Memorial Weekend at the Races…

My friend Bud had a race to go to up near Seattle with Joe and family. So I asked for and received an invitation to run up there and be a ‘go-fer’ (go fer this, go fer that) for them. The track was right on my way to Alaska, just off of I-5 and south of Seattle. Bud and Joe both have race cars and spend much of the racing season entering as many races as they can. Jonathan came along to help, he’s working on his own race car. Also, Joe’s wife Kathy and two sons came along.

Here’s a shot of Mt. Rainier as I headed towards the racetrack:

It’s very close to Mt. St. Helens and is a volcano that’s been rumbling slightly for years. The people around the base are in deep do-do if the thing comes back to life. There are lot’s of escape plans already in place and they have stopped some building plans that put houses in danger zones, but for the most part, we get use to living near to volcano’s. Tacoma and many small towns is/are right in the path of mud flows and there is history that it’s happened before. But that doesn’t prevent people from living there. Seattle is pretty close too, but would probably just get a huge dose of ash if Rainier blew it’s top:

The track wasn’t that crowded. There were very few spectators, most of the people in the stands, what few there were, were friends and relatives of the racers. It is pretty early in the season, folks are testing out the improvements that have been made during the winter, and getting their driving ‘chops’ back. It was fun helping get the cars ready for each race, timing Bud each lap, and cheering when they passed another car on the race course. Joe’s car is faster and he’s a pretty accomplished racer. Finishing high up in the ratings year after year. He gets some sponsorship and free goodies to try out on his car. This time he installed some new racing shocks to see how good they were.

Here’s where I parked, it’s a dry camp but I didn’t spend much time in the rig anyway so it didn’t matter that much:

The cars shown below are in a different class then Bud’s car. His is a road racer, these cars are dragsters. This track is a SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) track, not a Nascar track. SCCA was in operation years before Nascar. It hosts 2,000 races a year at tracks like this one all over the US. The Andretti’s would race at a track like this. The track itself is 4 miles long and snakes around out in the woods. The SCCA people consider Nascar to be ‘Toilet bowl racing’ and not much of a challenge to a ‘real’ race car driver. That’s the way most European drivers think about Nascar too.

These drag cars parked right in front of me so I felt compelled to get some pictures for you. You wouldn’t believe how LOUD these cars are. Whenever they were on the track I’d run get my earplugs. Late in the afternoon and on into the evening, these cars would use the straight track in front of the grandstands for drag racing. The first part of the day the track is reserved for road racing:



Here’s a shot of the grandstands. They stayed pretty much empty the entire weekend. Like I said, it’s early in the racing season so this isn’t that unusual. The weather was mild but mostly overcast:

This is a look back into the staging area where people stay the weekend in their RV’s and work on their cars. There were some pretty fancy rigs back in there. One racing team had a huge semi truck trailer with tool boxes, tons of tires, even electric lifts so they could park several race cars on the upper floor. La-dee-da. Bud and Joe prefer to stay where we stayed because it’s usually less crowded and not as much traffic:

Here’s a shot of Joe’s race car:

And Joe at the door of Bud’s shop, garage, and tire store:

Here’s Jonathan getting ready to go out and time a race:

And Bud just before a race (but before he’s put on his flame proof bunny suit):

There is always something to do on these cars:

Kathy was working on this ‘Racers Quilt’. It was quite the piece of handiwork. She has reason to be proud of her effort:

A shot of Joe’s car heading out to the track:

And the power plant:

Some of the safety devices:

Here’s Colin just hangin’:

This is Bud’s car all ready to get going:

And the restraints. The car is street legal but not very comfortable for more then one:

Here’s where their camp was, across the road from mine, they drove into town to a motel to sleep:

Bud’s all suited up and ready to head out:

The net keeps his head in, in case it falls off:

A shot of the track. The starting area is waaaay off there in the distance:

Bud zips by:

And another lap. Kind of hard to get good shots of the guys on the track, I think that’s Joe’s car there just coming into the frame and Bud’s car leaving it. Bud use to run a shop where racers would bring him there cars and he’d modify them for racing. He’s still doing that today, but not as actively. Joe is one of his old customers:

Looking out over the RV parking area. Lot’s of avid race fans out there:

After a race, the cars have to be inspected and weighed to be sure they are all legal and such. If a racer needs to, they can register a protest against another driver, here’s where it’s all hashed out. Bud’s just hanging out waiting for his inspection:

Checking out Bud’s car:

Kathy, Colin and Michael come over to visit:

Here’s where they weigh the cars:

We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday here, racing and working on the cars. During that time, I tested my rig and found that the belt was still squealing. Real loud too. So I messed with that allot but never came to any conclusion about what was wrong. When we left on Monday, Bud and party headed back to Portland, and for a while, I went that way too, listening to the engine and expecting to have to drive all the way back to the shop and cuss them out for not fixing the squealing problem. About 10 miles south of the freeway entrance, I decided, ‘What the hell’ and turned north again. My guess is that there was a little oil on the new belt and when the new alternator was under heavy load…like when it had to charge both the starting battery and the house batteries, that it was slowing down and the oil on the belt would start the squealing. To stop the squeal, I’d either slow down or pull over and just idle the engine, or a couple times I just waited it out. But it does suggest that the shop sold me a new alternator for nothing. They did some tests but I’m not sure they meant anything since I still have the squeal and the new alternator was suppose to fix that.

Anyway, I was on my way to Alaska and since the race track is only a couple hundred miles from the Canadian boarder, and it took over an hour to get inspected and approved to travel through Canada. Long lines and irrate people were everywhere. There were at least two arrests while I was there…that took resources so the rest of us had to cool our heels.

I made it to and through Vancouver in one day. But there weren’t any places that I could pull over and take pictures of the city. You’ll have to visit it yourself, and when you do, you’ll find it is a spectacular city. Beautiful. I was lucky to drive through when there was sunshine…which doesn’t happen there often. It is a little strange in that there aren’t many freeways. There are expressways with lots of traffic lights but no freeways around the city like in the US. I stopped once at an ATM and got some cash but that’s all I did in Vancouver.

Then I got lost somehow and ended up on Marine Drive along the coast heading north. Eventually, I passed an expressway and jumped on it heading north. Two, three hours later I’m in the boondocks and found a remote RV park with a spectacular view of a 300 foot waterfall. I’ll put up a picture tomorrow…