Racing Weekend



500 Museum of Wheels



Vintage Racers at The Action Track



Great weekend! Cuzzin Ricky and I headed south to the Action Track for sprint and Silver Crown car races. Got chilly on Friday night dropping into the 40's but the sprint cars seemed to really like the air. The Friday race was a rain date so it was just a bonus for the weekend. I'm a big fan of the Silver Crown cars that were scheduled for Saturday. They're a little longer than the sprints and they really get them hung out in the corners. They're not quite as fast as the sprints due the larger size and smaller motors but they put out about 800 horsepower. That's enough to put on a great show on a half mile dirt track.

They had a couple of incidents during the practice sessions. One guy hit the wall hard and then barrel rolled and had an oil fire on top of it. Another driver managed to put the car outside the track. He was out of the car and back on the right side of the wall within about a minute and he was even able to make the show. The other guy was pretty scary. They loaded him in the ambulance on a back board and then the ambulance just sat there for a bit. They never made an announcement about his condition that we heard. Rick and I were both concerned but according to the Tribune-Star this morning, he was diagnosed with a mild concussion and maybe a broken collarbone. Having had both of those injuryies, nothing too much to worry about there for a tough guy race car driver. You don't drive one of those things without getting shook up. Glad he wasn't hurt seriously, though. My idea of entertainment doesn't include life threatening injuries.

In between the races, we went to a couple of museums to see more race cars, railroads and some Terre Haute history. Plus there were vintage cars at the racetrack both nights courtesy of the Midwest Oldtimers Vintage Race Car Club. Sunday we stopped at the VW place in Effingham and toured their museum. I bought some parts to get moving on my project. Cold weather is coming soon and I want to make a little headway prior to that.

This was the first time I'd been to a race track in a couple of years and these were great races to see. Cuzzin Ricky and I are already making plans for our next trip. Like I mentioned in the last post, it's great to be able to have the time to do things like this. Also great that the Missus is willing to hold down the fort while I'm out traipsing around. I took a bunch of photos. I'll get a few more up in the next few days.