Since this was our first year racing, I decided that we would pretty much stick to home track stuff - club races. This gave us a bit more time in-between races and not make us feel quite as flustered all the time.
The Western Grands were our exception. This year they were held in Portland, OR at Alpenrose Dairy. Novice entry was free so we just had to pay to get there and to park, etc.
Part of the reason for going was that it was close and every year tracks "bid" to have the race. The next two years the race will be in CA and then AZ (or maybe vice versa). Anyway, the point is the same - the races will be further from home. The other half of the reasoning was that the novices all get big old trophies - win or lose. This was important to me because I need to build up some confidence in Zachary and since it was such a battle all season watching his sister get trophies for just being in races, I thought maybe he deserved one too.
So we registered for the week way in advance. It is a bit odd because the whole process isn't very informative. We planned on going down Sun to get a good parking spot and come back either late Thursday after novices were done or early Friday because we had other scheduling issues.
The week before the races, we took Zachary's car to our friends' house and they changed his worn out breaks for us. While there, the Grand came up and I happened to mention my schedule ideas. They informed me that it was probably not going to go that way at all.
First of all, when you pull into Alpenrose, you park in a field and drop your trailer. If you've ever seen the back of my RV, you'd know why I thought this was a horrible idea. I really have some damage back there that I don't intend to fix until I get better at backing with a trailer!! I digress.
You drop your trailer then go park the motorhome. After that they take your trailer (cars and stuff and all inside) and forklift into some spot. Now you may be able to imagine the forseeable problems with getting out early....
So we have an uneventful drive to Portland Sunday. Thankfully our friends in the club had already alerted the people there that I would be the crazy single mom coming and I alerted them that I also can't park in tight spaces. So the first night I got parked with our club and the trailer got parked next to our friends' trailer. Good to go. The motorhomes are quite a jaunt away from the track/trailers. I was not used to this since at home we always just stay hooked and can see the whole parking field.
Alpenrose Dairy is big though. It has a functioning dairy, a Velodrome (the little bicycle track for people that don't joke about bike riding fast), Little League baseball fields, some mock town, and then of course, the quarter midget track. Some people actually rented or brought golf carts to get around. I suppose it may help to mention that there were something like 260ish cars there - probably more.
So the first night we just settled in and ate dinner. Over the next few days, we car tinkered (well, I did anyway - some people did real stuff to their cars!), ate, and had campfires at night. The other classes safetied and signed in in the mornings, practicing I believe began on Monday or Tuesday, and qualifying was I think Wednesday. As novices, we didn't have anything to do until Thursday.
Thursday they had an opening ceremony. I really didn't expect much but it was very cool. They had flags/national anthems/some aerial artist that all the dads were jaw dropping at/and some Ricky Bobby prayers. The kids walked in groups and their clubs got introduced and they also all signed the track.
Afterwards novices went out to practice in groups of 5 I think it was. Then we had no time do anything and were sent directly to qualifying. From qualifying we had a little time while they figured out order before the main race.
Zachary did pretty good at qualifying again. He came in at worst 10th out of 30 novices from varying states. I say at worst because I am not sure whether they inverted the 2 Main or not. To give you an idea of how close of races these are, the track record for novice there is 7.447 I believe. Zachary drove an 8.017.
For the novices, it is more of an exhibition thing there so they don't actually move up like they normally would. They put the fastest eight in the first race, next fastest eight in the second race, and so on. So Zachary raced in the second race and came in fourth there. If it was a real race, he would have transferred.
When they all got done, the track decided that they were behind with actual races so they took novices off-track and gave them their awards (their big ass trophy and a bottle of fresh milk in an old style milk carafe). The winner of each race also got a hat from Vega tires.
After that we were all done. In the end, we ended up staying until late Sunday to watch most of the races and it was totally worth it. I am really glad we did.
Here are some things you may want to know if you decide to go to the Grands one year:
- Trailer and motorhome parking are seperate fees.
- Water and sewer service come the first Tues and then Thursday as well - that's extra charges per time. You are not obligated to get them.
- Bring lots of cash, the snack shack actually has a decent selection and if your kids are anything like mine they will be bugging you for something out of there.
- If you have an R/C car, bring it - they do a little race. We actually didn't have one and ended up buying one last minute.
- Tons of vendors are there and there are some good deals there. Don't worry if you don't have something - someone's bound too!
- They do a live feed so people can watch your races. This is a fun way to let family/friends see you race.
- Be prepared to see some serious racing. The Grands are like an everyone eats their Wheaties event. There is some hard racing going on - many accidents, some serious heartbreak, and some super earned trophies!
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| Yup, you're looking at our friends car nose up in this pile-up! |
What we got out of the Grands:
- Our feet wet at an away from home event
- Lots more time to learn about set-up and racing from our friends (it was really one of the first time I got to just sit in the bleachers and just watch other kids race). I also learned a lot just having the time to watch other people do different things to their cars. I got to rebuild shocks too(although I still dont think Id quite remember the steps myself).
- Some faces at other tracks around the country - there were families from Kansas, Wyoming, Ohio, California, Oregon, Washington, and probably some others I forgot!
- And some good fun with our track friends - well, except for the time I got body slammed (j/k on the not fun time - not joke on the body slamming!)
I know we had WAY more time there because we were novices. I would totally recommend going as a Novice. We will be back - maybe not in rookie years because I'd like the baby to be a little easier to manage, but we will be back!
