It's Bristol baby!!!!!

Sunday was going to be an awesome day.  We had tickets for the NASCAR race at Bristol in Tennessee.  It is 150 miles from here so we had every intention to do it as a day trip.  

We left about 8am in the pouring down rain.  We knew it was going to be a wet morning, but we had seen that it was supposed to clear in the afternoon.  We had tickets, we had to go along.

The drive up was very scenic, even with the rain!  We found Isaac's further business....

We had initially planned to stop for some brunch.  Instead we just made a restroom stop, just after crossing from North Carolina in to Tennessee.  It had stopped raining, briefly......

We arrived at Bristol Motor Speedway just after 11am.  We were able to park at the North End of the place, which turned out to be pretty near our seats.  Parking was not cheap either.....

Oh look, its still raining

We had to get Sebastian to a rest room pronto, so we headed in to the Speedway.  We were a little too late, but we know to always take a change of clothing.....

We got some pizza, then decided to go back out to the fan zone to look at the various merchandise.  It was still raining. Thank goodness for the ponchos I invested in initially for our holiday in Florida.  They certainly came in handy on the sunday.

The race was meant to start at 1pm.  It was still raining.  NASCAR do not run in the rain, it is just too dangerous.  We waited around for a bit.   Here is Oliver.  It had almost stopped raining, so the boys were watching the air dryers drying the track.

They do an awesome job.  On the photo below, you can see to the right a section of track that is dry.  This photo is from our seats.  They were brilliant, we could see pretty much everything.  This track has a few nicknames, one of which is The Last Great Colosseum.  I can see why.  It is stunning.

After an hour and a half rain delay, they actually got the race started.  The noise was tremendous.  I think people had seen the weather forecast, and chosen to stay away.  There were not many people in the stands at all.  

The racing we saw was intense.  On lap 22, team mates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano (My 2 favorite drivers!) crashed in to each other. This brought the safety car out, just as it started to rain.  The safety car led the cars back into pit row where they parked up.  Most people left the stands, as did we.  We walked around for a bit, all the time keeping an eye on the wether forecast.  It was not looking good.  At 4pm, we decided to call it, and start heading home.

We were so gutted.  I would have loved to see the whole race.  We stopped at Asheville for a fast food dinner, before driving the rest of the way home.  Most annoying, they restarted the race at 7pm.  We weren't even home!!!! We got back at 7.45, and were able to watch the rest.  Matt Kenseth won, his first win in 18 months, he is now in the Chase.  We were so gutted, but there is nothing you can do about mother nature.  Last springs race at Bristol was also a wash out, with the same thing happening.  A few lessons learnt:  book a hotel room for the night of the race (just in case), take the next day off work for the same reason!!!!

We want to go back and see a full race.  The one in the fall is a night race, so not really suitable for the boys.  Next spring, we are there......

I finally got me one of these!!!!!

If you live in the states, you will have seen the advert with Dale Earnhardt Jr, if not here is the link.  It still makes me giggle, even now!

I also purchased one of theses hats

Lilly diabetes sponsor the Xfinity race (next class down from NASCAR), on the day before the NASCAR race.  They also sponsor an Xfinity driver, Ryan Reed.  He has type 1 diabetes, and still races well.  He won the first race in the Xfinity series at Daytona.  He is pretty awesome.....