Feelin' hot, hot, hot!

(Val) Spring and I finally headed out on our very first girls-only Girls Gone Racin' trip yesterday to the Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model races over at Pontoon Beach, IL. This is probably the closest track, distance-wise, to my house but at $3 a gallon for gas, it's still not close enough. Ah well, enough of that, it's always worth the pain at the pump to get to go see some up close and personal racing.

Tammy Gundaker, promoter at Tri-City Speedway had asked Spring to come over and get some specific shots, and wanted her there early to take a walk around and get the lay of the land. We headed off right after church and got to the track around noonish. It was already steamy hot, with the temperature near the predicted 100 degree mark. We dressed as cool as we could, but there's only so much you can do when it's like that.

We met up with Tammy, who gave us a quick tour and described to Spring what she was looking for. We also got an update on the events of the day, including an autograph session with many of the drivers, a presentation to a former track champion, and a fundraiser for a seriously ill baby girl. The track was very wet, and in the process of being worked in, so we stayed on the outside, and just took a good look around. Currently, Tri-City is a quarter-mile dirt track surrounded by a half-mile dirt track, which share a common front straightaway. The plan is to turn it into a 3/8 mile track for next year, which ought to make for some very interesting and competitive racing.

Once we had taken the tour, met the girls in the office, and obtained our pit passes, we headed out to do one of our favorite things: Lunch at Applebee's! We took a left out of the track and headed into Granite City, where we passed just tons and tons of branches lying in the streets. This town was hit very hard by storms just over a week ago, and the evidence was everywhere. It wasn't hard to imagine why so many residents were out of electricity for a week or more.
When we pulled into the parking lot and put Spring's Lightning McQueen sun screen up in the front window, we noticed that the thermometer in her car read 120 degrees. While I know that wasn't the actual outside temperature, it would certainly feel close several times before our day was through.

We spent an hour or more inside the blissfully cool restaurant, sharing an appetizer and enjoying a couple of walnut apple chicken salads. (Note to self: I believe that if the word "apple" is in the title of the dish, and apples are shown in the picture on the menu, there really should be at least ONE apple in the salad. Indeed, my salad contained NONE! But hey, those walnuts were great.) Spring showed me the pics she had taken at Gateway the night before, and a few of those are up on the site now. She also showed me some beautiful shots she took on a trip out west. Wow!

We regretfully left our cool environment and made our way back to the track, after picking up a few snacks that we thought would survive the intense heat. As it turns out, Lifesavers have a melting point of somewhere over 104 degrees when locked inside a closed car. Spring found this out when she realized that the letters had actually been smoothed off of the side of her candy!

We did a quick run of the pits, where several cars were already being prepped for the race.

Spring wasted no time getting shots of various Late Models, and even one very young Scott Bloomquist fan named Brooklyn. I mostly followed along at a respectful distance, doing my best to conjure up my favorite super power, invisiblity. I have no problem hanging out with my photographer friend, I just don't want to get in any of her pictures by accident.

It's funny how guys react, or don't react, to a female photographer. Some completely ignore them, even when they are shooting up underneath a tarp covering their cars. We figure that group is thinking, "Ah, it's a girl, what can she possibly know about cars?" In other words, we can get away with practically anyhing because we don't know enough to be threatening.

The second group of guys does their best to just stay out off your way, and then might, out of sheer curiousity, come over later and ask who you're shooting for.

Finally, there are the ones who walk right up and ask what you're doing, after they have smiled for a picture. Some have been drinking, and some have not. For the most part, they just want to be able to tell their friends where to see the picture.

One of the guys who was very tolerant of us, but slightly curious, was Donnie Moran, who had spotted us earlier at Applebee's. Later, when we were standing around discussing a shot, he revved his engine, making us both jump, then gave Spring a look that said he enjoyed doing that!

It didn't take long for us to get enough of the heat and seek shelter for a cool down. We spent a lot of time in the office, and really enjoyed hanging out with Tammie and Brandy who were answering the phones. It was quickly apparent that they get a lot of repeat questions, but these girls know how important it is to keep a sense of humor handy in all situations. We couldn't help but laugh at times because after a while, we probably could have taken care of the phones ourselves. I was thankful that we didn't have to! There is also a cute little mascot in the TCS office, Kevin Gundaker's dog, Babe, who enjoys a special bed that rests at the cardboard feet of a Dale Earnhardt, Junior stand-up.

People who come out in heat like that are true, diehard race fans. It was amazing to me that hours before race time, folks were sitting out in the blistering sun so they could save their favorite spot in the bleachers. With heat that high, I have to say that it made me nervous. I was concerned for those who were out in that, especially the ones who were drinking because that can make the situation so much worse. The worst part though, were the little kids, because some of them looked completely miserable.

Spring's first real assignment was to shoot the autograph session which included drivers Earl Pearson, Jr., Freddy Smith, Scott Bloomquist and most of the rest of the current top ten in Lucas Oil points standings. It was interesting to watch the drivers interact with the fans. Some were very friendly and chatted it up with old and young alike, while others made it quite obvious that they really didn't want to be there.

We went out onto the track for time trials, which was pretty fun. Spring shot mostly between turns three and four, which seemed to be a really good angle. It is pretty cool to see those cars skewed all sideways in the corners, front left tires up off the ground and spinning in the air. We walked around among the cars and drivers in the infield, then headed up into the tower to cool off during the Modified heat races. It was fun just lisening to the banter that goes on up there, but it is really weird to stand up in the middle as the cars race around you. Makes it kind of hard to keep up!

As afternoon faded into evening, we enjoyed a bit of cloud cover that really helped to cool things off. It's amazing how different it feels just to have that sun hidden for a while! We had some dinner and then Greg Stephens with SPEED Channel asked us if we wanted to go up in the lift to watch for a while. That was a fun experience, standing up above the bleachers, feeling the cool breeze and watching the guys work the cameras and screens. Greg is the former videographer for the World of Outlaws Sprint Series, and has been taping racing since about 1986. He's great at what he does, and seems to really enjoy his work. I loved watching the race from up there, seeing how the cameras work together to get all the important shots that will go into the television show.

When we came back down to earth, I made my way down the ladder thingy at the end of the lift, then decided to leap the last few feet down to the ground. Unfortunately, the ground was farther away than I thought and I ended up sprawled on my backside. I'm so graceful! At least I managed to give everyone a good laugh. We hung around and talked to Greg until it was time to cross back over for the Late Model feature.

The one shot Tammy really wanted Spring to get was the four-wide parade lap as the cars come out of turn one and head down the front stretch. After much discussion between us girls, Greg and finally, Jeff from the safety crew, it was determined that Spring would stand up on the wall along the outside of the front straightaway. We thought she would have two chances to get this shot, but as it turned out, one shot was all she got because the cars began to peel off and get back into the two-wide line up right after passing her. Being the true professional that she is, I'm guessing that one shot was all she needed.

We watched the fifty lap feature from right behind victory lane. It was a very exciting race, with a handful of cautions, some extremely ruffled feathers, and one very happy winner, Shannon Babb. Once Spring got her victory lane shots, we were ready to head on home. We spent right at twelve hours at the track, and we were sweaty, dirty, gritty and tired. Even after all that, we enjoyed the ride back to my house as we talked about our day, listened to some great music and thought about the next race.

We'll be back at Tri-City next week for the USAC races. I'm hoping the weather man is right and the temperature will be about ten degrees cooler. It's amazing how good 95 can sound after experiencing 100 plus!

I'm on my way up to Spring's a little later this morning, where we will hopefully get some of the pics up from Saturday night. Thanks for hanging with us!