Conference vmsnet::nascar$note:nascar

287.0. "In field is a must do, at least once." by DONVAN::WETZEL () Thu Feb 20 1997 21:10

So what's it like infield at Speedweek you ask?  Let me tell you.
7:15 AM Tues John and I hit the road Nashua, NH with a loooong
way to go.  Drive.  That's what just drive.  And Drive. And drive
and...you get the idea. We almost made it to GA day one in about 17
hours.   Wed. was a leisurely 4 hour drive - strait to the track,
don't pass go.  Beach?  What beach?
	Up to the Grand stand and watched the ARCA and BGN do their
last chance quals.  We're psyced.  The thunder.  The smell.  Oh yeah.
	So, hear I'm a Louden bike weekend veteran and is accustom to
commin and going when I want.  We get into line for the infield and
we're thinking we'll be able to get to Walmart and the grocery store
later.  Wrong!  With about a case of beer and some sandwich stuff, John
and I are looken at each other wondering if we're signing up for 4 days
of hell.  We talked to some people and they had us up for the challenge.
People come here unprepared all the time and have a ball they tell us.
What the heck, We can walk to beer so we go for it.
	We had no clue where to park the car on the inside.  After driving
around in circles we settle back about 200 feet dead canter of turns 3 & 4.
There was a pretty big camp forming next to us and we figured they would
help us if we helped them.  Everybody immediately becomes neighbors and does
the neighborly thing.  Next to us were also a couple of retired brothers with 
this huge 3 room tent. John and I jumped in and got them set up.  They were
real happy we showed up.
	Later we went over and met the larger group.  Now here is what I'd
call  HCI.  Hard   Core   Infielders.  We've all seen them on TV, but it's
quite another thing to live with them for 4 days.  Actually you live as them,
because when you get there you either immediately become one of them or
you leave.  Our choice was easy.
	Now at the Daytona infield probably 80% of the license plates are
Florida.  And you gotta understand that (well in our case at least) we are
yankees.  I think you just have to realize that if you act like a dip, your
going to be in serious trouble.  That aside we had a lot of fun with each
other's accents.
	"Yall, from up Norht in hi teck?"
	"yup, I werk for Digital Equipment Corp." Thinking that if I said
the whole name they may have heard it before.  A couple of people sitting
right next to me, however, would have understood DEC.
	"badge so n so here".
	"Badge such n such here".
	WHAT A GAS.  Imagine that. a couple of Decy's in the HCI.  We were
pretty psyced.  They've been RO for a while.  I musta got my nick name on 
account of my talken with Data about werk for so long.  

	Of course we are still rookies.  Here's the major particulars of
the  HCI shopping list....
	1/2 cord of you local variety garbage firewood.  Cheap and does a 
		great job.
	2 40 gal. coolers full of good cheap meat.
	tons of fixens
	A dozen various coolers of beer.
	3 pickups, a 4runner, a blazer and (this is key)...
	2 stretch vans that looked a lot higher for some reason.
	1/2 ton of 2x4's and 3/4" plywood.
So on the stretch vans goes the plywood and on top a very sturdy 3 ft high rail.
Everything looks nice and safe.  Track mgt. is happy and the cops never come
to visit  (cops come out during the races keeping things from getting too high).
Then when things are cool, they put plywood on top of the rail.  Now we can 
see the entire track with the exception of pits and 500 feet of the tri oval.
The other trick we learned from the people that were about 2 stories higher
than us was to paint CBS or whatever with a catchy phrase.  Cops never hassled
them at all.  Theirs said something like "from Maine to Daytona" and had the
CBS eye on one side and the KODIAK bear (or whatever it is) on the other side.
Musta  made it last year ay?  We're good.  Joe Bessy crashed, but Craven is 
Cruisen.  We ain't afraid of no super speedway.
Yeehaa.  
	So the moral of this story is if you ever thought that you might
like camping infield for speedweek,  DO IT!  Go through the tunnel, turn
left, go 200 feet and park behind the restroom.  See ya there.

Screech,   adj.  means I had a good time and lost my voice at speedweek.

    A few years back myself and some fellow race reptiles did the Pocono
    infield.  It was a blast to say the least.  I only saw one person
    get arrested all the times I was there.  Don't ask me why, but
    he was cuffed, naked in the back of a police truck  :*)
    Fireworks big time!  I still have duct tape on the top of my tent
    covering up the burn holes!  Mud bog, best I ever saw.  The only
    two bummers I can remember was watching Bobby Allison get t-boned
    right in front of us.  And of course the other, which I still owe
    him for, is when CJ broke my rib.  But thats a story for another
    day, hahaaaaaaaa
    
    Goin to Richmond, YES!
    Gaff

    
    RE Broken ribs...
    
    You got me back for that deal... Or did you? :*)
    
    CJ

    Yea Hah!!
    		A great road trip this year!! I haven't been on the
    notes file for a while, but after Daytona I had to return. Screech
    I am glad to see you reported having a good time. I also was blown
    away to find a DECY with a low badge number stroll into our camp.I
    had posted notes in the past about meeting up in our turn 4 camp, but
    never had any visitors. We spent 3 days recovering and headed for
    the "ROCK". This ended up as another great campout!! Even better was
    the fact that the crew I have hooked up with at the ROCK brings a
    flatbed utility trailor with a 100 gallon HOT water tank connected to
    a shower head. (No more 5 day no shower smells in our camp 8^)). I hope
    to get some of that crew to Daytona next year. I will be back in turn
    4 in July so if anybody wants to visit just follow Screech's directions
    in note .0, and be ready to have a staggering good time!!
    
    Wayne a.k.a "DATA" Stoll