i.e. 6-8pm or later.
If you stay the night on Friday, hopefully you got a bunch of stuff done so you don't need to rush so much. At our track, you will get the pleasure of waking up to a compilation of tunes that usually includes; reville, bagpipes that remind me of funerals, and some 80s/90s flashbacks.
Safety/Sign in is usually between 7-9 am. If you aren't signed in by 9am, you aren't there....even if you are.
If you haven't done safety, you do it first thing. Then you take your drivers and their safety sheets to sign in.
Sign-in has you all sign forms (even your drivers that usually at this point are dying to run around and play instead of focus on getting ready) and sign-in takes more money for entering that particular race. Then they have your kid draw a number out of a big (ours is white) bucket. Your kids will pick numbers like 279 or 158....something outrageously big (or at least mine always do). I cannot tell you what happens from there in the number category. Some kind of math magic that I have no idea about. Something about the higher number, the lower the position or whatnot. Really, don't ask me.
**I should note that during the morning safety, they may ask to see and empty gas tank/loosened float bowl and SEDIMENT bowl all the way off. Look, I remembered the name.
Okay, so if you sign in on the earlier side, you have a little bit of time to tighten everything up, find your kids that by now surely ran off to see so and so at their trailer, and add a bit of fuel to their tanks.
In no time at all the tower will be calling for practice. You are not obligated to practice in the morning before races. I have heard theories by some that they don't want to mess up their cars (i.e. risk an accident) right before race time. Other people want to warm up their cars/drivers and make sure everything is as it should be. We pretty much always practice unless we are in the middle of fixing something major.
Sometime between practice and racing, the tower will announce they have posted line-ups. Everyone goes over to the base of the tower to look at sheets organized by class and then driver position. Then you go pick your number out of a box and tape it to your car.
**For actual race portions, 2 numbers go on your tailcone and 1 number goes on the drivers side nosecone (aka front of the car/rear of the car).
This is where it gets complicated and I am going to skip it for later explanation... The kids go out and do either HEATS or QUALIFYING runs. The outcome of those determine their placement in the races.
I will cover how a race works later. For now, I will tell you that the racers are called by class and will more than likely race more than one race throughout the day. The races are not at pre-determined times/orders so that is why we can never tell you exactly when the kiddos will be on the track. If you want to watch, plan on making it out on the earlier side and sticking around for a few hours. Basically, the kids can race from early in the morning and not get done until late at night, depending on how many kids/volunteers there are and how smoothly everything goes.
If you place/win in certain races, your car goes to what is call IMPOUND. You cannot touch your car in impound. NAUGHTY! NAUGHTY! CHEATER PANTS!
After racing is COMPLETELY finished, they go through the impound cars (which is usally a lot) and do things like sniff gas (with a tool, not their noses!) and tell you to go to the tech area so you can pull things off your brilliantly set-up car (like the motor). Again, more on this later.
After everyone is done with all that, they will get everyone together at the tower to give out awards.
As you can tell, it is a LONG day.
Now you know why we like to stay the next night, even if there is not a race the next day.
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| A typical trophy has a quarter midget racer on top and is taller or shorter deoending in place. The kids also can receive ribbons |
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