boogity boogity boogity - let's go racin' boys
A few months ago I got an e-mail from the captains of our MS bike ride team. We had this awesome opportunity, if we could get enough volunteers, to raise money. We could run a concession stand at Daytona International Speedway for the Coke Zero 400 over July 4th weekend. Whatever profits we make go to the team and eventually to the MS Society.
I thought about it. First there was a little pang of guilt. The team had a car wash last year and I blew it off…and they were a bit short of people. This year I wanted to participate. Then there was the event….a NASCAR race. I have lots of friends who are NASCAR fans, and all of them say you can’t judge it from what you see on TV. You have to actually go to a race to appreciate it. I’ll admit I’ve never been all that big on NASCAR, but I figured…this would be a good opportunity to see what it’s all about.
I raised my hand and said, “Sure, I’m in.”
It wasn’t until after I did that, that the time commitment hit me. We had to be at the track at 11:30 a.m. and the race doesn’t start until after 8:00 p.m. We might be out by midnight…and with no traffic, Daytona is about an hour away. Then I found out there's a dress code. We had to wear a t-shirt, but it couldn't advertise the charity we were supporting, and we couldn't wear shorts (some lawyer-speak thing about handling hot food and maybe accidentally dropping it on your legs and ensuing lawsuits) in July in Daytona, Florida. Yowza!
I e-mailed a few people who were doing it with me trying to arrange car pool stuff. I ended up with one other person. Everyone else was already going to be there (because they’re into NASCAR and were attending the pre-race festivities) or were coming from elsewhere (like Orlando) on the long 4th of July weekend.
We left at 9:00, unsure of what to expect for traffic and also the suspect directions to where we were supposed to park and get a shuttle. The directions started with…take the exit before the one for the track. Well, if you don’t know what exit the track is near, it’s hard to figure out which one comes before it. You can see the track from I-95. I know that because we missed the exit before you get to the track. We found the one for the track, but eventually found our parking lot, rode the shuttle back to where we just were and then found our concession stand at about 11:00….and the place was deserted.
We walked around a bit. I bought the youngster a Daytona ball cap and we came back at 11:20…a couple was there. In the next 20 minutes or so, though, most of the crew got there and we were given things to do. Mostly it was inventory and getting burgers and hot dogs cooking, drinks cooling, roaches killed, that sort of thing, which kept us busy until about 1:00.
Then we waited. The gates opened around 1:00 or 1:30, and there were actually lines to get in….for a race starting in a little over seven hours. We waited some more. Then we waited. At around 3:00, there was some action on the track. A Corvette and a few other Chevrolet automobiles were running around the track giving people rides. We figured it had to be sponsor people, but later learned you could pay some outrageous sum of money to get a ride around the track. At about 4:00 we were told we could go down and walk around the track, sign the start/finish line and check out the garage area, so I did (note the picture), because I wanted to see what it’s all about. I still don’t get the signature on the finish line thing, but I did it. Looking in the garages, with the rest of the mass of humanity, was pretty cool, and standing on the banked curve near the start finish line was impressive. That sucker is pretty steep!
Around 6:00 business picked up. We got and stayed pretty busy until a little after 8:00, when everyone’s butts were glued to their seats. Then we were allowed to get out and watch the start. The first thing that hit me was the smell, which reminded me of driving behind a city bus…but a bit different. I mentioned it to one of my coworkers who was very into it all. He just got this wide grin and said that’s racin’ fuel. Well, OK, but it still stinks. The next thing was the actual start and the noise, which rivals any air show I’ve ever seen. The difference is, in an air show, the jets come and go…and there’s quiet again. With racing, it just keeps coming, and coming…especially once they get strung out a bit. It’s very impressive at first, but after 50 laps, it gets a little old. Many people, I noticed, had ear plugs.
Back in the concession stand, which got noticeably busier during caution flag periods, things moved along, hampered only by the noise when the cars went by. You literally couldn’t hear the person yelling in your face…resorting sometimes to improvised hand signals. In between busy times though, I actually got to see a lot of the race...as much as I wanted, and then some.
After it ended, apparently nobody was happy because some guy nobody likes won the thing. We started inventorying everything left over, and putting beers back in their little plastic rings (a chore we were warned about early in the day, so we only took them out as we sold them, and there weren’t too many of those) and cleaning up.
It was 12:15 when we got in line for the shuttle. There were 10 lines with buses moving in and out. They were somewhat prepared for that fiasco, because they had those serpentine line barricades set up to organize things getting on the shuttles, and jumbotrons in the back showing highlights from the Daytona 500. The only thing was, it was a little disheartening when you got to the third time through the highlight reel and had the lines memorized, which is where I got the title for this entry. It was after 1:00 when we got on a shuttle bus. It was 2:30 when my head hit the pillow. My feet didn't stop hurting (from standing most of the day) until well into Sunday.
Overall, I’m glad I did it. The entire day was one helluva experience. It helped a good cause and satisfied a curiosity I had for quite some time. I still don’t get NASCAR though. I have a better appreciation for it, and understand why it appeals to some folks. I’m just not one of them. They told me I’d either love it or hate it, but they were wrong. I’m pretty much apathetic about it all. It was kinda cool, but not that cool…and definitely not worth all the hype baggage that comes with it, but that’s just one man’s opinion.
I thought about it. First there was a little pang of guilt. The team had a car wash last year and I blew it off…and they were a bit short of people. This year I wanted to participate. Then there was the event….a NASCAR race. I have lots of friends who are NASCAR fans, and all of them say you can’t judge it from what you see on TV. You have to actually go to a race to appreciate it. I’ll admit I’ve never been all that big on NASCAR, but I figured…this would be a good opportunity to see what it’s all about.
I raised my hand and said, “Sure, I’m in.”
It wasn’t until after I did that, that the time commitment hit me. We had to be at the track at 11:30 a.m. and the race doesn’t start until after 8:00 p.m. We might be out by midnight…and with no traffic, Daytona is about an hour away. Then I found out there's a dress code. We had to wear a t-shirt, but it couldn't advertise the charity we were supporting, and we couldn't wear shorts (some lawyer-speak thing about handling hot food and maybe accidentally dropping it on your legs and ensuing lawsuits) in July in Daytona, Florida. Yowza!
I e-mailed a few people who were doing it with me trying to arrange car pool stuff. I ended up with one other person. Everyone else was already going to be there (because they’re into NASCAR and were attending the pre-race festivities) or were coming from elsewhere (like Orlando) on the long 4th of July weekend.
We left at 9:00, unsure of what to expect for traffic and also the suspect directions to where we were supposed to park and get a shuttle. The directions started with…take the exit before the one for the track. Well, if you don’t know what exit the track is near, it’s hard to figure out which one comes before it. You can see the track from I-95. I know that because we missed the exit before you get to the track. We found the one for the track, but eventually found our parking lot, rode the shuttle back to where we just were and then found our concession stand at about 11:00….and the place was deserted.
We walked around a bit. I bought the youngster a Daytona ball cap and we came back at 11:20…a couple was there. In the next 20 minutes or so, though, most of the crew got there and we were given things to do. Mostly it was inventory and getting burgers and hot dogs cooking, drinks cooling, roaches killed, that sort of thing, which kept us busy until about 1:00.
Then we waited. The gates opened around 1:00 or 1:30, and there were actually lines to get in….for a race starting in a little over seven hours. We waited some more. Then we waited. At around 3:00, there was some action on the track. A Corvette and a few other Chevrolet automobiles were running around the track giving people rides. We figured it had to be sponsor people, but later learned you could pay some outrageous sum of money to get a ride around the track. At about 4:00 we were told we could go down and walk around the track, sign the start/finish line and check out the garage area, so I did (note the picture), because I wanted to see what it’s all about. I still don’t get the signature on the finish line thing, but I did it. Looking in the garages, with the rest of the mass of humanity, was pretty cool, and standing on the banked curve near the start finish line was impressive. That sucker is pretty steep!
Around 6:00 business picked up. We got and stayed pretty busy until a little after 8:00, when everyone’s butts were glued to their seats. Then we were allowed to get out and watch the start. The first thing that hit me was the smell, which reminded me of driving behind a city bus…but a bit different. I mentioned it to one of my coworkers who was very into it all. He just got this wide grin and said that’s racin’ fuel. Well, OK, but it still stinks. The next thing was the actual start and the noise, which rivals any air show I’ve ever seen. The difference is, in an air show, the jets come and go…and there’s quiet again. With racing, it just keeps coming, and coming…especially once they get strung out a bit. It’s very impressive at first, but after 50 laps, it gets a little old. Many people, I noticed, had ear plugs.
Back in the concession stand, which got noticeably busier during caution flag periods, things moved along, hampered only by the noise when the cars went by. You literally couldn’t hear the person yelling in your face…resorting sometimes to improvised hand signals. In between busy times though, I actually got to see a lot of the race...as much as I wanted, and then some.
After it ended, apparently nobody was happy because some guy nobody likes won the thing. We started inventorying everything left over, and putting beers back in their little plastic rings (a chore we were warned about early in the day, so we only took them out as we sold them, and there weren’t too many of those) and cleaning up.
It was 12:15 when we got in line for the shuttle. There were 10 lines with buses moving in and out. They were somewhat prepared for that fiasco, because they had those serpentine line barricades set up to organize things getting on the shuttles, and jumbotrons in the back showing highlights from the Daytona 500. The only thing was, it was a little disheartening when you got to the third time through the highlight reel and had the lines memorized, which is where I got the title for this entry. It was after 1:00 when we got on a shuttle bus. It was 2:30 when my head hit the pillow. My feet didn't stop hurting (from standing most of the day) until well into Sunday.
Overall, I’m glad I did it. The entire day was one helluva experience. It helped a good cause and satisfied a curiosity I had for quite some time. I still don’t get NASCAR though. I have a better appreciation for it, and understand why it appeals to some folks. I’m just not one of them. They told me I’d either love it or hate it, but they were wrong. I’m pretty much apathetic about it all. It was kinda cool, but not that cool…and definitely not worth all the hype baggage that comes with it, but that’s just one man’s opinion.
Labels: It's all about me, Sports, Whining
John put this out here at 12:17 PM
2 Comments:
lol.. 'boogity'... I've said it before but this is the first time I've actually seen in in print..
btw, you were missed!!!!
As I was stading in line for the shuttle bus at 1:00 in the morning, I wondered how it'd sound if the announcers were replaced with golf announcers. I imagined what it would sound like when very proper Peter Oosterhaus with his British accent said "boogity boogity boogity", pronouncing the t's like t's instead of the d sound the NASCAR guys give it. Yeah, I was a little slap happy by then.
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