RACING VACATION 2014: Part 1

It's hard to believe it's almost here, but my 2014 Racing Vacation is just over a week away.  If all goes as planned, the trip will afford me the opportunity to see six races in nine days covering five different states.  Of course, the key phrase there is "if all goes as planned".  It seems like, thanks to Mother Nature, my racing vacations never go as planned.

Three years ago, a four-day weekend road trip to the plain states was washed out on the second day forcing us to call an audible and drive six hours out of the way.  With a USMTS Modified show at Muskogee, OK's Thunderbird Speedway rained out early in the morning, I was able to find RPM Speedway in Hays, KS...the only race track in a four-state region running that night.  An MLRA Late Model rainout in Mayetta, KS the following night forced us to venture north to Eagle, NE to see one of the best weekly program I have ever witnessed.

RPM Speedway in Hays, KS.

Then, in 2012, a perfectly laid-out plan to hit the northeast would cover six days of racing in six different states.  The roadtrip started off well, with visits to Brewerton, NY, Bear Ridge, VT,  went sour halfway through when Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway narrowly missed beating the rain (the first heat of the night was in the lineup chute). The rainout meant we had to go back the following evening, which also meant the planned trip to hit a race in Connecticut wasn't going to happen on this adventure.

Bear Ridge Speedway in Bradford, VT

Last year, I was fortunate enough to combine a work-related presentation with a racing trip and visit the Pacific Northwest.  This trip was practically doomed from the get-go when a second day rainout at Grays Harbor, WA detoured my plans to a remotely-located grassroots facility some six hours away.  To top it all off, my planned destinations in Montana and Idaho also looked grim, so I had to reroute my final destinations to sunny California and Nevada.

Fernley 95A Speedway in Fernley, NV

I'm holding out hope that this year's trip will buck the trend of past years, knowing full well an unplanned rainout could happen at any given time.  Nevertheless, it's full steam ahead and, starting tomorrow, I'll preview the six tracks on the upcoming agenda.

Lookout southwest...DJ's coming your way!