Visiting the states
Discussion
quarterpounder said:
Apologies for piggy backing off this thread but I'm off to vegas next april but I return on the weekend of the race. I was hoping to catch some racing & wondered whether they do public practice/test days during the week that I could attend?
Couldn't you go on the Thursday & Friday to see the qualifying?
Where to start?,
Well, the one piece of information I never shared originally was that I had never flown before. So rocking up to Gatwick (my first time in an airport) with the anticipation of an 11 hour flight was a buzz!
Touched down in Vegas, picked up our Dodge Charger (only a v6) and headed to our hotel.
A bit of sightseeing on Wednesday, hotels and casinos were mind blowing.
Drove to the Harley dealership on Thursday morning, picked up my Breakout and drove up to the track - me on the Harley, my dad and uncle in the Dodge, roasting hot, perfect.
Got to the track and picked up our Club Nitro tickets (thanks for the ticket advice), and went for a wander around the place. Spent a few hours there but decided to head to Hoover Dam for an hour or so.
Friday we were up early and at the track by 8.30. Went for a wander around the pits, bumped into Noah Stutz. We had had a natter with him at the finals at Santa Pod and told him we were heading out to Vegas to cheer on the Europeans, he remembered us and spent a good half hour having a chat and all before his NHRA debut run. Wandered a bit further down and spotted the Lindbergs who as always were equally chatty and happy for us to have a good look at the car and explained anything we wanted to know.
On to the racing, well... simply staggering. We watched from various places even though we had premium seating. One of the things we wanted to see was a fuel funny car top 300mph, i've never seen one run that quick at the Pod but see them do it all the time in the states. I wasn't disappointed, the first run I watched from the edge of the track was a side by side pass, both Force and Hagan ran 318mph...superb stuff.
All classes of racing were excellent to watch, the Americans were very friendly and thought we were mad travelling that far for drag racing, weather was perfect(ish).
Club Nitro tickets gave us great hospitality, great food, view points, freebies. Q+A session with John and Courtney Force amongst others, was just perfect.
A 330mph pass by Schumacher, we met and had photos with Erica Enders-Stevens and Andrew Hines after winning their Wallies, just amazing.
Spent Monday and Tuesday morning doing a bit more sight seeing before returning home.
Las Vegas is amazing, NHRA drag racing is incredible and I had a blast!
I have the Isle of Man TT and Le Mans booked for next year so will be returning to the states in 2016 for some more drag racing!
Thanks all for your help and advice guys
Andy
Well, the one piece of information I never shared originally was that I had never flown before. So rocking up to Gatwick (my first time in an airport) with the anticipation of an 11 hour flight was a buzz!
Touched down in Vegas, picked up our Dodge Charger (only a v6) and headed to our hotel.
A bit of sightseeing on Wednesday, hotels and casinos were mind blowing.
Drove to the Harley dealership on Thursday morning, picked up my Breakout and drove up to the track - me on the Harley, my dad and uncle in the Dodge, roasting hot, perfect.
Got to the track and picked up our Club Nitro tickets (thanks for the ticket advice), and went for a wander around the place. Spent a few hours there but decided to head to Hoover Dam for an hour or so.
Friday we were up early and at the track by 8.30. Went for a wander around the pits, bumped into Noah Stutz. We had had a natter with him at the finals at Santa Pod and told him we were heading out to Vegas to cheer on the Europeans, he remembered us and spent a good half hour having a chat and all before his NHRA debut run. Wandered a bit further down and spotted the Lindbergs who as always were equally chatty and happy for us to have a good look at the car and explained anything we wanted to know.
On to the racing, well... simply staggering. We watched from various places even though we had premium seating. One of the things we wanted to see was a fuel funny car top 300mph, i've never seen one run that quick at the Pod but see them do it all the time in the states. I wasn't disappointed, the first run I watched from the edge of the track was a side by side pass, both Force and Hagan ran 318mph...superb stuff.
All classes of racing were excellent to watch, the Americans were very friendly and thought we were mad travelling that far for drag racing, weather was perfect(ish).
Club Nitro tickets gave us great hospitality, great food, view points, freebies. Q+A session with John and Courtney Force amongst others, was just perfect.
A 330mph pass by Schumacher, we met and had photos with Erica Enders-Stevens and Andrew Hines after winning their Wallies, just amazing.
Spent Monday and Tuesday morning doing a bit more sight seeing before returning home.
Las Vegas is amazing, NHRA drag racing is incredible and I had a blast!
I have the Isle of Man TT and Le Mans booked for next year so will be returning to the states in 2016 for some more drag racing!
Thanks all for your help and advice guys
Andy
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