May 13 Sunday - Mother's Day 2007
The first time NASCAR has ever raced on Mother's Day and WE WERE THERE in Darlington, South Carolina. That's right - the Race was rained out for the Saturday night race date and time and had to be held on Sunday with a start time of 1:15 p.m. There were good things and bad things about the Rain Out that happened with the worst being that we got kind of wet waiting around for the Race to start and the best being that I got Robbie Gordon's autograph while on my way to check in for Driver Introductions. Let me tell you about it. I was walking past the tunnel entrance to the infield and I stopped before crossing the path of a golf cart heading my way and Robbie Gordon was on the cart - so I waved and said hello to him as he passed me and he waved and smiled back at me. The driver of the Cart stopped just a short ways from all from all of this and I noticed that Robbie was getting off, so I walked over to him and asked him for his autograph on my ticket. She smiled and reached for my ticket holder and held out his other hand for a Sharpie. I told him it was attached to the ticket holder and he thought that was pretty cool so he told me to walk with him and he signed my ticket holder as we walked to his merchandise hauler where he was scheduled to be and sign autographs for a long line of fans waiting for him. I got lucky! As I was walking to the meeting destination it started to get really gray and dark in the skies which led to a major downpour and the eventual postponement of the Race for the evening at 9:00 p.m. As the storm progressed as I was waiting with the other ONMC members we took cover under the ESPN tent and was later kicked out, so I made my way in a down pour to where Janine and Rudy were waiting out the rain under the grandstands near our section. Like I said earlier, we waiting there talking with new friends until the official announcement that the Race was postponed. As we walked back to the RV and campsite with our rain ponchos on - the rain stopped.
Sunday Morning - May 13 - RACE DAY in DARLINGTON
I decided that I was going to make every effort to be at the Driver Introductions so Janine and I headed to the Track around 9:30 so that we could be at the Gates when they opened at 10:00 a.m. The skies were still somewhat threatening, gray and it was windy. We got to the spot where we thought we would meet up with ONMC officials, but to our dismay all the tents were gone and there wasn't a sign of anyone from ONMC to be found. Several other members that were just as determined as were were to make it to Driver Intros started waiting with us, until we decided to take a chance and see if we could get through the tunnel donned in our official ONMC hats and I.D. wristbands. We made it and thanks to a very kind Track Security guard, we were able to be the only 25 (+-) people standing along side the Driver Introduction Stage as the Drivers came off the Stage after being introduced. It was so exciting and a awesome experience to be so close and shake hands with each and every driver that was driving in today's race. I got some great pictures of these drivers too!
After that experience, Janine and I made our way to our seats in Tyler Tower to watch the Race with Rudy who was waiting for us up there. Darlington isn't the most exciting race of the circuit, but it was a good race nonetheless with the best outcome I could ask for as a Jeff Gordon Fan, since he won the race and did a great celebratory burn-out right in front of us.
We pulled out of our campsite at 6 p.m. and crossed over the Georgia state line at 10:15 p.m. on our way home. Each one of us have to be to work on Monday morning so we are driving the complete distance (450+ miles) home.
We will be on the road again in a couple of weeks heading to Charlotte, North Carolina for the Coca-Cola 600.
More adventures to follow......
The first time NASCAR has ever raced on Mother's Day and WE WERE THERE in Darlington, South Carolina. That's right - the Race was rained out for the Saturday night race date and time and had to be held on Sunday with a start time of 1:15 p.m. There were good things and bad things about the Rain Out that happened with the worst being that we got kind of wet waiting around for the Race to start and the best being that I got Robbie Gordon's autograph while on my way to check in for Driver Introductions. Let me tell you about it. I was walking past the tunnel entrance to the infield and I stopped before crossing the path of a golf cart heading my way and Robbie Gordon was on the cart - so I waved and said hello to him as he passed me and he waved and smiled back at me. The driver of the Cart stopped just a short ways from all from all of this and I noticed that Robbie was getting off, so I walked over to him and asked him for his autograph on my ticket. She smiled and reached for my ticket holder and held out his other hand for a Sharpie. I told him it was attached to the ticket holder and he thought that was pretty cool so he told me to walk with him and he signed my ticket holder as we walked to his merchandise hauler where he was scheduled to be and sign autographs for a long line of fans waiting for him. I got lucky! As I was walking to the meeting destination it started to get really gray and dark in the skies which led to a major downpour and the eventual postponement of the Race for the evening at 9:00 p.m. As the storm progressed as I was waiting with the other ONMC members we took cover under the ESPN tent and was later kicked out, so I made my way in a down pour to where Janine and Rudy were waiting out the rain under the grandstands near our section. Like I said earlier, we waiting there talking with new friends until the official announcement that the Race was postponed. As we walked back to the RV and campsite with our rain ponchos on - the rain stopped.
Sunday Morning - May 13 - RACE DAY in DARLINGTON
I decided that I was going to make every effort to be at the Driver Introductions so Janine and I headed to the Track around 9:30 so that we could be at the Gates when they opened at 10:00 a.m. The skies were still somewhat threatening, gray and it was windy. We got to the spot where we thought we would meet up with ONMC officials, but to our dismay all the tents were gone and there wasn't a sign of anyone from ONMC to be found. Several other members that were just as determined as were were to make it to Driver Intros started waiting with us, until we decided to take a chance and see if we could get through the tunnel donned in our official ONMC hats and I.D. wristbands. We made it and thanks to a very kind Track Security guard, we were able to be the only 25 (+-) people standing along side the Driver Introduction Stage as the Drivers came off the Stage after being introduced. It was so exciting and a awesome experience to be so close and shake hands with each and every driver that was driving in today's race. I got some great pictures of these drivers too!
After that experience, Janine and I made our way to our seats in Tyler Tower to watch the Race with Rudy who was waiting for us up there. Darlington isn't the most exciting race of the circuit, but it was a good race nonetheless with the best outcome I could ask for as a Jeff Gordon Fan, since he won the race and did a great celebratory burn-out right in front of us.
We pulled out of our campsite at 6 p.m. and crossed over the Georgia state line at 10:15 p.m. on our way home. Each one of us have to be to work on Monday morning so we are driving the complete distance (450+ miles) home.
We will be on the road again in a couple of weeks heading to Charlotte, North Carolina for the Coca-Cola 600.
More adventures to follow......
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