A Day at the Races (dialup warning: pics!)

[Chovexani]

The school I work for is the official school of the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association), and yesterday I got roped into working the booth we had at the race in Chandler this weekend. I got out my trusty phone and took some pictures. Sorry if they're not good quality, it WAS a dinky camera phone.


It was a beautiful day here in the Phoenix area:



Some photos of our booth. We had a really swanky setup.:








Here I am on the Reaction Timer Challenge bike at our booth. This bike is used to test how fast you'd get out the start gate. You can see it better in the booth pics above with the little boy:




Pontiac was there showing off some of their stuff:










Some photos of some of the cars as they came off the track:


















Our VIP Credentials meant we could get up close and personal with the pit area and the starting line. When the cars took off we could feel the ground shake:
























All in all, despite outrageous food prices and my ride ditching me so I ended up having to work all day (my boss will hear about this, I want 8 hours of overtime dammit), it was a fun day. Racing is not my thing at all but it was pretty exciting being that close to it. The crowd was also much more diverse than I expected; there were a lot of redneck types there but there were also LOTS of people of color there, far more than I expected there to be, including a lot of Natives. (The track is on a reservation so that might have been part of it.) There were also a lot of women there, and not all of them were dragged there by their husbands/boyfriends. The first winner of our reaction challenge was a teen girl who got .001 seconds! :wow: I talked to her a bit and she was really into tricking out bikes and stuff so I gave her some info about our school. :) I had a good time and would go to another event.

[DarkTirade]

1. ... so what was your best time on the reaction timer challenge? :P

[Chovexani]

2. Let's not talk about that.

:P

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. And da winnas:

Top Fuel — Larry Dixon (4.532 @ 327.19) d. David Grubnic (5.002 @ 259.26)

In the semifinals, Dixon beat Tony Schumacher, who drives the U.S. Army dragster in your pics.

Funny Car — Jack Beckman (4.868 @ 320.20) d. Robert Hight (8.030 @ 105.28)

Pro Stock — V. Gaines (6.702 @ 205.38) d. Jason Line (20.239 @ 39.18)

Super Stock — Jimmy DeFrank SS/CM (dialed 8.87, ran 8.903) d. Gary McGlasson SS/HA (dialed 9.95, ran 10.041)

McGlasson lost despite a reaction time of .001 second. "Great leave," as they say.

Stock — Toby Lang G/SA (dialed 11.69, ran 11.707) d. Bobby DeArmond AA/SA (dialed 9.99, ran 9.986 (broke out; also red-lighted))

Super Comp — Steve Williams (8.927) d. Ken Mostowich (8.910)

Mostowich ran faster, but Williams got there first because of a .008 r/t to Mostowich's .032.

Super Gas — Brad Pierce (9.933) d. Tommy Turner (9.948)

Super Street — Ryan Smith (10.965) d. Leroy Duran (10.970)