Up Close and Personal (UCAP)--GM Goodwrench Service Plus 200
Part 1--Pre-Track.
Thursday Lori & Cliff head off to the Ft. Bragg Commissary and who
should be sitting at a table in the rear of the store but Terry Labonte.
Lori decides to wait an extra hour in line for the benefit of a couple
of autographs. Cliff walks up and tells Terry, "HI! I'm Cliff!"
And Terry Labonte is the first person outside of my family to understand
his name and not call him Chris. Thanks Terry.
Part 2--Pepsi/Bud Qualifying
OK, get upand check the E-mail. Kathy Ward isn't sure where they
will be or when exactly they will be there so she gives me a telephone
number to call later. I print the E-mail and leave the house about
0830(military time is real easy, that is 8:30am) We stop at Ft. Bragg and
pick up some more film, beef jerky, and Coke. I also get a small
notepad so I can scribble down notes for the UCAP, Lori has a pen in her
purse. Back on the road.
We arrive at the Rock about 0940, this is when I realize I forgot to bring
the e-mail I printed. We decided to hit the souvenir trailers first.
We mosey up & down the line and end up getting some MBNA earplugs (neat
case) and a 22 sticker from the Wahd Bahhton trailer. Then we get
a new 18 sticker to replace the faded one on the Grand Prix. Then
finally get Cliff a Rusty hat to block those dangerous rays and make those
headphones fit. He is real happy.
We make our way to the ticket office, get our pole day tickets $5 ea.,
Cliff is free!! Then have to switch lines to get our BGN tickets,
but the lines are short only 3 people in front of us at each window.
I get to the window and ask for two adults and one child for Saturday and
hand over my MBNA Mastercard. The lady returns promptly and informs
me it is expired!! What!? I look at the front of it and sure
enough 12/97, hmmm, they keep sending bills. But the Ford Citibank
comes to the rescue. (Called MBNA, new NASCAR MC is on its way--they're
sorry)
Now off to the car to get the cooler and camera. Cliff spots the
Tobasco souvenir trailer. "Look Dad! It's UGLY MAN'S Car!!"(ask my
wife, she says when he smiles his face disappears. She called him
that once and Cliff caught it.)
We get seated in the grandstands way down on the left side by the pit entrance,
so I can get good shots as the cars slow down coming into the pits.
I start clicking off shots with the 35mm. I get out my trusty little
notepad to make some notes, and ask Lori for her pen. "I forgot,
I changed purses and I didn't put one in here." You have her to thank
this UCAP isn't longer than it already is--I've got a pen for tomorrow.
The beautiful clear skies and warm sun have taken their toll on Cliff.
He is sound asleep. Halfway through WC practice I've shot 6 rolls
of 24exp. film.
Of course it was about 5 minutes after the last frame was exposed when
the Realtree machine gets wobbly in three. Dave does a good job saving
the car and gets away with only a little scrape of paint off of the bumper,
and some severe flat spots.
One of the most entertaining things of the day was watching the sign painters
painting the new VISA billboard in turn 3. (Notice a credit card theme?)
They painted a little, stop, watch the cars. Paint a little more,
watch some more. If I was working on that sign it would definitely
require a second coat tomorrow and a third coat Sunday, just to make sure
it is done right you know. Great seats!!
Finally Pepsi Qualifying gets under way. A very good time is posted
by Jeff Burton early on. Lori is happy as Mark Martin also posts
a very nice time, but states that it is O.K. because a Roush car is on
the pole. I tell her, yes, but the Gibbs car has yet to run.
The 44 fires on the far end of pit row and I nudge the wife. The
white, yellow and black car blasts by. His first lap has him in third.
I again nudge the wife. She handily notes that most driver's second
runs today had been slower than their first. Tony Stewart screams
by a second time. BING! BING! BING! Nearly a full MPH faster than
Jeff Burton! (More gloating snipped)
Told you it was long.
Bud Pole Qualifying begins. Cliff is awake now and sees cars he recognizes
and is fully recharged from his nap and can't sit still. He is also
lecturing me on not wearing my earplugs. So now after hours of high-decibel
V8 pleasure I obey my 5yr old son and install the sound deadening foam.
I've managed to suck down most of a 6-pack of Coke(Lori won't drive in
post-track traffic so thereby gives up her designated driver position)
and I must hit the pits. So of course I timed it perfectly so that
I would miss the pole winning laps by Rick Mast. Bobby then gets
on the track and pedals the 18 to a 40th place effort. DJ steps up
and when he gets into turn 3 the 88 belches smoke and slows. That
is when it happened. The crowd around me cheered. I'm looking
around for Rod Serling. Are these people happy at Jarrett having
bad luck?! This is a first for me.
Mark Martin is the last one up and he coasts around the mile for a 6th
place start. Lori smiles but politely declines to rub it in.
Part 3--Homeward bound
We get out of the parking lot at 1610. At 1700 we are dropping the
film off at Ft. Bragg. 1730 and we pull into the drive. Lori
says she doesn't feel well. (She declined a hair destroying Alan Kulwicki
baseball cap in favor of the baking sun) She takes a bath in hopes that
that will make her feel better. About 10 minutes later I hear a feeble
"Brian" from the bathroom. When I get there I determine that she
is feeling worse or has a new affinity for toilet water. I try to
make her feel better by assuring her that SGT Dennis would be happy to
use her ticket tomorrow.
She not so politely informs me that if I have to carry her up that hill,
she will be sitting in those grandstands tomorrow, but she agrees to wear
the hat.--But not the Hooters one, the other one.
Part 4-Second round and pre-race.
Got up at 0500 and left the house at 0600 on-the-nose(Forgot that phone
for KW AGAIN!). Set the trip-meter just so I could officially report
the distance. (49.7miles to the parking lot off of turn 4)
Very light traffic and by 0700 I had parked, and walked from turn 4 to
the Smokin' Joe's by the ticket office and back to the car with a cup of
coffee and a hot chocolate.
We take a few cans of corn and green beans to the Kyle Petty trailer and
gather a Race against Hunger T-shirt. Stop at the Interstate Trailer
and ask about the lack of Tony Stewart garb. They tell me his shirts
are for sale in the Dale Jr. trailer. ??? OK. Find the Dale
Jr. Trailer, but it isn't open yet, and gates are open so we dash back
to the car to grab the stuff so we can get good seats. (Cliffs knees are
healing nicely after being dragged across the parking lot)
We get settled into the third row from the top, section S(one section left
of S/F line) on the Isle. Most gorgeous seats. Morning practice
is pretty uneventful. Bobby was one of the last cars to come on to
the track. He didn't make his first run until about 35 minutes into
the practice. OK, it is 10:55 and practice is nearly over.
Bobby only made about 14 laps during the whole thing and 9 of those were
in the last 15 minutes. Seemed like they were really behind today.
Most interesting thing was with about 2 minutes of practice left, Rusty
and Jeremy(Rusty's brother says Cliff) are practicing running close and
that's when Dale E. decides he wants to play too. The grandstands
collectively gasped as looks like Dale is going to put the Mobile Taurus
into the turn 1 wall. Jeremy wiggles but gathers it up and the flagman
decides this has gone on long enough.
Whew, the sun is getting warm. Sunscreen is being applied in mega-doses.
The track is warm too, and very slow. Nearly everyone that requalifies
posts a slower time on the warm pavement. Of course Jarrett stays
under power for the whole lap, so he improves, but the surprise of the
morning is when Morgan Shepherd in the 05 bests yesterday's speed by nearly
2 mph. It still isn't good enough to make the field, but to run that
fast on the track they had today...Great Job! Bobby & Dale follow
up on last week's great finish at Daytona by relaxing this week and taking
provisionals to get into the Goodwrench 400. Not to mention all the
Goodwrench mechanics, Chevy dealers, etc that are present for the GOODWRENCH
200/400. Had all these Chevy dealers and reporters left Dale alone
maybe they would have had 5 minutes to work on the car.
Part 5--The Race.
Tony takes off and Burton wastes no time in getting around him and jumps
out to an incredible lead. This is when Cliff falls asleep, about
the 5th lap. I need to train the boy, he had only had 4 Miller Lites
by the start of the race.* I'm sure most of you saw the race on TV so I
will fight the temptation to repeat the play by play from memory.
But this needs to be said. The Shell Squadron deserves a humongous
round of applause today. Last October every time the 44 car came
into the pits Tony lost 8 to 12 positions. Today the Rainbow Warriors
were sitting behind the 44 stall with notebooks, writing as fast as they
could. The Shell Squadron kept putting the 44 back out front.
And Tony you did an outstanding job, never falling further than third place
and that was behind a team of Cup regulars. Way to Go!
Kenseth flat out took the race out of Tony's hands. Stewart beat
Martin across the line now so Lori is being pretty quiet, but at least
she feels good today. Great finish even if I didn't like the outcome.
Matt, they're going to be mad you tore up their pretty grass before the
cup race, but its OK, I got a great shot of you slinging mud, just don't
beat Tony again!! Hear ME!??
*No I didn't really let my 5 years old drink 4 Millers, he had to drive
us home.
Part 6--The trip home. We get to the car and load up deciding that
we were sunburnt, tired and since Cliff was still weary we decided to skip
happy hour. Got onto Hwy 1 in less than a minute from pulling out
of the parking lot. NO TRAFFIC!!
So the Grand Prix is slipping through the woods between Camp Mackall and
Ft. Bragg at a decent clip. About 65-70 when I round the corner and
pop over a hill and there is Mr. Smokey. Lori goes white and says
"Great" in her best sarcastic drawl. The nose dips on the Grand Prix,
heck it is a 45 Zone. He looks me square in the eyes as I zip past.
He knows he got me, I know he got me. I glance up in the mirror to
see his brake lights come on and the blue and whites start flashing.
It didn't happen. Thank you Officer.
Well its later now, I'm finishing this up, Lori is soaking up the sofa,
and Cliff, well rested now running around, yelling, throwing things and
having the time of his life. We're too tired to tell him to stop.
Well, I got off easy today, now its Cliff's turn I guess. Anyone
know a good contractor, I may have to have the house replaced.
Apologies to KW. I'm sorry I kept forgetting that phone number, and
that we didn't get to have a RASN reunion, but let me know when the season
opener is at OCS and maybe we can make a trip. BTW you'll have to
write the Cup UCAP, I can't afford $60 for Cliff to take a nap and all
the possible babysitters have already met Cliff. =)
