My first NASCAR race!

Oh that sickly sweet smell of melting rubber and antifreeze…

Jeff and I went to the Canadian Tire NASCAR series race at the Riverside International Speedway, just outside of Antigonish today.

It was AWESOME!

But I was already excited on the way there!

We made to the track in time for the free autograph session the drivers have before the race starts.

That means we got to walk on the track!

It was gorgeous day today. High of 18°C, not much wind, just a gorgeous September Saturday.

One of the cars was sponsored by A&W and they gave us a free can of pop 😀

Here I am on the checkered line! (well, my shadow anyway :>>)

Dad told me that one of the drivers is from Milverton, Ontario – just minutes away from my home farm. I tracked him down and got his autograph. He races in car #22.

He set a new track record today and was in the pole position!! His track record was 14.484 seconds and he went 82.767 mph!!

Here are a few shots of his car:

Check out the tires on these cars – just slick rubber – no tread!

Countdown to race time!

“Gentlemen…… START YOUR ENGINES!!”

And they’re off!!

(insert ear plugs here)

Did you see how CLOSE they are to each other! It’s wild!

Oops!! Wrong way! Yellow flag…

The home town boy from Antigonish, Donald Chisholm, was out early when his car started spraying all over.

I have to say that these pit crews seemed sooooo slow compared to watching Indy races on TV. In fact, one car was ready to go back on the track and half way up the pits when he hit the brakes because his crew had left the gas can sticking out of his gas tank! 🙂

Scott Steckly was always leading, or near the front of the pack, although after pit stops during the yellow flags, sometimes he had to fight back from 6th. Watching him pass was exhilarating! Sometimes I had to grab Jeff’s knee!

Oops!

Flat tire!

Another oops!

And then someone lost a tire!! It went half way around the track!!

When you lose a tire, you get the courtesy of a tow truck :p

Crumbled hood…. The hoods are sooooo thin. In fact, the entire fibreglass body seems really thin and flimsy.

This guy was in the running for awhile, and then his car suddenly lost power and he limbed back to the pits. His crew ran out to push him into the centre of the track.

With 50 laps to go, Steckly got really wobbly on the curves and hung back, letting #17 take a strong lead.

Checkered Flag! It’s done!

Final rankings:

Scott Steckly came in 2nd!

DJ Kennington was first. Don Thomson, Jr. came in third.

The race was 300 laps of the 1/3 mile track. It started at 4:30 and was done at 6:15. I could have easily gobbled up another 200 laps, but I guess it is better to leave us wanting more! That and there may not be many cars left!

My Scott Steckly autograph!

The race is airing next Saturday on TSN if you want to watch 😀

Race Coverage:
Race Coverage
Full results
Lap by Lap