Wow! What a great trip! Five of us that are writing the NASCAR romances traveled to Charlotte, along with our editor, for a tour of Roush Racing and the Charlotte track. It was incredibly interesting and pretty amazing what goes on behind the scenes to make those week-end races possible. We toured the Roush garages where cars were in the process of being built from the ground up, saw where the pit crew practices daily, and toured one of the half-million dollar haulers. We didn’t see him, but we did see Greg Biffle’s private helicopter parked where he’d flown in for the day.
After lunch it was on to the Charlotte track. I’ve spent plenty of times in the pits at dirt tracks and dragstrips. Uh…it should be the same, but it was a whole different ballgame. Okay, it wasn’t standing in front of the Palace of the Doges in Venice, but it was pretty darn exciting to go through the tunnel to the in-field. The Busch cars were running so it was cool to see the track activity and cruise along pit road, the media center, and to have our picture taken in Victory Lane.8)
Here’s our motley crew in Victory Lane with the track behind us. Front: Marsha Zinberg and Wendy Etherington. Back: Gina Wilkins, Carrie Weaver, yep that’s me, Ken Casper
looks cool. what do u want to do next.
Comment by kim — May 10, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Glad to hear you ladies had a great time and got back safely. Can’t wait to see what appears in your book. :o
Comment by Ginger — May 10, 2006 @ 10:36 am
Kim, I have to finish this novella before I can start the NASCAR book. Ginger, it’s definitely going to be “interesting” to write. One thing for sure…they won’t be having a lot of meaningful conversation trackside. Those cars are loud and you can’t hear squat. :p Guess I’ll have to be innovative.
Comment by Jennifer — May 10, 2006 @ 10:50 am
Ah, but there are other things they can do trackside and knowing you, you can be innovative.
You can do eeet! (y)
I’ll miss playin’ with you in Dallas. ;(
Comment by Rae — May 10, 2006 @ 11:27 am
My hubby went to the Cocacola race one year and had some type of extra special pass. He and his brother in law were in a big box where they were the only two there who didn’t arrive in helicopters. Said it was great but he’d rather see the race on tv in his pj’s.
Glad you had a good time in our fair city.
Comment by Madison — May 10, 2006 @ 11:29 am
Rae, I think innovation is the key. :p Madison, I’m with your husband. You can actually see a lot more on t.v. LOL on them being the only one’s in the box not helicoptered in.
Comment by Jennifer — May 11, 2006 @ 7:35 am