I wrote these last year leading up to the 2011 Labor Day race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and posted them on my facebook page. I've been busy with a new job, preparing to move to a new house, and helping take care of three little kids, so I haven't had time to forecast or blog for NASCAR in the past few months, but I thought I'd pass these along here and on twitter @weathersfuori. I hope you enjoy my stories. My fingers are crossed that I will be able to make it to the race again this year to make it 27 years in a row and my 52nd consecutive Atlanta race weekend trip!
Today we are just 30 days away from the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 4. For fun, and in hopes that my stories will get some of my facebook friends to go to their first NASCAR race, I will be counting down the days to the race with a short story every day detailing my top 30 memories from the last 25 years of race weekends I spent at AMS. We've been to 50 race weekends over the years, so there are a lot of stories to tell... some funny, some bittersweet, some unimaginable, and some just plain weird. Please read and feel free to comment! And let me know if you need information on how to go to the Labor Day weekend race at Atlanta Motor Speedway... I can hook you up to the best people!
#30: My first race, November 3, 1985
While I don’t remember the details of this day since I was so young, and we honestly had a tough time figuring out exactly which race was our first, this race weekend marked the beginning of a long a very special tradition for my dad and me. Perhaps the reason we don’t have any photos from the 1985 Atlanta Journal 500 is because we just didn’t realize how big it was going to be for us… or maybe my dad just forgot to bring a camera (as you’ll learn in later stories, there’s a good chance that was it). Regardless, we were there to see my dad’s favorite driver, Georgia native “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville”, Bill Elliott take home the win that day in the # 9 Coors Ford, sweeping the Atlanta races that season.
Since that day, we’ve been back for every NASCAR Cup race weekend held at Atlanta Motor Speedway (it was actually named Atlanta International Raceway when we started going). There are probably others who have a longer streak going than us, and really the only way you can understand why we do it is to try it yourself. Now I know it may not look like that much fun on TV… but I’ve been to a lot of sporting events, including the World Series and one of the best college football games you can go to (FSU vs. UF/Miami at Doak Campbell Stadium), but nothing compares to the experience you get during a race weekend, and the experience you’ll get at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the cream of the crop.
I was not quite five years old at the time, and having a four year old myself, I can imagine my dad might have been a little unsure about bringing me to a NASCAR race… let alone camping in the infield with me for the whole weekend. I will tell you though that I am thankful he did, and I can’t wait to bring my own kids one day. Take a kid to the races, and he or she willl thank you for it the rest of your life.
Today we are just 30 days away from the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 4. For fun, and in hopes that my stories will get some of my facebook friends to go to their first NASCAR race, I will be counting down the days to the race with a short story every day detailing my top 30 memories from the last 25 years of race weekends I spent at AMS. We've been to 50 race weekends over the years, so there are a lot of stories to tell... some funny, some bittersweet, some unimaginable, and some just plain weird. Please read and feel free to comment! And let me know if you need information on how to go to the Labor Day weekend race at Atlanta Motor Speedway... I can hook you up to the best people!
#30: My first race, November 3, 1985
While I don’t remember the details of this day since I was so young, and we honestly had a tough time figuring out exactly which race was our first, this race weekend marked the beginning of a long a very special tradition for my dad and me. Perhaps the reason we don’t have any photos from the 1985 Atlanta Journal 500 is because we just didn’t realize how big it was going to be for us… or maybe my dad just forgot to bring a camera (as you’ll learn in later stories, there’s a good chance that was it). Regardless, we were there to see my dad’s favorite driver, Georgia native “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville”, Bill Elliott take home the win that day in the # 9 Coors Ford, sweeping the Atlanta races that season.
Since that day, we’ve been back for every NASCAR Cup race weekend held at Atlanta Motor Speedway (it was actually named Atlanta International Raceway when we started going). There are probably others who have a longer streak going than us, and really the only way you can understand why we do it is to try it yourself. Now I know it may not look like that much fun on TV… but I’ve been to a lot of sporting events, including the World Series and one of the best college football games you can go to (FSU vs. UF/Miami at Doak Campbell Stadium), but nothing compares to the experience you get during a race weekend, and the experience you’ll get at Atlanta Motor Speedway is the cream of the crop.
I was not quite five years old at the time, and having a four year old myself, I can imagine my dad might have been a little unsure about bringing me to a NASCAR race… let alone camping in the infield with me for the whole weekend. I will tell you though that I am thankful he did, and I can’t wait to bring my own kids one day. Take a kid to the races, and he or she willl thank you for it the rest of your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment