Let me start this week by wishing everyone Happy Holidays and great new racing season:-) Schedules are starting to come together, and the gears are in full motion at Slideways central figuring out where we’ll be attending races out during the 1999 season. Teams and drivers are doing the same thing by getting together to clear up the every muddy ride picture. Thankfully I now have more time to focus on little things like that.
For those that have wondered about my absences on the Internet of late, I just finished up with my fall semester of college. Because I changed majors this term, I really wanted to do especially well on my final exams. So to be completely focused I removed myself somewhat from doing my page work this week. Of course my forums all have to die to make things that much more interesting! We are working on the problem, and HOPE to everything back and running by early next week.
One of the most fun things about this season is that it’s not officially over yet for me. My last race of 1998 is going to be next Saturday and Sunday at Ft. Wayne’s Expo Center with the NAMARS/Auto Value Midgets. The camera and laptop are coming along for the ride as well, so this will really be the first race covered by the page with all our new toys while on the road for more than a day. I’ve been working hard all winter to sharpen up things so 1999 will be smooth for the user and the administrators.
The 1999 season for us currently is scheduled to start at the RCA dome for Thunder in the Dome. Make sure to check out the website TJ Hollingsworth has created for the event at http://www.thunderinthedome.com. The site has photos, statistics, and other information about the event. Also make sure if you are going not to miss all the great downtown attractions that are located around the dome area. Who knows, you might get picked up in a purple Hummer Limo or something?
As for outdoor events, right now there are a few that are in stone. All the spring races at Eldora, Gas City I-69 Speedway’s opening night, all the events at the New 96 Speedway (carried live on the Slideways page for the second year), and the Amoco Knoxville Nationals. Other trips that are being put together right now are SCRA at Knoxville and Eagle Raceways, two different trips to Winchester Speedway, and possibly the entire Ohio Speedweek. I can’t help but think how neat it would be to document every part of my adventure on Ohio Speedweek on the Internet. Hopefully if I can pull everything together needed to make the trip.
Finally the racing weather has passed and it’s snowing outside so I don’t feel strange being outside on the weekend without a jacket on because I’m not at a racetrack. If one gets extremely desperate there is always snowmobile racing and indoor and outdoor ice motorcycle racing around here. Personally I find these activities similar to ice fishing: I sit around all day to get less of a thrill and end up freezing half to death.
One off season activity many race fans in this are get into during the off season is ice hockey. Countless numbers of junior, college, minor league, and Red Wings games are played in the state of Michigan, and chances are at any of these you will find at least one die hard racing fan in the crowd. The similarities are just right for racing fans to also be hockey fans:
There are ten guys racing around an oval chasing piece of rubber that’s going over 100 miles per hours. If two of these guys get upset with one will put the other into the wall. Fans of the sports think their sport is the greatest and don’t think it gets enough coverage. For the gear heads, there is always the thrill of checking out the Zamboni machine (after 21 years I still can’t quite figure out how it works). The intermissions between periods also serve as good times to find other racing nuts and ask who’s car someone is going to drive next year and what track is going to open. To top it off at the end of the season the champion gets to hold up a great big cup! Sounds like a winner to me.
With that I’m off to my family Christmas. Keep watch here for the 1999 Bob, Rod, Todd tour, and also Bob, Rod, Todd’s essential guide to being a race fan later this summer. We have already begun to collect data. Everything from pre-race meals, the best goggles to wear during a dust storm at your favorite dirt track, to post race beverages. Should be a lot of fun putting that together. It will be 100% race fan oriented, so feel free to send input on that and anything else to webmaster@tjslideways.com.