Top 30 Memories from 26 Years of Race Weekends at Atlanta Motor Speedway

29 days until the Advocare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway... here is my 29th favorite memory from now 26 years of race weekends there... written last year.

Top 30 Memories from 26 Years of Race Weekends at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Memories from 25 years at Atlanta Motor Speedway

#29: I wanna go fast! Driving around the track in a “highly modified” 1987 Chevy Silverado

One of the coolest things Atlanta Motor Speedway has to offer during race weekends is the opportunity to drive your personal car around the same track that the pros drive on.  It’s called Hot Laps on the High Banks, and it’s for a great cause.  For as little as $10 you can ride in the pace car or drive your own car around the track and get your picture taken in victory lane, and the proceeds go to Speedway Children’s Charities (http://atlanta.speedwaycharities.org/). 

Now, when we go to the race every year, we drive our friend Stan’s old 1987 Chevy Silverado to the track because we build our viewing platform on it, and stuff all of our camping gear in the bed underneath the platform.  And when I say stuff, I mean stuff.  Between the platform (which is about as tall as the roof of the cab) and the truck bed, we have sleeping bags, pillows, grills, Coleman stoves, bags of clothes, tents, tarps… if you need it during race weekend, it’s in the back of that truck.  Chevy should do a commercial with this truck in it, because we’ve put it through hell, and it still gets us to the track every year.  So the Hot Laps on the High Banks always seemed like something we’d never get to do because there’s no way we’re taking that thing out on the track.  Well, this was one of those “hey y’all, watch this” moments.

Last year, we decided to take Stan’s truck, with ALL of our stuff in the bed, and do the hot laps.  I don’t know what that thing weighed with three of us in the cab, all our stuff, and the very heavy wooden platform we’ve built… but let’s just say the handling wasn’t great through the corners.  Sad thing is, I don’t think we made it past 80-85mph.  After leaving pit road, we struggled to get up the banking in turns 1 and 2, then were okay through the banking in turns 3 and 4. It was the first dog-leg on the frontstretch… My dad was driving, and he didn’t cut the corner enough.  There is almost no banking in the dog leg, so it felt like we were going to tip over, and like we were headed straight for the wall.  This at a blazing 70-75mph.  Somehow, my dad got the thing turned and we missed the wall by about 5 feet.

So what did we do?  We went around and did it again!  That was awesome!

If you’ve got a Camaro, a Honda, or even a Pinto… try it out!  It’ll give you a new appreciation for what those guys do every weekend.  If you’ve got a 1987 Chevy Silverado packed with 1000+ lbs. of camping gear, just make sure you hit the brakes and get a good angle going through the dog legs!