rec.autos.simulators

3 days and 1800 miles later and I am back home from my adventure to the
Bristol Motor Speedway to see yesterday's Nascar Winston Cup race.

All I can say is WOW.  BMS is MASSIVE.  For a 1/2 mile track you can't
imagine how huge this place is.  I got to go courtesy of Dupont so I was
fortunate enough to get to go down on the track and walk around the
pit's.  Extreme banking man.  I made a point of examining the transition
between turn 4 and the front stretch to see how smooth it was.  It was
like walking on holy ground for me ;)

What a perfect day for a race.  Beautiful blue sky, clear and crisp.  
135,000 people packed every seat in the house.  It was quite a site.  Oh
yeah, the females in TN are beautiful as well :D  Had a blast the night
before the race in town with all the locals and visitors alike getting
quite blasted :P

During the race the sound of the cars was deafening.  I'm not complaining
though.  It was awesome.  At one point a car slammed into the wall in
turn 3.  Not only could you hear it - you could feel it.  

For a while I focused only on the transition I checked out earlier.  As
each car came around the corner it was so cool to see how hard these guys
were working just to hang on to their cars.  Many times the backend would
start to break loose (these guys were driving on the edge) and I would
see them fight to keep control and avoid contact with the wall.  Whenever
I see the physics of these cars in action like this it makes me dream of
Kaemmer's forthcoming Nascar simulation...  

It was really a blast taking in the entire Bristol experience.  If you
are into Nascar racing, and you get the chance to go see a race at
Bristol Motor Speedway, don't hesitate.  GO.  You won't regret it!

--David Cook

Bristol is a cool track. The Banking is pretty wild isn't it. I had the
opportunity to ride around the track and it was pretty scary when first
hitting the banking, you think your going to flip over.. well it didn't
help that I was in a Ford Aerostar full of camping gear. :) This was
several years back before they put the concrete and new stands in, there
was nobody there and they just let people on the drag strip or the oval
to drive around on with your own car, I don't think they will let you
now though. :(
I want to go to a race there, it would really be a show. Glad you liked
the race, it looked good on TV but must have been 1000 times better
being there.

If memory serves, I believe they're planning to cover the track with dirt
and let the SprintCar guys go at it sometime this season.  Now THAT should
be interesting!

Cheers,

Steve B.

Yeah, they had a sprint car do some laps before the race.  I think it's
going to be the World of Outlaws series.  That will definitely be one to
see!

--David Cook

Yeah, they're going to be about 20mph FASTER than the Cup cars.

That will be wild.

--
Ken's Sig 3.01

"Who is the more foolish?  The fool, or the fool who follows him?" -
Obi-Wan Kenobi

Go #43 and #44!

volksy (at) yahoo (dot) com

Oh, you lucky one, and all you lucky people in USA, having a real
chance to see Nascar in real.

Uli, a poor guy from Germany (having no Oval track around in Europe)

--
Uli Winkelmann
un sing www.koelsche-sick.de

Hi Uli,

nicht mehr lange, und (ooops) There is a new Pocono-like oval near Berlin.
Think it must be
complete soon. I heard rumors that CART will coming to that place and
<dreammode on>
NASCAR .
On my vacation in 98 to the states, i saw the Winston 500 in Talladega.
Iwill never forget this day
in my life. Absolutely fantastic. It was a hot sunday and there were 175.000
people.
I shot 4 rolls of film in 3 hours. I also went to the CART-race in
Houston/TX, i am still wet.

Mark Aprile

Pointsleader (after 2 races, hehe) of Germanys only? N3 league.
http://www.fortunecity.de/wolkenkratzer/mars/686/index.html