wfooshee
O, Woe is me!!
Took a couple days off so I had a 4-day weekend around Saturday, the 17th. Yes, it was St. Patrick's day, but I had something more important to see! World-renowned racing teams and an international cast of drivers competing in a once-around-the-clock event that was actually part of 2 championships, the American LeMans Series and the World Endurance Championship. American LeMans runs races around North America for cars built to the LeMans rules, and the World Endurance Championship is an international body of the same type of cars which runs in several countries through the year.
As I did last year, I made a bike/camp trip out of this. Unlike last year, the area I camped was not free, so I had to shell out another 25 bucks when I got there. They didn't charge me for the bike, though; if I'd driven, it would have been 25 bucks to park, and another 25 to camp. All I paid was camping. (I say that like it's a good thing, but last year in the same lot I paid ZERO, so it depends on your viewpoint, I guess.)
Being a camping trip means loading up the bike:
The camp chair's strap went under the top case, so it wasn't going anywhere, then the cruiser-style bag sat on that and was bungeed to the grab rails. In it was my sleeping bag, some tools (just in case,) a 12-v air pump for my air mattress, and walking-around shoes. My camera bag lived in the left sidecase, my rain gear went in the right, the top case held clothes, towel, laptop, etc., and the tank bag carried the air mattress, phone charger, and other loose stuff that just didn't fit anywhere else. The tent went on top and was secured by more bungees.
Last year I went from here to Tallahassee and picked up I-10, then slabbed it all the way to US 27 off the Florida Turnpike and took that to Sebring. This year I decided to take the Old Route, from the time before I-10 was completed through the Florida panhandle. SR20 towards Tallahassee, but turn south and go past Wakulla Springs, then pick up US98 east to Perry, then south on ALT27 from there to Chiefland, cut across to Ocala and pick up I75 briefly. Somewhere along that road you go through Fanning Springs, where you get way down upon the Suwannee River:
Got off of the slab before the Turnpike, went east and then south on US27, crossed the turnpike and got hit with a rainstorm for what seemed like hours, but was actually only about 10 or 12 miles. I found a little roadside stand that was closed, but had an overhang, and pulled in to don the rain gear and put rain covers over the tank bag and tail bag. Just past Clermont and the Citrus Tower I stopped and removed the rain gear:
On arriving at the track I shelled out my camping fee, which I didn't have to do last year. They had a free area this year, but it was in an adjacent county, I think. OK, just across the street, but that still made it over a mile further from the gate, just a bit too much for how much walking I'd have to be doing already. Then I went in and wandered the paddock while the cars came in from night practice.
Friday morning came way too early, what with me being born and raised on Central time, but with the bright sunlight in my eyes and the tent starting to heat up, there was no sleeping in. So up we go, and dive in to the bag of sugar donuts appropriated the previous evening at a gas station. Nothing like a healthy nutritious breakfast to start your day right! Here was home while I was there:
I went into the track and caught some of the morning warm-up session:
Then back into the paddock where I saw cars lining up for tech inspection:
and just generally being worked on:
All the manufacturers that compete here (Audi, BMW, Corvette, Porsche, etc.) have tents displaying their wares. In the BMW tent was a 2013 640i in a new satin-finish paint job. This thing was gorgeous! But I won't buy one until I see one that's a couple years old, see how the finish looks with some age on it. (Probably won't buy one then, either, though, come to think of it....)
Then I found the paddock area for the historics cars, which raced as the final event of Friday afternoon. Here's the engine bay of an Austin-Healey 3000. That dark hexagonal block on the firewall just past the carbs is the fuse block. It contains BOTH fuses protecting the car's electrical system:
Didn't race, but available for drooling:
The historics raced in two groups, generally separated by age, I think either before or after about 1970. Here are the more recent cars:
Well, this puts paid to my cut-off date theory:
And the second group, older cars and/or smaller engines:
And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Saturday, similar story. Trying to sleep, but engines are running, sunlight is bright, tent's getting hot. Fine. I'm up. More sugar donuts, since I couldn't finish the whole bag Friday morning. (I'm not a pig, you know!)
Saturday had no events other than the race itself. That started at 10:30 (AM) and ran until 10:30 (PM) thus defining the event's name.... Before the race, the grid was open to fans to wander and mingle and ogle.
The race started while I was walking over to a position I'd scouted on Friday. Got there, climbed up the stands and shot a few:
Then I started wandering around the track. Here's a short straight just past turn 1.
This is a long right-hand sweeper known as big Bend.
After Big Bend is a slow right-hander, and after that is a section where the track is higher than the viewing area, and you can see over the barriers with the cars just about eye level, which makes for some really nice pictures.
Back to the stands for some late afternoon harsh sunlight pics
As I did last year, I made a bike/camp trip out of this. Unlike last year, the area I camped was not free, so I had to shell out another 25 bucks when I got there. They didn't charge me for the bike, though; if I'd driven, it would have been 25 bucks to park, and another 25 to camp. All I paid was camping. (I say that like it's a good thing, but last year in the same lot I paid ZERO, so it depends on your viewpoint, I guess.)
Being a camping trip means loading up the bike:
The camp chair's strap went under the top case, so it wasn't going anywhere, then the cruiser-style bag sat on that and was bungeed to the grab rails. In it was my sleeping bag, some tools (just in case,) a 12-v air pump for my air mattress, and walking-around shoes. My camera bag lived in the left sidecase, my rain gear went in the right, the top case held clothes, towel, laptop, etc., and the tank bag carried the air mattress, phone charger, and other loose stuff that just didn't fit anywhere else. The tent went on top and was secured by more bungees.
Last year I went from here to Tallahassee and picked up I-10, then slabbed it all the way to US 27 off the Florida Turnpike and took that to Sebring. This year I decided to take the Old Route, from the time before I-10 was completed through the Florida panhandle. SR20 towards Tallahassee, but turn south and go past Wakulla Springs, then pick up US98 east to Perry, then south on ALT27 from there to Chiefland, cut across to Ocala and pick up I75 briefly. Somewhere along that road you go through Fanning Springs, where you get way down upon the Suwannee River:
Got off of the slab before the Turnpike, went east and then south on US27, crossed the turnpike and got hit with a rainstorm for what seemed like hours, but was actually only about 10 or 12 miles. I found a little roadside stand that was closed, but had an overhang, and pulled in to don the rain gear and put rain covers over the tank bag and tail bag. Just past Clermont and the Citrus Tower I stopped and removed the rain gear:
On arriving at the track I shelled out my camping fee, which I didn't have to do last year. They had a free area this year, but it was in an adjacent county, I think. OK, just across the street, but that still made it over a mile further from the gate, just a bit too much for how much walking I'd have to be doing already. Then I went in and wandered the paddock while the cars came in from night practice.
Friday morning came way too early, what with me being born and raised on Central time, but with the bright sunlight in my eyes and the tent starting to heat up, there was no sleeping in. So up we go, and dive in to the bag of sugar donuts appropriated the previous evening at a gas station. Nothing like a healthy nutritious breakfast to start your day right! Here was home while I was there:
I went into the track and caught some of the morning warm-up session:
Then back into the paddock where I saw cars lining up for tech inspection:
and just generally being worked on:
All the manufacturers that compete here (Audi, BMW, Corvette, Porsche, etc.) have tents displaying their wares. In the BMW tent was a 2013 640i in a new satin-finish paint job. This thing was gorgeous! But I won't buy one until I see one that's a couple years old, see how the finish looks with some age on it. (Probably won't buy one then, either, though, come to think of it....)
Then I found the paddock area for the historics cars, which raced as the final event of Friday afternoon. Here's the engine bay of an Austin-Healey 3000. That dark hexagonal block on the firewall just past the carbs is the fuse block. It contains BOTH fuses protecting the car's electrical system:
Didn't race, but available for drooling:
The historics raced in two groups, generally separated by age, I think either before or after about 1970. Here are the more recent cars:
Well, this puts paid to my cut-off date theory:
And the second group, older cars and/or smaller engines:
And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Saturday, similar story. Trying to sleep, but engines are running, sunlight is bright, tent's getting hot. Fine. I'm up. More sugar donuts, since I couldn't finish the whole bag Friday morning. (I'm not a pig, you know!)
Saturday had no events other than the race itself. That started at 10:30 (AM) and ran until 10:30 (PM) thus defining the event's name.... Before the race, the grid was open to fans to wander and mingle and ogle.
The race started while I was walking over to a position I'd scouted on Friday. Got there, climbed up the stands and shot a few:
Then I started wandering around the track. Here's a short straight just past turn 1.
This is a long right-hand sweeper known as big Bend.
After Big Bend is a slow right-hander, and after that is a section where the track is higher than the viewing area, and you can see over the barriers with the cars just about eye level, which makes for some really nice pictures.
Back to the stands for some late afternoon harsh sunlight pics
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