Visiting the states

Visiting the states

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Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Monday 9th September 2013
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Hi all,

Decided at the weekend that we should get out to the states to see some drag racing.

Anyone from here been over there for it can give some advice?

Thanks

Andy

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Monday 9th September 2013
quotequote all
Do you organise it yourself or is it a package . We were thinking Vegas , could you send some more info to me please ?

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 10th September 2013
quotequote all
Had a real quick price up, does around £1K each ( 3 of us) seem about right for Hotels, Car, Tickets and Flights?

+ Gambling/Beer and Food money

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 10th September 2013
quotequote all
DWphil said:
Or Gainsville Florida , go early and do Garlits Musuem and Space centre.
Hi Phil,

Good to see you and have a natter last Saturday, forgot you had said you had been out to the States. Have you done Gainsville + Vegas? Dad and I trying to get some plans together for next year.

Andy

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 10th September 2013
quotequote all
RWJ said:
Or do Vegas next month.

Enjoy it so much.

Then do Gainesville in March.
I wont get away with going twice!

Gonna have to do a pretty decent family holiday next year to go to Vegas without them as it is...

Personally I don't see going abroad to watch motor racing as a holiday...my other half doesn't agree!

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Monday 16th September 2013
quotequote all
RWJ said:
And now you'll tell us that you're going to Gainesville instead.
lol, no. Vegas seems to be the obvious choice here.

Thanks for all your replies, looking forward to getting some bookings made and getting out there !

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Thursday 7th November 2013
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Annual leave from work booked.

I have from Sat 25th October to Thurs 6th November free, should give us plenty of time to get out there, see the sights and spend lots of time at the track.

Want to stay on the strip, any hotel recommendations? Do they all have casinos?

Also LVMS were advertising several ticket options for this years race, including a premium one that included food, driver questions and upgraded seating, has anyone ever bought this? Figure if we are going out there, we may as well do it all

Baker1

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Monday 11th November 2013
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Thanks Royp, just the answer I needed.

Glad you had a great time , did you stay on the strip?

MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Monday 27th January 2014
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So, have been discussing some arrangements with the travel agent.

Flights and transfers sorted, just got to decide on a hotel. The initial deal was with a budget hotel (Circus Circus), but we want something a bit more than that so currently looking into the hotel side of things.

We fly out Tues 28th Oct and fly back Tuesday 4th Nov.

Just looked on NHRA'S site and found the running order and i'm getting way too excited seeing its months away yet !

Roll on some warmer weather and a couple of trips to the Pod smile

Andy

MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Friday 14th February 2014
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Weekend Platinum Package tickets ordered last night, things are progressing smile


MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 25th February 2014
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Flights and hotel now booked.

Time to start saving !

MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 25th February 2014
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Went with Planet Hollywood in the end.

Two rooms in Planet Hollywood for 7 nights, with flights for £1000 pp

Seemed reasonable, reviews were ok so fingers crossed!


MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
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Time for a thread update - having breakfast @ Gatwick, flying soon. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions smile

MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Tuesday 28th October 2014
quotequote all
Time for a thread update - having breakfast @ Gatwick, flying soon. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions smile

MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Thursday 6th November 2014
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Well that was the most amazing trip, Santa Pod will never be the same again!

Got back yesterday afternoon - thanks all for the advice, it helped a lot.

Will post a few pics etc up when I have woken up a bit!

MrBaker

Original Poster:

323 posts

130 months

Monday 10th November 2014
quotequote all
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