NOT do the hills on this track justice. I mean, I always knew it was hilly, but until you have seen it for yourself, until you have WALKED it and huffed and puffed up and down those hills, you just don’t realize how hilly it is! Knowing just how hard these drivers really must have to work to not only master the left AND right turns, but also the HILLS, I will never view a race at this track the same way.
I’d say if you ever get to attend a road course race, even if, like me, it’s not your favorite type of racing, do it….it really is an excellent experience. Just bring your hiking shoes if you do Infineon…
An interesting shuttle ride up from the track after our walk (they were directing people to drive DOWN the same narrow, zig-zagging road the shuttles used to go up the hill to the drop-off for the parking lots…one lady nearly lost her left front fender because she was a little slow to realize she had 4 feet of space to her right, and there was a huge shuttle bus coming right at her to her left…we cleared her by about an inch) found two very foot-weary women ready to sit down. That’s all we wanted after a 3 hour race on our feet and 1 hour track walk as well as a day of walking: to just sit down. I didn’t even use the seat I paid for (or the other ones that we had paid for that were supposed to be pit passes)…but it was still worth it.
Sitting in the Back 40 parking lot, as we lovingly have named Lot 5 this weekend, we are now moving, with the Back 40 CD blaring…Carl’s rolling us home.
Here’s hoping we get back to civilization before the restaurants all close…that pre-track walk corn dog seems a long, long time ago…and a Bud sure would taste good!!
Anne just said “You know, we’ve done so much in the past few days, it feels like they shaved Tom weeks ago!!!” LOL We sure sucked what experiences we could out of this weekend!!
9pm Sunday night, and we just NOW got out onto the main road…well, one of them…here’s hoping we get food, or we’re going to have to subsist on Wheat Thins. Not that I couldn’t stand to lose a couple of pounds, but I think I took care of that with all the walking this weekend.
Edheads in San Francisco
O-kay, so we had a decision to make about Saturday...as there was only a couple of practises and NO Busch race in Sonoma, the choice was easy...time to go explore San Francisco!! Edheads on cable cars!! Eating seafood!!! Cruising the bay!!!
My die-hard addiction to NASCAR made it a difficult decision...but the explorer in me won out...San Francisco, here we come!!
Bright and early (but not TOO bright and early!) Saturday morning, Anne and I headed out to explore San Francisco. We figured traffic would be better on a weekend day than during the week.
Well, only marginally. You see, we came in across the Bay Bridge, which is reportedly the busiest bridge in North America. I wish they had told us that BEFORE we crossed it.
Added to that, you have driving through a downtown of a major city to get parking so we could make use of the cable cars all day. San Franciscans aren’t very tolerant of drivers from other places. We finally just gave up trying to switch lanes, and took whatever turns were available to us, and made it to the parking garage we had designated, near the cable car route.
Walking over to Powell street, we found the nearest cable car stop…crowded with people. When a cable car came past with people hanging off the side, shouting “We’re full!!” we figured we might as well walk down the hill to the main turnaround for the cable cars and get on there.
The line down there was huge, but at least we knew we’d get on, where it was apparent at the stops along the way we’d have little luck.
Waiting in line, we watched how they manually turned the cable cars (brute force), which we later learned have been running with the same technology since the 1700s, when the system was first constructed, a technology that had the driver pulling on levers and jumping on foot pedals to brake and drive it. It was really cool. I guess when something works, you don’t change it.
Finally getting on the cable car to take us down (or rather, up, and THEN down!) to Fisherman’s Wharf, we rode the awesome hills…it amazed me how San Francisco is basically built up and over a huge hill. I wouldn’t want to drive my truck, a stick shift, there!!!
At one point, we also had the thought that maybe Dean would have Carl running up and down those hills as part of his exercise regimen….I think Carl’s lucky that the race track is so far from San Francisco, but the track has some pretty impressive hills, too, so I imagine he got some workouts there. This thought was inspired by the sight of a man “running” down one of the hills…it was more like falling and keeping his feet under him at the same time.
After that amazing trip, during which we saw Lombard street, the “Crookedest street in America”, but missed the photo op, we arrived down at Fisherman’s Wharf.
I love touristy areas like that, and add in all that seafood…YUM!!!
We had every intention of doing the tour of Alcatraz, but unfortunately it was sold out, so after lunch at Bubba Gump’s, we settled for a bay cruise out under the Golden Gate bridge (not golden, actually, but painted what they called “International Orange”) and around Alcatraz, with descriptions of the lives of the inmates and workers there, and the few attempts to escape. There were sharks in these waters, after all, and add to that the guards with guns around the island…well, it was never verified if any actually succeeded. As they said, if you DID manage to escape, it wouldn’t be long before you were hunted down and returned.
I found it interesting that one way they tried to keep the inmates pacified was by feeding them gourmet meals. Steak, seafood...they got it, in the hopes that satisfaction with the food would keep some from trying to escape. Of course, teeny cells and only being allowed outside in the courtyard once a week for 2 hours would have been a down side.
One of the highlights of the cruise was cruising by the sea lions that live at the end of Pier 39 on our way out and back…they just laid there and sunned themselves while we snapped our pics…some of them were impressive in size, but all they really had to do was lay there to gather crowds of tourists.
After the cruise, we toured a WWII submarine, the USS Pampanito, which was used after Pearl Harbor in the defense of the US against the Japanese. It amazed us that we had difficulty bending ourselves through the hatches (although Carl would likely have no problem with it, as it seemed much like him trying to get into his car through the window at times!) that 85 men lived on that submarine….AND during one skirmish, they rescued an additional 73 (I think) men, prisoners of war from Britain and Australia, who had been being kept on a ship they attacked…I believe the quote they have is “You bloody Americans, first you sink us, then you rescue us!”
It was very interesting, but by the time we got to the last compartment, the waves outside had picked up, and the cork-like bobbing sensation was threatening to make me a little seasick, without being able to focus on something that was not moving, so I exited topside quickly. I was fine once I could see our surroundings, I just can’t handle enclosed spaces when there’s lots of movement…some sailor I’d make, huh??
After exploring the shops around there, we had dinner in a restaurant, Boudins, that specialized in sour dough bread, which was yummy, then we wandered down the street, watching the street performers along the way. They were everywhere, and some were quite obnoxious, making it obvious they were doing this for “tips” and if we were enjoying their performance, we should pay them for it….which made me NOT want to give them ANY money.
One example. As we walked along, we noticed a crowd gathering, looking across the road, towards what, we couldn’t tell. But, as is the case with humans, if one person stops and stares at something, soon others will join, and we even noticed people on the other side of the street, looking out into the street, to see what everyone was looking at.
At the last second, we saw what the crowd had gathered about…there was a man hiding behind a leafy branch he held in his hand, and everyone on that side of the street didn’t realize it…they thought he was a shrub.
And then he jumped out at them, scaring the bejesus out of them, and causing the crowd on our side of the street to burst into laughter…
As we started walking away, the “performer” immediately ran across the street with his tip jar, yelling “come on, I entertained you, I was funny, and you can’t give me any money?.”. THAT’S what I’m talking about …if he had walked across the street, took his bows, and asked politely for people to donate to his tip jar, I’m sure he would have gotten some money, but as it was the entire crowd ran away as quickly as possible, he was so aggressive.
Riding back on the back of the cable car, we got to see Lombard street from the top, which is not the best view, but short of getting off and walking down it, which we were not inclined to do after all the walking we had already done, there was no way we were going to see it from that angle.
The trip home was uneventful, but I maxed out my 1GB memory card on my camera…thank God I now have a laptop to upload pics to. Of course, the amount of video taping I had done the day before during Tom’s shave, it didn’t surprise me that it was full.
I'm more sure than ever I will have to take an assignment in San Francisco, it's a really cool city.
SHAVE TOM!!! Part 2.
Oh, yeah, and over hill, and dale, and hill, and dale….
Arriving at our hotel, we checked in, and joy of joy, our package was waiting for us!!
Ripping it open, I gleefully reached inside….
And pulled out 2 tickets for the family area in turn 9. NOT what I had ordered, or what I THOUGHT I had ordered. I KNEW I should have called for more information before ordering..
A long phone call to the company later, I was told by the supposed boss-man that “I just called the track, and those are infield tickets, which include pit access….”
Well, maybe they did things differently on a road course, but I wasn’t convinced. I always get a pit voucher to take to a trailer at the track to pick up my pit passes, and this definitely was NOT a pit pass voucher.
I called the track, but got a voice mail that kept looping me back to the main menu, so since we were headed for the track now, I decided to talk directly to the people in the ticket office there.
Arriving at the track, we were absolutely flabbergasted to drive in the general parking gate, having been directed to the BACK of the property…and to start weaving around, over, everything except under these hills!! It was absolutely AMAZING…I have never had that kind of drive into a track. Then again, I’ve heard Bristol is pretty hilly, but this was a first for me…you couldn’t even see the track, just had to take their word that it was over that hill, from the Back 40 lot where we ended up parking.
Walking to the shuttle area at the top of the lot, we were informed that we just missed the shuttle, and the next would be along in 15 minutes or so…or we could just walk down. It’s only a 10 minute walk, he says, making it sound like a Sunday stroll in the park…
Yeah, right!! We walked down hill, and across, and down hill again, then across again…zigzagging down the hill…it was the longest, hottest walk I’ve done in a while…by the time I got to the bottom, all I could think of was “BEER ME!!” and made a b-line for the nearest vendor.
Mind you, the views of the track on the way down were pretty awesome:
Then we headed down to the main grandstand and asked a security guard for directions to the ticket office. Having just completed the convoluted trip down the hill and around the track, I was not at all surprised when he said “I think I should just take you there” in lieu of trying to give us directions we would understand.
Long story short, we got dropped off at the front office to enquire if what this man had told me was true…and were told it was not, that these were just tickets. They were listed as “GenAdmis” meaning General admission, and a search through several ticket sales sites had shown “GenAdmis” listings in the same price range with descriptions indicating they were pit passes and driver intro passes, so logically, I assumed, these were too.
Should have bought the ones with the descriptions, but I was trying to contain my ticket buying to as few sites as possible, and they were sold out at the track except for a couple low in turn 9 that I wasn’t interested in.
Apparently, I was wrong. OR they decided to purposely gyp me and send tickets in place of the pit passes I had purchased.
NOT HAPPY!!!!
Of course, when I called the company that sold me the tickets back, I got the voicemail…so I left a scathing message indicating I wanted my money back. On Monday I would contact the company they sold them to me through, a company I have used in the past and trust, and report to them what happened. Hopefully I will be able to get some of our money back, because, believe me, these weren’t cheap, being last-minute, and sold in a state where you can legally resell tickets for whatever price you want to.
Anyway, shaking it off, we went to the souvenir hauler and said Hi to Mark. The gals apparently didn’t make the trip to Sonoma, as he was alone there with a couple of others all weekend I assumed were local help.
With the banner in hand, we headed back to the Trackside stage, 2 hours early…and no-one was there, but they started arriving about the time we did.
We had already been by and had seen the barber chair set up in the corner of the stage, so we immediately nabbed spots right in front of that spot.
We had to guard it a bit, because people would try to squeeze in beside us, and shift us down, but we knew if we shifted too far down we’d be looking at the back of Tom’s head, so we held our ground. Don’t push an Edhead around!
As we stood there through Nascar Live, we soon noticed activity in the Speed tent beside the stage…
First Tom showed up, and they were apparently briefing him on what the plan was…and looking at our pics, we realized that although he was pretty closely shorn by the time he came on stage, he had NOT been that closely shorn before coming on…we watched as they used long trimmers to even up what apparently had been hacked at all week, I guess they made it a little tidier for Tom’s TV appearance…
Then Carl walked by the opening to the back of the tent, where I assume they were getting him ready to go on-stage…
And suddenly it was Trackside time!! Tom came out first, and was set up in the barber chair…and he looked over at us, saw the Edhead banner, which we had hung over the side of the railing in front of us, not intending on putting it up and blocking all the people behind us, but just so that Tom and Carl would see it and know that the Edheads were there.
Then he looked at my shirt, grinned and waved…I gave him a thumbs up. It occurred to me afterwards that I must have seemed like an incognito Edhead, with the sunglasses and hat, but I doubt he would have recognized me anyway, having never met me before…however, he had seen the Shave Tom shirt before, at Dover, last September, in the crowd, at Carl’s signing…he gave me a thumbs up then, too, if I recall correctly.
Before we knew it, out came the Trackside guys, to hoots and hollers, and they brought Carl with them. Lots of hooting and hollering ensued, but Carl sat at the other side of the stage, probably on purpose so the cameras wouldn’t catch Tom sitting in the chair in the background while they interviewed Carl about his win.
Next thing I know, the gal running around with the portable TV camera was planted in front of me, with her camera aimed at my chest…show time!!! If you watched Trackside, you KNOW Justine’s work of art got fabulous airtime…along with me in my shades and goofy bucket hat with my “Are you an Edhead” pin on it. Hey, laugh at the hat, but my scalp along my part didn’t get NEARLY as sunburnt as it usually does. :D I’m just sad I couldn’t find my “Canada” bucket hat to wear…I KNOW it’s around my apartment somewhere, in a side pocket of a suitcase or something, where I packed it on one of my moves.
Finally the time came. We had seen the hedge trimmers and shears and the weed whacker behind the guys, so it wasn’t a surprise when they came out…what WAS a surprise was when, at commercial I believe, although I’ll have to watch and see if they show it, Hammond actually fired up the weed whacker….I’m not sure if I was taping at this time, but if I was, you’ll hear me: “WHO GAVE HAMMOND A WEAPON!!” followed by lots of laughter.
Finally Carl was up and walked across the stage…and saw us. That’s Anne’s fabulous pic of Carl waving at us, with our banner and t-shirt. The merged picture of our 2 pics, courtesy of Chrissi, is the best, and I do believe that will find a home on my desktop, if not on my cell phone. It’s too good to just sit in a file.
That pic is the one at the top right side of this blog.
Arriving at our hotel, we checked in, and joy of joy, our package was waiting for us!!
Ripping it open, I gleefully reached inside….
And pulled out 2 tickets for the family area in turn 9. NOT what I had ordered, or what I THOUGHT I had ordered. I KNEW I should have called for more information before ordering..
A long phone call to the company later, I was told by the supposed boss-man that “I just called the track, and those are infield tickets, which include pit access….”
Well, maybe they did things differently on a road course, but I wasn’t convinced. I always get a pit voucher to take to a trailer at the track to pick up my pit passes, and this definitely was NOT a pit pass voucher.
I called the track, but got a voice mail that kept looping me back to the main menu, so since we were headed for the track now, I decided to talk directly to the people in the ticket office there.
Arriving at the track, we were absolutely flabbergasted to drive in the general parking gate, having been directed to the BACK of the property…and to start weaving around, over, everything except under these hills!! It was absolutely AMAZING…I have never had that kind of drive into a track. Then again, I’ve heard Bristol is pretty hilly, but this was a first for me…you couldn’t even see the track, just had to take their word that it was over that hill, from the Back 40 lot where we ended up parking.
Walking to the shuttle area at the top of the lot, we were informed that we just missed the shuttle, and the next would be along in 15 minutes or so…or we could just walk down. It’s only a 10 minute walk, he says, making it sound like a Sunday stroll in the park…Yeah, right!! We walked down hill, and across, and down hill again, then across again…zigzagging down the hill…it was the longest, hottest walk I’ve done in a while…by the time I got to the bottom, all I could think of was “BEER ME!!” and made a b-line for the nearest vendor.
Mind you, the views of the track on the way down were pretty awesome:
Then we headed down to the main grandstand and asked a security guard for directions to the ticket office. Having just completed the convoluted trip down the hill and around the track, I was not at all surprised when he said “I think I should just take you there” in lieu of trying to give us directions we would understand.
Long story short, we got dropped off at the front office to enquire if what this man had told me was true…and were told it was not, that these were just tickets. They were listed as “GenAdmis” meaning General admission, and a search through several ticket sales sites had shown “GenAdmis” listings in the same price range with descriptions indicating they were pit passes and driver intro passes, so logically, I assumed, these were too.
Should have bought the ones with the descriptions, but I was trying to contain my ticket buying to as few sites as possible, and they were sold out at the track except for a couple low in turn 9 that I wasn’t interested in.
Apparently, I was wrong. OR they decided to purposely gyp me and send tickets in place of the pit passes I had purchased.
NOT HAPPY!!!!
Of course, when I called the company that sold me the tickets back, I got the voicemail…so I left a scathing message indicating I wanted my money back. On Monday I would contact the company they sold them to me through, a company I have used in the past and trust, and report to them what happened. Hopefully I will be able to get some of our money back, because, believe me, these weren’t cheap, being last-minute, and sold in a state where you can legally resell tickets for whatever price you want to.
Anyway, shaking it off, we went to the souvenir hauler and said Hi to Mark. The gals apparently didn’t make the trip to Sonoma, as he was alone there with a couple of others all weekend I assumed were local help.
With the banner in hand, we headed back to the Trackside stage, 2 hours early…and no-one was there, but they started arriving about the time we did.
We had already been by and had seen the barber chair set up in the corner of the stage, so we immediately nabbed spots right in front of that spot.
We had to guard it a bit, because people would try to squeeze in beside us, and shift us down, but we knew if we shifted too far down we’d be looking at the back of Tom’s head, so we held our ground. Don’t push an Edhead around!
As we stood there through Nascar Live, we soon noticed activity in the Speed tent beside the stage…
First Tom showed up, and they were apparently briefing him on what the plan was…and looking at our pics, we realized that although he was pretty closely shorn by the time he came on stage, he had NOT been that closely shorn before coming on…we watched as they used long trimmers to even up what apparently had been hacked at all week, I guess they made it a little tidier for Tom’s TV appearance…
Then Carl walked by the opening to the back of the tent, where I assume they were getting him ready to go on-stage…
And suddenly it was Trackside time!! Tom came out first, and was set up in the barber chair…and he looked over at us, saw the Edhead banner, which we had hung over the side of the railing in front of us, not intending on putting it up and blocking all the people behind us, but just so that Tom and Carl would see it and know that the Edheads were there.
Then he looked at my shirt, grinned and waved…I gave him a thumbs up. It occurred to me afterwards that I must have seemed like an incognito Edhead, with the sunglasses and hat, but I doubt he would have recognized me anyway, having never met me before…however, he had seen the Shave Tom shirt before, at Dover, last September, in the crowd, at Carl’s signing…he gave me a thumbs up then, too, if I recall correctly.
Before we knew it, out came the Trackside guys, to hoots and hollers, and they brought Carl with them. Lots of hooting and hollering ensued, but Carl sat at the other side of the stage, probably on purpose so the cameras wouldn’t catch Tom sitting in the chair in the background while they interviewed Carl about his win.
Next thing I know, the gal running around with the portable TV camera was planted in front of me, with her camera aimed at my chest…show time!!! If you watched Trackside, you KNOW Justine’s work of art got fabulous airtime…along with me in my shades and goofy bucket hat with my “Are you an Edhead” pin on it. Hey, laugh at the hat, but my scalp along my part didn’t get NEARLY as sunburnt as it usually does. :D I’m just sad I couldn’t find my “Canada” bucket hat to wear…I KNOW it’s around my apartment somewhere, in a side pocket of a suitcase or something, where I packed it on one of my moves.
Finally the time came. We had seen the hedge trimmers and shears and the weed whacker behind the guys, so it wasn’t a surprise when they came out…what WAS a surprise was when, at commercial I believe, although I’ll have to watch and see if they show it, Hammond actually fired up the weed whacker….I’m not sure if I was taping at this time, but if I was, you’ll hear me: “WHO GAVE HAMMOND A WEAPON!!” followed by lots of laughter.
Finally Carl was up and walked across the stage…and saw us. That’s Anne’s fabulous pic of Carl waving at us, with our banner and t-shirt. The merged picture of our 2 pics, courtesy of Chrissi, is the best, and I do believe that will find a home on my desktop, if not on my cell phone. It’s too good to just sit in a file.
That pic is the one at the top right side of this blog.
The big moment…if you watched, you know the barber started tackling what remained of Tom’s beard during the commercial, and they came back to it partially done…
Carl of course was running the interview by this point…and we had the prime view. I wonder if Carl wore those baggy pants knowing that his butt would be on display to the crowd? LOL
Too quickly, it was all over, and with a final wave in the direction of the crowd, or us, whichever, Tom and Carl were gone, so we grabbed the banner and headed out of the crowd, letting someone else be up front..our mission was accomplished.
By the time we had worked our way over to the Speed Tent, Carl and Tom were gone, so I couldn’t get them to sign my shirt…so it will be traveling with me to future races in the hopes that I can accomplish that and fully retire the shirt, but it will not be worn again.
Returning the banner to the hauler, we told Mark of our adventures, and he laughed…he had the TV on in the hauler, so he saw parts of it, but obviously not all of it, because he seemed surprised when I told him I had been the opening shot.
Heading back over towards the stands, we ran into Dell, and told him how the shaving had gone, also….
Then we went up and sat for a bit and watched qualifying until after Carl made his run, then headed out, as we had left LA at 4am, and were pretty tired by now.
We were staying in Martinez, CA, a small town about 30 minutes from the track, so we headed downtown for dinner, and got to admire some cars set up for a car show, as many towns do…the owners just drive their babies in and put them on display. Lots of interesting cars, from the sporty, to the classic, to the absurd. Unfortunately, we had left our cameras in the hotel, and it still doesn’t occur to me that I have a camera phone, or I would have snapped a few, but it was fun.
After dinner, we pretty much crashed and burned, after checking out the board to post a few pics and some mention of our adventures. Tomorrow would be a big day, as rather than pay $40-50 to watch practice and another series’ race, when we didn’t have our pit passes to do the behind the scenes thing, we decided we’re going to go explore San Francisco. This should be great!!
Friday June 22, 2007: SHAVE TOM!!!!!! (FINALLY!!!!)
When I moved to LA back in December, of course, one of the first things I did was sit down with the Nextel Cup schedule and plot what races were in driving distance of my new home. Having done Fontana, Las Vegas, Phoenix so far this season (along with a longer trip for the All Star race, of course) the next race on the agenda was Sears Point. Infineon, whatever, it’ll always be Sears Point to me.
Plans to go to that race fell apart when my NASCAR buddy couldn’t get the time off, and not wanting to do a new track by myself, in a new area, I decided not to go.
June 17, that all changed. Carl FINALLY won, after 52 races. And Tom Giacchi, Carl’s motor coach driver and friend, oh bearded one, the Yeti, who had sworn not to shave until Carl won another race, would finally be shaved.
The deal with Gillette was that they would do it on Trackside the next race weekend, for all the fans to watch. What was the next race???
You guessed it. Sears Point. Only a 6-7 hour drive away.
Plans started boiling through my head. My wish not to do a new track, new type of race experience (road course) without a partner in crime became secondary. That was a minor matter. The major matter was that, to my knowledge, not one of the Edheads had indicated they were going to be at Sears Point.
This momentous event, Tom FINALLY getting shaved, must NOT happen without the Edheads there to support them. Representatives MUST be there!!
I had almost decided I really couldn’t afford it, when a quick text message yielded an enabler.
Anne, who had enabled me to attend my first race in Phoenix, was in California, visiting relatives. A mere couple of hours from me.
AND she was game for a road trip.
I’ve been enabled!!!
Of course, at this late date, there were absolutely NO decent tickets and NO pit passes available through the Infineon website. I’m hooked on pit passes, if they’re available, I have to have one.
A quick browse through a couple of ticket re-sale sites showed that both were available, for a price. Unlike North Carolina, and Florida, other places where I had bought tickets through these brokers, there was no law in California stating that tickets could not be resold for above face value.
These people are making HUGE money, I tell you.
Too bad, right after finalizing the purchase of our non-refundable tickets, we found out that Tom would not be at Sears Point, therefore they were planning to shave him on Trackside NEXT week in New Hampshire.
Darn!!
Thank God for “Undo”….I’m typing this in the truck on the way to the track. Anne’s driving, of course. But one of those bumps that sneak up on you just caught me….my finger slipped and I accidentally deleted everything I had just typed!!!! UGH!!!
Anyway, at least we were reassured that it still would not go unwitnessed by Edheads, as Justine, she the fabulous creator of the “Shave Tom” t-shirts that many Edheads and the crew had sported for many of the previous 52 races, would be there.
Last evening, I received a phone call that made all the money we had spent on tickets for this trip SOOOO worth it…plans had changed.
Tom would be shaved on Trackside Live at Sears Point!!
AWESOME!!
Out came the freshly laundered “Shave Tom” shirt, to honor Carl, Tom, and the 99 team from the crowd at the Speed Stage, and to honor and Justine, the shirts’ creator, who sadly was disappointed that she would not be able to witness the grand event with her own eyes, as it had looked like she would.
I wonder if any of the crew will dig theirs out to wear, also? I mean, after today, they are obsolete!!
Anyway, after a week that saw our tickets, paid for with overnight delivery courtesy of Denny Hamlin’s primary sponsor, arrive without complication, but found our pit passes delayed by a seller who ignored my note that they needed to be delivered by Thursday at the latest (They were ordered Sunday night), because we were leaving early this morning, Friday, (They are now to be delivered to our hotel this morning, priority, at the cost of the seller…hopefully they will be there when we arrive, so as not to delay our trip out to the track to get the lay of the land and nab a prime spot for the 3pm taping of Trackside), we are now en route to Sears Point, with a little detour to the hotel first for the pit passes.
I’m so excited!!!! I want to see what Tom really looks like!!!
More later. I will add pictures as I get through them and find the good ones.
Plans to go to that race fell apart when my NASCAR buddy couldn’t get the time off, and not wanting to do a new track by myself, in a new area, I decided not to go.
June 17, that all changed. Carl FINALLY won, after 52 races. And Tom Giacchi, Carl’s motor coach driver and friend, oh bearded one, the Yeti, who had sworn not to shave until Carl won another race, would finally be shaved.
The deal with Gillette was that they would do it on Trackside the next race weekend, for all the fans to watch. What was the next race???
You guessed it. Sears Point. Only a 6-7 hour drive away.
Plans started boiling through my head. My wish not to do a new track, new type of race experience (road course) without a partner in crime became secondary. That was a minor matter. The major matter was that, to my knowledge, not one of the Edheads had indicated they were going to be at Sears Point.
This momentous event, Tom FINALLY getting shaved, must NOT happen without the Edheads there to support them. Representatives MUST be there!!
I had almost decided I really couldn’t afford it, when a quick text message yielded an enabler.
Anne, who had enabled me to attend my first race in Phoenix, was in California, visiting relatives. A mere couple of hours from me.
AND she was game for a road trip.
I’ve been enabled!!!
Of course, at this late date, there were absolutely NO decent tickets and NO pit passes available through the Infineon website. I’m hooked on pit passes, if they’re available, I have to have one.
A quick browse through a couple of ticket re-sale sites showed that both were available, for a price. Unlike North Carolina, and Florida, other places where I had bought tickets through these brokers, there was no law in California stating that tickets could not be resold for above face value.
These people are making HUGE money, I tell you.
Too bad, right after finalizing the purchase of our non-refundable tickets, we found out that Tom would not be at Sears Point, therefore they were planning to shave him on Trackside NEXT week in New Hampshire.
Darn!!
Thank God for “Undo”….I’m typing this in the truck on the way to the track. Anne’s driving, of course. But one of those bumps that sneak up on you just caught me….my finger slipped and I accidentally deleted everything I had just typed!!!! UGH!!!
Anyway, at least we were reassured that it still would not go unwitnessed by Edheads, as Justine, she the fabulous creator of the “Shave Tom” t-shirts that many Edheads and the crew had sported for many of the previous 52 races, would be there.
Last evening, I received a phone call that made all the money we had spent on tickets for this trip SOOOO worth it…plans had changed.
Tom would be shaved on Trackside Live at Sears Point!!
AWESOME!!
Out came the freshly laundered “Shave Tom” shirt, to honor Carl, Tom, and the 99 team from the crowd at the Speed Stage, and to honor and Justine, the shirts’ creator, who sadly was disappointed that she would not be able to witness the grand event with her own eyes, as it had looked like she would.
I wonder if any of the crew will dig theirs out to wear, also? I mean, after today, they are obsolete!!
Anyway, after a week that saw our tickets, paid for with overnight delivery courtesy of Denny Hamlin’s primary sponsor, arrive without complication, but found our pit passes delayed by a seller who ignored my note that they needed to be delivered by Thursday at the latest (They were ordered Sunday night), because we were leaving early this morning, Friday, (They are now to be delivered to our hotel this morning, priority, at the cost of the seller…hopefully they will be there when we arrive, so as not to delay our trip out to the track to get the lay of the land and nab a prime spot for the 3pm taping of Trackside), we are now en route to Sears Point, with a little detour to the hotel first for the pit passes.
I’m so excited!!!! I want to see what Tom really looks like!!!
More later. I will add pictures as I get through them and find the good ones.
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