Real Life Car Races

The passes we bought in the spring grant us free admission to some local family fun places with rides and put-put, etc., as well as admission to two big water parks on a daily basis.  They also get us into other local events on special days - such as Oval Track Race Night at the Rocky Mountain Raceway!  This was a bit of a drive for us (almost an hour to West Valley) but we thought we should try to go one summer night and bring the kids to a real life car race for free.  We made it happen and we all had a great time.  Our only regret: not bringing ear plugs.  It had been a while since I'd been to a race.... they're so loud!

Let's get this show on the road... literally.

It was overcast and windy so Eliza enjoyed some snuggle time with Daddy. 

There were several different types of races on the program that night - regular oval track races with different types of cars and of different lengths, children's go-cart races, and figure 8 races.  Yes, you read that correctly.  They were racing through the middle of the track with every man for himself.  There were several crowd-wide gasps due to close calls, but no crashes, thank goodness.

The most interesting race of the night was last on the program: Figure 8 Train Racing. "Trains" are made up of 3 cars that are chained together - the lead car has a driver, steering wheel, and engine; the second car is stripped of everything and has no driver; the third car has a driver who functions as a "brake man."  AND they race in a Figure 8.  You can see the single car figure 8 racing and the train races in the video below.

When we were looking at the Raceway website the day of the race, Ben saw the Figure 8 Train races and thought it would be really fun to get to see them.  We were sure that those wouldn't be part of the lineup on a free pass night, though, so we didn't really think much more about it.  Boy were we excited (well, mostly Ben) when we looked at the program that night!

The girls had a good time at the race that night, but Jack is the one who was really into it.
Surprise surprise.

PS> I finally updated the kids' quotes sidebar.
If you're reading via Reader or email, come check it out:
The Adventures of Cat & Jack
Eliza even has a few one-liners now.  Love it.