So the significant thing about the timing of this day is that it took place the day after the Land Party. I dont think I need to go into great detail about why I was nervous about spending an afternoon sitting in aluminum bleachers which when the sun is shining are the human equivalent of those chicken roasters you see at supermarkets. That combined with 8 cylinder 650+ HP engines with race tuned exhausts could spell the makings of a magnitude 10 headache. As it turned out, the day was totally overcast with rain expected so the former would not be a threat, and the later was abated by the generous donation of #2s race radio headsets in addition to my own to protect the ears.
On the other hand, one very nice benefit was that the drive to the speedway was an easy, less than an hour jaunt across the lovely state of NH. Punctuated only by stops for ice and lunch sandwiches and drinks. We approached from the north on 106 with absolutely no traffic whatsoever. However, once in the cattle lines of the top notch parking attendants of the speedway, we were routed to the physically most distant parking lot from the grandstand entrance (why not put a gate on the back side of the track for the thousands of cars that are parked behind the track?? We are not talking rocket science here folks but it is New Hampshire after all so it is understood that they may be easily confounded by such a radical concept).
A few quick texts with #9 and we were soon high in the stands during 2nd practice. Pre-race rituals were unremarkable, even the drivers seemed bored by this routine at this point in the season. Mario Andretti was not present so Al Unser Jr. was whisking lucky VIPs and contest winners around the 1 mile oval in the Izod 2-seater Indycar (there were actually two of these "racecars", the other sponsored by Natl. Guard maybe? Cant remember for sure.
They lined up in double file formation for the start and contact was made on the back stretch on the first lap. 2 cars out. So 10 laps later, with the debris cleared, a second attempt was made with contact on the back stretch in the same exact manner. 2 more cars out. 10 more laps of yellow to clear more debris and boys and girls lets try this one more time. Now lets be professional racing car drivers and play nice together!! Three times is a charm and we were off racing. I wont bother with play by play because I know all WPR members are true race fans and all watch every round of all the top motorsports series such as Indycar. For the record, I dont know if Ive ever watched an entire Nascar event all the way through. Ok, I never watch any part of Nascar events. Unless you include the Rolex sportscar series.
Lets skip right to the heart of the controversy surrounding the re-inaugural Northeast Grand Prix, namely, the obvious "Nascar-esque" cautions thrown in the waning laps of the race due to "rain". So we had been sitting in varying intensities of precipitation throughout the duration of the race. But somehow it was determined by race control with 18 laps remaining (by the way, they were running 22 second lap times so we are talking about 6-7 minutes to complete the race here) that it was too dangerous to continue the race so the yellow was shown to the field. Lappers are sent to the back and the leaders are bunched up at the front. Contrived "racing".
Heres the bizarre thing, no sweepers were sent out, no jet dryers (both of which had been out on all previous cautions). So round and round they went behind the safety car all in a single file line until there was clearly one dry line remaining and the rest of the track thoroughly soaked with 6 laps left. Then they were instructed to pair up for the double-file restart evidently as the pleas from the drivers not to flooded the radio waves somehow didnt make it race control and the pace car pulled in and they were given the green flag. I am not even going to waste the electrons trying to describe the carnage that took place next. Lets just say for 500 feet of aborted re-start race control cost car owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, race-long leaders are jumbled in the melee and some back-marker nobody now has the point. Nice work! Let the protest filings begin take a number please!!
Red flag. 5 laps remaining in the race. It has now been roughly 20 minutes beyond the time needed to just let the cars finish the race in the first place. The cars are parked in pit road and the drivers covered with umbrellas as the race track now becomes completely wet. The spectators, oh dont worry about those fools, they dont mind sitting in the now steady rain while you decide what the F you want to do about this mess. How about this, just go home.
Thats right, the announcer gleefully says: "Thanks race fans! You can go home now! The race is over! Hope you had an awesome time! Be sure and go to the Indycar website in a couple days to find out who won this race!!! Have a great day!!!!!"
Hahahahahahaha
You think Im joking??!?!? Im not.
The only thing that could have made this outing less fun was the realization of how we were parked at literally the farthest point from the exit. It took an hour to get out of the lot.
But, I am a race fan, so I actually did have a great time with family and will most likely be back in line to spend my money at next years event. That is if Indycar decides to go back again. It is a disease for which there is no cure only the medicine of getting a fix throughout the year at a live racing event.
A la the torrential downpours of Southwick only a few weeks later. And that was awesome as usual too!!!!!
#5, aka, the nameless millions simply called "Race Fan" (Limerock Park, 2 years ago)
