Gainesville - Who's going?

[Bikermoore]

So who's off to the Gatornationals? Maybe a PH meet up? I don't know anyone here, apart from Derek, so might take a bit of organising.

I'm staying in Alachua, just north of Gainesville, flying out on Thursday morning from Gatwick.

[WJM]

I'm at Gainesville with Grandstand tours, we are staying at the Marriot Courtyard near a place called the Alehouse where I see Barry Sheavils and Gary Page every night !

I've never been to a US meeting before and the sheer scale is impressive, we got to go in the control tower yesterday { Friday} and have tickets for the Scummacher hospitality today. Just setting off for the race now.

Bill

[shoebag]

I am in Ocala about 50 miles south of Gainesville. Tried 5 hotels yesterday before I could get a room. Everywhere is full cos of the Gatornationals. Will be at the strip in a couple of hours then going to Amelia Island for the Concours tomorrow.

[snakehips]

Ahmm! Lads have you checked out "Shoebag's" profile? And a race fan too. Ding Dong.
d.o.b

[shoebag]

Here is a short clip of footage of the Nitro Qualifying Session I took today (Sat). I missed abit of it but it was hard to keep up with the speed as you can see from the timing.

http://s567.photobucket.com/albums/ss115/shoebag/G...

[WJM]

The Grandstand tours trip was very impressive, Robin the guide is the most knowledgeable man I have ever met on drag racing and seems to know everybody. We spent the first qualifying round of Top fuel and Fuel funny car in the control tower on Friday with Bob Frey as he commentated. Then got taken around the Don Schummacher racing pit and were introduced to Tony S, Ron Cass, Matt Hagan and Jack Breckman { ?funny car driver actually the most amusing}. On Saturday we had lunch at the DSR pits {interesting eating in the nitro fumes!}. I had a Top Eliminator ticket { well worth considering} which was right on the start line and includes lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

Gainesville track is big { capacity around 100,000} and well organised, although there has been talk of a downturn there were still 19 top fuel cars and 17 funnies, the racing is competitive some of the funny car matches in the first rounds were incredibly close eg Matt Hagan beat Ashley Force by about 1 inch at 300 mph. It is though obvious that some of the teams like DSR, Al amari {Quatar money}, Force etc have vast budgets while others havn't. The hospitality woman at DSR said they had 125 staff at the event ! Urs who always looks well funded at the Pod looked a bit outgunned here ! The weather was great all through although it got a buit hot for me on Sunday.

The other things I had not expected were that TAD is dominated by A Fuelers {which are nearly as noisy as TF} running 5.2/3 at 265 plus. Pro Mod featured more nitrous mountain motors than I expected plus a couple of turbo powered cars. Pro Stock is hyper competitive with the 16 car field covered by a few hundred's of a second.

Our hotel was about 100 yards from the Gainesville Alehouse which is where the teams congregate after the event. On Sunday night you could not move for John Force trucks and the FC winner Bob Tosca was in with his "Wally", so were Gary and Barry but I have been asked to point out that they were on orange juices all night ! I also saw some of Urs crew and the old guy who is the NHRA official starter.

I even saw my first Space Shuttle launch from the front of the Alehouse on Sunday night. Although Gainesville is not Orlando in terms of entertainment it's a pleasant enough place and if you get chance you should go. I can't imagine how anybody would be better than going with Grandstand.

Bill

[RWJ]

Thanks, Bill, for your paying-customer's-eye view. People sometimes ask, why bother with an organised tour when I can arrange it all myself? Your post, perhaps, gives a clue.