One of my favorite sounds at Rocky Mountain Raceways

My current favorite sounds are probably from my children--their laughs & giggles, their soft breathing when they're asleep, their cute little voices & baby coos, and so on.  But as we stepped out of our car in the parking lot of Rocky Mountain Raceways I couldn't help but smile, hearing another one of my favorite sounds.  It had been too long since I'd heard those cars.

We had bought the Pass of all Passes that included entrance into 2 oval track races at Rocky Mountain Raceways.  We headed to California on one of these days, so I wasn't going to miss my chance this past Saturday night.  Brodie wasn't too excited about a July race--being outside in the heat and all.  On our way there the wind almost knocked us off of I-215 near the Maverik Center.  We even got a few drops of rain.  But really the weather turned out to be perfect!  I had a few drops of sweat, but not bad.  And it didn't rain on us the whole time we were in the stands.  Nor did it cool down enough to feel the need for jackets or blankets even after 10:00.

So racing starts at 6 but after getting the kids fed and ready to go, we didn't make it there until closer to 6:30 so we missed some of the heats.  But I didn't really care to go watch the mini-cups, hornets, or midgets anyway.  After walking up the steps on the drag side we headed over to my old familiar Family Section right by the start/finish line.  I realized I was searching for someone I knew.  I had already talked to my dad and knew he wouldn't be there.  As I haven't been for years I really didn't know if anyone I used to know still attended.  I didn't recognize anyone from behind but spotted an empty row right around where I used to always sit with my dad and all his racing buddies so I headed there.  Just as I reached that row I heard a "Hello Stranger" in an all too familiar voice from the row behind the one I was looking at.  Yay!  My second parents from my childhood (he had been racing with my father since before I was born and we used to get our families together quite often--and have a BBQ scheduled together in a few weeks) and my cousin and his sons were all sitting there!

Spencer actually seemed to enjoy the races, until near the end of the Main for the Modifieds.  He would pick out any black cars to cheer for.  If they didn't win he would say, "Well, I liked all the cars anyway."  He also enjoyed the crashes.  Near the end of the Modified Main and during the Late Model Main he and Brodie took a few walks while I watched the races (best as I could with two little monkeys climbing all over me).  Tessa would pick out a white car when the next class of cars would come out.  But then she hardly looked at the track again until the next class came out.  She did love the music during intermission and spent most of her time dancing on the asphalt in front of the track.  She also spent a lot of time in the little girls' room.  Which meant so did I.  Between her little bladder and too much fruit over the prior couple of days I think we visited the not-so-conveniently located restroom about 6 or 7 times.  Clara did amazingly well for being so far past her bedtime, the loud noises, and somewhere she didn't have a lot of room to explore.  I could have brought in her stroller but that would force me to have to sit on a front row.  For those of you un-experienced motor spectating--front row is the worst seat.  You can see better the further up you sit, so no stroller.  I put my jacket on the cement ground in front of me and opened up the diaper bag stuffed with toys and books.  Of course the jacket is pretty much the only place she never sat or crawled on.  But so far she hasn't come down with anything.

 

Aaaaah, the sound and feel when the modifieds came out.  They put on a pretty good race.  The Super Stocks need more cars.  And then there are the late models.  My favorites.  Love the sound, look, and racing of these cars!  And there were even some names I remembered!  Some with good memories, some not so good. 

For those of you who haven't known me forever, I probably started going to local oval track racing when I was a couple of weeks old.  My dad started racing stock cars before I was even born.  I have sooo many memories of Saturday nights spent at Suntana and Bonneville Raceways.  Running around with cousins & siblings under the dirty bleachers, buying the surprise goody bags that always had a Chik-o-stick in it, playing on the tires surrounding the track to keep the cars safe if they ran off the track, running across the track into the pits after the races to find my dad or walk around and see the dents in the cars or climb into some of the cars, running down to the fence to count how long the driver's kiss with the trophy queen lasted.  Oh, which reminds me of an old childhood dream.  I didn't dream of being a Disney princess or a ballerina.  No, I used to dream of becoming a trophy queen at the local racetrack when I grew up...hmm, glad I took the Accounting path instead.  I'm sure my parents are as well.  Enough reminiscing...except for this old picture of my dad.

Clara got a bit fussy around 9:30-ish.  By 10:00 Brodie was really ready to go.  Around lap 100 of the Late Model Main I started packing up the diaper bag, drawing it out to lap 115 before catching up to Brodie.  We walked back down the steps on the drag side, stopped by the restroom one more time, and were walking out as the race ended.  At least we saved a few minutes leaving a little early plus getting right out of the parking lot.  Besides, Jeff Hillock won the race he had been leading since lap 10 so we didn't really miss much. 

But I sure did have fun!  I think the kids overall had a good time and will think of their experience at RMR when they watch the weekly NASCAR races with me.  Spencer reminded me he had been to a "Jeff Gordon race" before as we took him to the Bud Shootout at Daytona when he was barely 3 years old.  Obviously these kids won't be going to near as many races as I did, nor will they get to experience the thrill of watching their father race, or the fear when he'd crash, but they did get to experience a live stock car race.  And I'm really eye-ing the Southwest race coming up on July 23rd.  The Southwest Series should put on a good race.  Plus they'll have the Figure 8s and Train races that night.  Those are always entertaining, even my kids would get a huge kick out of those.  And they are having fireworks that night!  As I mentioned in my 4th of July post, I haven't been to any kind of a firework show other than in front of my house for over 10 years, besides one time at Disney World a few years ago.  My kids have never gone anywhere to watch fireworks, except that same time at Disney World when Tessa was 3 months old and Spencer was barely 3.  Of course it would probably be an even later and hotter night.  Maybe a babysitter for the kids?  For 5 hours?  Not to mention the money.  I of course feel the races are well worth the price of admission--normally  $15 an adult and $5 a kid and free for ages 4 and under.  This night they are up an extra $5.  Still worth the cost.  But that's $50 to come up with.  Hmmm, maybe I'll drop a hint of an early birthday present?

Then we got home, got the kids to bed, and began to prepare our talks for Sacrament meeting 10 hours away.  Okay, prepare isn't the right word.  We were asked to speak on Pioneer Heritage and we had both been reading through family history material all week.  But after the races we tried to piece together all the stories and thoughts we had into a talk.  And even though church was at 9 I had to get up at 6:30 to shower and get ready plus getting all 3 kids showered/bathed & ready since we got home too late Saturday night and didn't want to go to church physically dirty & smelling of cigarette smoke (we sat in the family section--no smoking or alcohol--but wanting to be as close to the start/finish line as possible we were only a stairway away from the non-family section).  And although I'm usually late to church, I thought it would be a good day to be 10 minutes early.  I only managed to squeeze in a Dr. Pepper for breakfast, but no longer nursing, I got away with it.