Well, I know it's Thursday night and I did it last Sunday, I should have written earlier. School remember....
So last Sunday, Matty, Phil, Stephen and myself all went to Auto Club Speedway for the Pepsi 500. We got up to Fontana and got our passes and found our way to the press box situated between the ESPN booth and race control. It would have been really cool to have watched the race from there.
From there we were kicked out, mainly because someone at the track didn't have a clue where we were supposed to be. So we eventually got to the correct press box above pit road, sounds better than what it actually was. From where I was sitting in the press box I was able to see about 5 seconds of racing every lap (the avg lap times were in the 39-46 sec range). The rest of the time I was either paying attention to the worlds longest fantasy football draft (another story altogether, look below) or cranking my head up and to the right so that I could watch the ESPN feed which was on HD, but also on a 7 second delay.
Now about the fantasy football draft.
The draft seemed pretty straight forward, 18 rounds for a 10 team league. So much for being a simple draft. There were a few rookies, usually no big deal. The big deal came when some of the owners where either not paying attentino to who had been drafted or just gave up only 5 rounds into the draft. The draft got underway as the National Anthem was being sung at the race. 4 hours later as the race was closing in on the checkers (finish), the draft was only in round 14. I finally gave up, and told everyone to just pick the best player available. A fantasy football draft, no matter how long it is should take more than 3 hours. Absolutely ridicioulous. I even asked for a clock to be put on the picks due to the talent pool being dwindeled down so far I was informed that they were going as fast as possible. That might be the truth, but when everything is looked at from a impartal viewpoint, after the 5th round, you should be able to make a pick (if you know who has been picked) within a minute at the most.
So this weekend, I'm going on yet another trip, I'm going up to "Don't forget the lyrics" in the mornign with my mom. Then on Saturday, after announcing the Cuesta Panthers Vs. Grossmont Women's Volleyball match, My mom, Julie (hopefully Mary) and myself all head up to Lakewood to meet up with the Mays and then to Bako to surprise a friend.
Showing posts with label Auto Club Speedway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Auto Club Speedway. Show all posts
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Greetings from back home
OOOOOOOh Myyyyyyyyyyyyyy Goodness, you will not believe this past weekend. You have undoubtedly heard of AWESOME Weekends, well this is my first AWESOME weekend in quite awhile.
It started on Friday, as most weekends do. I blogged from Lakewood as you may have seen, after a FINE SDSU Baseball game that the Aztecs had won 11-2 over #5 USD at TGS. I then caught up with my friends the May’s (BTW, Greetings Jesse, you can check out his 4 blogs at jemcam.blogger.com (you now owe me Jes)).
On Saturday, it was picture day for the 58th NSDC in Long Beach. Mom came up with Matty, The Otto’s, and Jeanne T., one other person was in the vehicle, but I don’t talk about trouble makers. It was extremely close for the Security picture not having Lost or Found in the picture as Mom arrived about 2 minutes before the picture was actually taken (thankfully, the rest of the committee allowed another committee to go ahead. Then the gang (The Otto’s, Jeanne, The Davis’ and Matty) all went to dinner and then went to the 59th NSDC Pre-Con dance. (BTW, Jesse, I still have that box in my trunk.) After the dance, Matty & I were supposed to go to his house in Carmel Valley (San Diego) and sleep before getting up and riding the Metrolink into Auto Club Speedway (Formerly known as California Speedway) to watch the Auto Club 500. Well, it turns out the May’s RV was available, so we ended up sleeping there instead. This was after Matty experienced a Croakers after party for the first time.
Sunday morning, rolled around and I was JACKED. I have been a NASCAR fan for maybe approaching 10 years or so, but had never been to a race. Because Matty is so connected throughout So Cal, he got us tickets to the race at Auto Club Speedway. So we left Lakewood and transversed the LA freeway system to get to Fontana. We went to the general parking lot, and rode into the speedway on a school bus. Matty was supposed to pick up the tickets from media will call, so we finally made our way over and they were there waiting for him. They were not just tickets, they turned out to be Credentials for us to checkout Pit Road, and sit in the Pit Road Suites. Also, in the package was a parking pass, so we went back to the car and drove onto the speedway grounds and thought they were for the grandstands, it was then we found out that they were for the Pit Road Suites.
Once in the Infield, we realized they gave us Pit Road Access until an hour before the race was scheduled to begin, it had been raining all night, and morning so we thought just on the off chance that NASCAR was going to be strict on the time, we better go and checkout Pit Road. Well, we got onto Pit Road, and Security forced us onto the grass infield between the track and Pit Road. So we hang out in the grass, and none other than ZZ Top began to play. SWEET!!!!!!! Then I turn maybe 30⁰ and what begins but driver introductions. Dummy me, forgot his camera in the car, THANK GOD for Camera Phones. So I took a few pictures of me in Victory Lane, and of the drivers during introductions. Security forced us off the infield, and up to the suite seats. We grabbed a seat that was maybe 6 pit boxes from the start/ finish line and a box and a half from the scoring pylon. About two boxes East (or to the Left, as we were looking) from the pylon was Hendrick Motorsports newest driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr and two boxes further down, was JEFF GORDON !!!! Mr. El Cajon, had the very first pit box/stall and that was about 8-10 stalls/boxes away.
When Matty and I left the speedway, the race had yet to go back to green, and well probably not go back until Monday. 87 laps were in the books, and due to a lengthy (1 hr 20 Min +)Red Flag due to a bad crash and water seepage and a couple of yellows and another Red Flag for rain. There was no way that the race would finish on Sunday. Look for the conclusion on SPEED TV on Monday from what will probably be a nice sunny Fontana, CA.
I have uploaded some of the pictures to my myspace account (www.myspace.com/mavricksd) under the AUTO CLUB 500 gallery. Check it out, til Edition 1.015 I’ll be seeing you! I promise in 1.015 I will have some funny news for you, it has been a while since I have done that.
BTW, There is a 85% chance that I will be back at Auto Club Speedway in August for the Pepsi 500!
It started on Friday, as most weekends do. I blogged from Lakewood as you may have seen, after a FINE SDSU Baseball game that the Aztecs had won 11-2 over #5 USD at TGS. I then caught up with my friends the May’s (BTW, Greetings Jesse, you can check out his 4 blogs at jemcam.blogger.com (you now owe me Jes)).
On Saturday, it was picture day for the 58th NSDC in Long Beach. Mom came up with Matty, The Otto’s, and Jeanne T., one other person was in the vehicle, but I don’t talk about trouble makers. It was extremely close for the Security picture not having Lost or Found in the picture as Mom arrived about 2 minutes before the picture was actually taken (thankfully, the rest of the committee allowed another committee to go ahead. Then the gang (The Otto’s, Jeanne, The Davis’ and Matty) all went to dinner and then went to the 59th NSDC Pre-Con dance. (BTW, Jesse, I still have that box in my trunk.) After the dance, Matty & I were supposed to go to his house in Carmel Valley (San Diego) and sleep before getting up and riding the Metrolink into Auto Club Speedway (Formerly known as California Speedway) to watch the Auto Club 500. Well, it turns out the May’s RV was available, so we ended up sleeping there instead. This was after Matty experienced a Croakers after party for the first time.
Sunday morning, rolled around and I was JACKED. I have been a NASCAR fan for maybe approaching 10 years or so, but had never been to a race. Because Matty is so connected throughout So Cal, he got us tickets to the race at Auto Club Speedway. So we left Lakewood and transversed the LA freeway system to get to Fontana. We went to the general parking lot, and rode into the speedway on a school bus. Matty was supposed to pick up the tickets from media will call, so we finally made our way over and they were there waiting for him. They were not just tickets, they turned out to be Credentials for us to checkout Pit Road, and sit in the Pit Road Suites. Also, in the package was a parking pass, so we went back to the car and drove onto the speedway grounds and thought they were for the grandstands, it was then we found out that they were for the Pit Road Suites.
Once in the Infield, we realized they gave us Pit Road Access until an hour before the race was scheduled to begin, it had been raining all night, and morning so we thought just on the off chance that NASCAR was going to be strict on the time, we better go and checkout Pit Road. Well, we got onto Pit Road, and Security forced us onto the grass infield between the track and Pit Road. So we hang out in the grass, and none other than ZZ Top began to play. SWEET!!!!!!! Then I turn maybe 30⁰ and what begins but driver introductions. Dummy me, forgot his camera in the car, THANK GOD for Camera Phones. So I took a few pictures of me in Victory Lane, and of the drivers during introductions. Security forced us off the infield, and up to the suite seats. We grabbed a seat that was maybe 6 pit boxes from the start/ finish line and a box and a half from the scoring pylon. About two boxes East (or to the Left, as we were looking) from the pylon was Hendrick Motorsports newest driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr and two boxes further down, was JEFF GORDON !!!! Mr. El Cajon, had the very first pit box/stall and that was about 8-10 stalls/boxes away.When Matty and I left the speedway, the race had yet to go back to green, and well probably not go back until Monday. 87 laps were in the books, and due to a lengthy (1 hr 20 Min +)Red Flag due to a bad crash and water seepage and a couple of yellows and another Red Flag for rain. There was no way that the race would finish on Sunday. Look for the conclusion on SPEED TV on Monday from what will probably be a nice sunny Fontana, CA.
I have uploaded some of the pictures to my myspace account (www.myspace.com/mavricksd) under the AUTO CLUB 500 gallery. Check it out, til Edition 1.015 I’ll be seeing you! I promise in 1.015 I will have some funny news for you, it has been a while since I have done that.
BTW, There is a 85% chance that I will be back at Auto Club Speedway in August for the Pepsi 500!
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