Randy Ayers Nascar Modeling Forums

[18degrees]

night #1



ran into a coupla random drivers that you may recognize, just hanging out on a 4 wheeler before the races started. Y'all may not know who the guy on the right is (unless you are watching the "Dirt" documentary on Fox Sports, which i highly recommend) but the guys on the left and in the middle should ring some sort of bell...


this is the best motorsports week every year (well, it started last year) for me. Cup Series at WWT Raceway on Sunday, but the good stuff is the week leading up to it at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, IL. This year had High Limit Sprint cars last night, Xtreme Midget series tonight, and the World of Outlaws late models tomorrow. I attended 2 of the 3 races last year (first night got rained out) and am planning on going to all 3 this week, as long as the rain holds off.

Last night the track was immaculate, 12 of the 31 drivers in attendance broke the track record that was just set at the end of April. And Larson took home $31k of his own series' money
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[mach2mickey]

Very Cool.

[18degrees]

went to Tri City again tonight, they had Xtreme midgets, local modifieds, and like 4 classes of micros. kind of a letdown, the midgets only had 21 entries (and Larson didn't secure a midget ride this year), the modifieds had 13 (Kenny Wallace amongst them) and a pile of micros, etc. I know the micros are for kids starting out but they can be painful to watch. But i guess you gotta start somewhere. The actual micro class is more adults, Kyle Busch even ran one tonight... you gotta appreciate a NASCAR champ just running for S&G.




so on to tomorrow night, World of Outlaws late models and MOWA winged sprints. should be a good show...

and i should have a treat photo-wise after Sunday, i secured full access "hot" garage passes for the NASCAR race.
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[TonyK]

Sounds like a great time to be had.

I agree the "Dirt" show is very good. Not often you get to see a well done show without creating drama where it doesn't need to be.

[18degrees]

so tonight was the World of Outlaws late models... turned out to be the highlight of the week so far. and i doubt that Sunday's NASCAR race will be able to top tonight, even with the hot passes...

sorry for the crappy quality taken from a screen grab from a video posted on Twitter from DirtVision... this was the top 4 running drivers with 2 laps to go. everyone in the stands was on their feet to see who was coming out on top, was it going to be one of the 3 Illinois bad boys or the Florida driver?




Kyle Bronson #40B ended up winning over Brian Shirley #3s by about a foot... Bobby Pierce #32 was 3rd and Nick Hoffman #9 (local boy that transplanted to NC for his modified chassis business) was 4th. but no one knew until they crossed the flagstand how it was going to end.

i have been watching racing since 1992 and this was, hands down, the. best. race. i. have. ever. seen. in person or on tv.


and for the inquiring minds who want to know, Kyle Larson was fast early but was involved in an early wreck and didn't finish.


come back if you want next week-ish for NASCAR pics.
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[18degrees]

wow, today was a looooooong day. got to the track at around 10:15 AM and went to the garage and pit road. went back to our seats around 1:15 PM and they started around 2:35 PM. got 2 laps in before the first caution and then the alleged weather arrived... we spent about an hour and a half (maybe longer) with the cars on pit road because of "lightning in the area". which turned out to be several miles to the west and we never saw any lightning. started back up and ran thru the end of the first stage caution free. a few more cautions and they turned the track lights on. cautions started flying more frequently so we packed it in and left with about 20 to go and the backseat passenger in the car pulled it up on his phone and we listened to Kyle Busch win. we ended up spending about 10 hours at the track

got a few neat photos in the garage and on pit road, took some videos but i am not sure if imgur will upload them properly and play the videos on here.




















woulda been nice for Harvick to win one AB in their backyard (like Kenny Bernstein did years ago at the drag strip) but it wasn't in the cards.

and i got scolded by a NASCAR official for going too far into Blaney's garage stall to try and take a pic.


prolly the most important thing i got out of my garage time i learned from a Penske employee. for those of you who are painting your Penske builds with entirely chrome wheels, apparently you are doing it wrong. he told me that they are the magnesium color and they just buff the outer spokes and bead to a chrome finish - see below







gonna post this part in the reference photos section for those that don't visit the social hall.


so that's the end of my race week, pretty good one IMO.
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[TonyK]

Nice pictures and race day story. Good to see you're able to get close to the cars. Xfinity race in Portland puts a fence all around the pits so you can barely see anything and can't get near the cars.

NASCAR fan friendly? Not here.