Hi girls!!
So our third full day in Las Vegas was spent at NASCAR!! As we had already ventured to the track we knew where we had to go. However, we also knew it would be 100 times more busy! We left the hotel just after 10am, the race started at midday, so we had just under two hours to get there. The race track was around 14 miles north of Las Vegas and at around the 10 mile mark the traffic on the interstate was crawling along. Robert was also panicking that he would miss the start, so we headed off the Interstate and went the route that we had drove the other day. By this point it was quarter past 11 and thankfully this route was actually moving at a normal pace. So when we got to the race at half 11, it was then about trying to get parked! We just had to follow the traffic and we then drove into the HUGE car park at the far end of the race track. We then had 20 minutes to get into our seats before 12! This was no mean feat, as they were quite a distance away!
When we got through the gates, we were so so hungry and got some food and went to our seats to eat it! We thankfully got there in time and still had plenty of time before the race started! When we sat down, it was a sight I had never seen before and I guess I had not realised the scale of the place!! Robert and I have been to so many sporting events, even the Olympics! This place was just so huge!! Let me explain it to you... 120,000 people in the stands (which only surround half the track), an oval shaped track which is a mile and a quarter long, hundreds and hundreds of RV's (huge motor homes packed into the middle of the circuit and 40 incredibly noisy cars going round it at 200mph. It was just crazy!!
When we got through the gates, we were so so hungry and got some food and went to our seats to eat it! We thankfully got there in time and still had plenty of time before the race started! When we sat down, it was a sight I had never seen before and I guess I had not realised the scale of the place!! Robert and I have been to so many sporting events, even the Olympics! This place was just so huge!! Let me explain it to you... 120,000 people in the stands (which only surround half the track), an oval shaped track which is a mile and a quarter long, hundreds and hundreds of RV's (huge motor homes packed into the middle of the circuit and 40 incredibly noisy cars going round it at 200mph. It was just crazy!!
I cannot even begin to tell you how loud it was! Every time a car went past, and especially when they are all going round together, the noise was just insane! You couldn't hear yourself think never mind talking! A lot of people had big ear defenders on or head phones listening to the commentary on radios. Oh and there was a guy commentating that was played out to the stands, but you couldn't actually hear him!! 100 laps into the race, Robert and I went out to get a shave ice!! It was such an amazing day and so warm too! We had seen the van for shave ices on the way to our seat and I just had to get one!! So off we went and obviously there was a queue, but we got them in the end! We both got Blue Raspberry and Strawberry flavour!
Haha! It was so awesome and it totally reminded us both of our time in Hawaii, when we had so many of them!! When we got back to our seats, the race was around the 160 lap mark, meaning there was still over 100 laps to go! It was an exciting race, there were no big crashes though, which was lucky as the previous two races had two huge crashes and the debris sprayed all over the crowd! So the last 30 laps were the most exciting, with all the drivers trying to get to first place! The last lap was number 267 and car number 20 won! The race took just over 2 and a half hours. It was definitely a fun time and well worth the experience!
Now after the race was a bit crazy, with all the fans leaving the track and still with everyone having to exit back through the turnstiles. They really should be able to open up the gates etc, so that everyone can just walk out freely. I mean it wasn't as if everyone was rushing out the gates, its just the fact that 120,000 people are all walking out of the same gates, which only let a very small number of people out at once! We actually saw a guy climb over the 10ft fence and fall straight to the ground on the other side! So after we were out the new task was actually trying to find the mustang in a sea of around 80,000 cars!!
The car park obviously looked nothing like what it did when we left the car, as hundreds more cars came into the car park after us!! We knew round about where it was and we also knew that our car was very near to the Interstate! So we trundled back through the car park. Oh and we also now know why, when you lock your car in America the horn beeps. That came in very handy!! I think it did for everyone else too!! You could hear loads of horns going off everywhere!! Hehe. Thankfully it didn't take us too long to find it! We now had the wait of trying to get out of the car park and actually get back to Las Vegas! That is easier said than done, when you have so many other cars wanting to do the same thing!! We put the roof down and relaxed for a while and around us there were people having barbecues and sitting out in deck chairs, it was quite funny as in the UK it is not really something we do!
After waiting an hour, with no movement at all, we knew there must be something wrong. We could also see the huge queues that had formed on the Interstate! Every so often I would stand up in the car and all I could see was cars, cars and more cars, all just sitting in the car park and waiting. A little while later, we saw an employee of the race track coming round and talking to the people in the cars. She came up to us and told us the problem. There had been a crash on the Interstate about 2 miles south form where we were (and that was the route that almost all of these cars wanted to go). There was a fatality so obviously it would take time to get the road cleared etc. So basically what it meant was that we were all stuck! We didn't know how long for, but we knew that we would be waiting for a while!! Also there were loads of news helicopters flying over us and the Interstate!
So after getting back to the car just after 3, we sat for 3 hours until well after 6 before the cars started to move!! It was quite funny, because even though the cars were slowly moving some people were still parked up and eating their barbecue with no rush at all of leaving! People would never do that in the UK! It took along time for us to actually leave the race track ground and get onto the road. We then were in the queue to get onto the Interstate. Just as we were going up the on ramp. we saw a guy in a pick (he was in the back open part) stand up and fling a beer can at a pick up two cars behind him. Then both pick ups pulled into the hard shoulder, three guys came out of one and two out the other and started to have an argument! One of the guys looked like Hulk Hogan, it was quite amusing, but we totally thought there was going to be a full on fight between these guys. Also I was a tad worried that these guys could actually have had guns on them too! Luckily they went back to their trucks and back on the road! It took us another hour to get back to Las Vegas! The only good thing was that we go to watch a pretty sunset!
When we got back to the hotel, we went for a quick dinner and then went up to bed! You don't actually realise how dirty you got while at the race, until I had a shower and realised! It was a very interesting day that day, filled with lots of fun and also with a lot of waiting!! The next day would be the last day of our holiday! So we were determined to make it a good one!! Stay tuned for that post!
Have any of you girls been to a NASCAR Race?
Love, Jen x
Wow, look at all the people and caravans! Gosh, looks amazing and the ice drink is making me craze them, haven't had one in ages, reminds me of the slushies I had at Boomerang :)
ReplyDeleteLauren
xx
Haha i know! Yea shave ice are the best :D
DeleteJen xxx