Saturday March 8th
Friday en route to Atlanta was an uneventful travel day from the Left coast for me, and after Jean Marie arrived, I finally ran out of steam and fell asleep before Tracy got there. At least I got my beauty sleep…for what would turn out to be a test of my Canadian blood, thinned from long time spent on the South side of North America.
Saturday morning, we crawled out of our warm beds bright and early and congregated at the hotel’s continental breakfast area, where I finally met Tracy…and we realized simultaneously that despite a long time hanging out on the same Carl Edwards internet message boards but not in “real life”, we had actually MET a couple of times before, on pit lanes of different race tracks! Pit lane is REALLY a small world!
After enjoying a breakfast to help insulate ourselves from the cold weather outside, we headed to the track bright and early to make the most of what time we had on pit lane.
Arriving there, we bundled up in our winter woolies, and headed off through the fan area, where we spotted the General Lee for the first of several times that weekend.
At turn 4, we managed to flag down a golf cart to give us a ride to the infield and pit lane…little did we know that that ride would be an adventure, in that, as we arrived at the gate to pit lane, the heavens suddenly opened up.
Rain? Nope, that would be too mundane. We suddenly found ourselves in a WHITE OUT, so pronounced by the Canadian in the group!!! Couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. The picture doesn't do it justice, because at it's worst, I was on a golf cart, and my camera was in my jacket, being protected from the snow. On the way to the track, first flurries, which cleared up for a bit:
Hopping off the cart, with my camera safely tucked inside my coat, I helped Tracy cover her babies (cameras) to protect them from what was a wet snow, and we hoofed it through the infield to pit lane…
By the time we got to the Busch garage, the snow was lightening up, and Tracy headed off to her assignment while Jean-Marie and I decided to wander down pit lane.
After a while, we found ourselves at the food stand, and ordering some hot beverages, we ducked around the side of the building to use it as a windbreak for a while…when suddenly
THE SUN CAME OUT! HALLELUJIA!!
Gradually, the weather improved, although it never quite got warm.
Back down on pit lane, another beautiful sight awaited us. The weather had delayed all on-track activities, but the first thing we saw upon returning to pit lane was the Nationwide crews, pushing the pit boxes out onto pit lane, lead by the 60 team! YAY!!
Before to long, pit lane was a beehive of activity, and we soon found Tracy again, snapping pics to her hearts content.
Now I’ve never truly met any NASCAR legends, drivers of the past, but this day would break that trend for me. At the 00 pit box, Jean-Marie and I ended up talking to Buzzy Reutimann, and I shook his hand. Cool meeting someone who raced back in the day, even if it was more non-NASCAR racing than NASCAR. Just wish I had a pic of us, but there were too many people around by this time.
As race time approached, we said good-by to Tracy, and headed up into the stands. Our seats were AWESOME, right up from the start/finish line, and, as luck would have it, straight across from the 60 pit stall.
Or rather, Jean-Marie’s seat. Upon going up there with her, and seeing how much better her view was than mine would be out of turn 1, I chose to occupy an unoccupied seat with her. The stands were far from full, so this was no problem.
By now the sun was out, just some puffy clouds in the sky, and if it weren’t for the cold wind, we’d have been able to totally ditch our winter duds. How windy was it? This flag NEVER drooped:
But we were at the races, so we soldiered on!
The race itself was AWESOME as usual.
After the race, we rendezvoused at the 99 souvenir hauler, instructed to look for an older, balding man….Tracy would join up with us there after her time on pit lane, and Perry was going to meet us.
Standing to the side of the crowds at the 99 hauler (the crowds for all things 99/60 just keep getting bigger and bigger!!) we noticed a man in khakis with a hat on, on the other side of the crowd. Tracy’s description hadn’t taken into account the chilly weather.
After a short time standing on our separate sides of the crowd, waiting for Tracy to show up to make introductions, I finally walked over and asked him if he was Perry. And he was.
We made chit chat for a while, getting to know each other, and Aimee called, so she chatted with Perry, too, and finally, dragging, her arms inches longer and thicker than they had been that morning, after a day of hoisting her cameras on pit lane, Tracy straggled up…
We escorted Perry to his car, and enjoyed some of his pics, then hopped in our vehicles in search of a place to eat something substantial…Tracy admitted she hadn’t had anything all day but a couple of bananas.
We headed for TGIFridays, where Glenn, Tracy’s photographer friend, joined us, and had a great time just talking and sharing photos we had taken and just generally having fun, while filling up on great food.
Back at the hotel, we congregated in Tracy’s room, Perry now off, headed for home, and had a “Photo Party”, sharing our downloaded pics, and generally just relaxed, before it was time to crawl into our respective beds for the night.
Another fabulous (if frigid!) raceday!
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