I was only a couple of years into being a motorsports fan in 1998 when I went to the NHRA drag race at the Route 66 drag strip in Joliet. My former boss was a big fan and belonged to the "Top Eliminator" club. This was a fan club that got him into the hospitality tents and a bunch of other good stuff for the race. It also got him good tickets. Now I'm more of a oval track fan than a drag strip fan. I prefer to watch 43 cars turning laps for 3 hours than 2 cars driving straight for 5 seconds., but there is no denying the awesome power that these machines put out. We got there nice and early so that we could walk through the pits. The NHRA pits are open to the public and you can walk around and check out all the teams working on their cars (or motorcycles). It's really cool to see how much work they put into getting a car ready, and to see how fast they have to work within a time limit. I never really understood how much power these things generate. At one point I was more than 100 feet away from one of the pits when they fired it up for a test. As they were hitting the gas I could feel a blast of heat around my ankles with every rev. Truly amazing.
In racing the best seats are the ones higher up in the grand stand. We got the last row, looking down the track. I couldn't imagine a better seat for this race. We could look behind us and see the cars lining up or their turn at 250 mph, and then turn around and get a perfect view of the cars making their 5 second run. We also had our backs facing the sun all day. All I can say is... lobster.
The picture above is Angelle Seeling, now known as Angelle Sampey and at one time as Angelle Savoie. As you can see she raced pro-stock motorcycles. She was quite successful as a racer, but unfortunately did not win that day. I tried to make her feel better when I got her autograph, but I don't think it worked.
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