!!!!!WOW!!!!

All we can say is WOW !!! What a friend Pat Dennen turned out to be. In case you don't recall, he is the Fire Chief of San Bernadino County, California. He also knows lots of folks from NASCAR. His crews do a lot of work for safety for the Fontana race. Anyway he got us Garage Passes. We thought they were going to be what is called cold passes, but when they handed them to us they were HOT. The difference is that with Cold passes you have to get out when the cars are moving. But with the Hot passes you just get to stay there. Cars come and go right next to you. You have to be careful to stay out of the way. Check out the video and you will get an idea of how close we really are.

We checked into our race site at the Track side Club about 11 am. Little more about the club thing in a bit. Anyway they provide regular pit passes and also a golf cart ride to the pits. So we jumped on the cart and were off. We then went into the garage area. They have sort of a dress code. No shorts, No open toed shoes and must have shirt sleeves. I'm sure this is for safety. Other than that in you go. Sue and I sort of went AHHHHH!!!!!!. How did we get this lucky. These passes are really hard to get. So we walked around and watched. Here are a few of the drivers we say. Most notably was The King himself Richard Petty. He is one of the first five in the new NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Richard Petty

Greg Biffel. a Washington guy from Vancouver

Ryan Newman, He ended upside down at Talladaga two weeks ago and had to be cut out of the car.

Kasey Kane

Kasey is Sue's target. Kasey being the local boy from Enumclaw, Wa., besides being a great driver is also too good looking. Up close he seems really small. Sue has some #9 hats that she is trying to get signed. One down two to go. Its all a mater of timing. We were there just before practice, so they were in a hurry to get into their cars. Today we will try and get there after practice and hopefully the drivers will be more available. Here a few pictures of the track and stuff.

Phoenix International Raceway

No 24 Jeff Gordon

Don't know who this guy is but the car belongs to Kurt Busch

The Track side Club. That is our home base for racing. It is located on the backside of the track between turn tow and three. Its basically a big fancy tent. They have redone it this year with all new tables and chairs. There is even a lounge with couches in the center. Outside in the front are nice seats. The back three rows even have a counter in front of the seat. The front ones have nice theater type seats with cup holders and all. We are about 50 feet from the track so it is really loud. That's why we have our head sets. With those we can talk back and forth and listen to the NASCAR radio broadcast of the race. If I push the right buttons on the radio/scanner we can listen to the drivers. This is the view from our seats last night looking at turn two with the trucks starting.




So, its Saturday morning. We are snug in our traveling home. Charlie is still traumatized from all that has happened to him in the last few days. We will head up to the track around noon and have lunch at the Track side Club. (By the way, if forgot to mention, with the tickets we get breakfast, lunch and dinner and beer and wine for the weekend. ) Head for the pits and the watch the Nationwide race this afternoon. That starts at 2:00 pm. So, I will leave you with the number three race fan in the house.