I had so much fun at the fest...can't wait for next year.
With all the craziness in my car now, I decided to trailer it this time to save gas and wear and tear. I rode in a smaller ARD caravan with a few other trailers. We were all late at the shop getting cars ready, so I got about 30 minutes of sleep before heading out on Tuesday morning. Stopped at Lambert's Cafe on the way for some amazing home cooked food, and got stuck in a traffic jam that didn't move for an hour.
We stayed at a casino in Tunica, Mississippi on the way up and back. Lost about $100 the first night, but ended up about $250 ahead for the trip.
We arrived on Wednesday, and since Thursday was an open day decided to play some golf. After finding out about the Brickyard Crossing, we just had to go (thanks danvillekidd). The course is right next to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and even has four holes in the infield! We also went over to the museum for a bus ride around the track. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip.
I decided to do both the car show and drag race this year, so I left my show wheels on until Friday (yes Randy...the Savinis).
It was pretty dirty from the trip up, but I managed to get her clean and staged over by the judges. I walked around a bit, and came back to my car to find a GM award on the dash! Daniel Gifford is the accessories design manager, and chose my car as his favorite out of everyone at the fest. They haven't figured out the awards for the show yet, but being chosen by one of the guys that designs this stuff is amazing.
We had a couple of issues on Saturday getting ready for my qualifying run. I couldn't get the 16s on, and then we had trouble with the computer recognizing my direct port kit. We were running out of time, so I decided to run on 18" drag radials and my smaller plate kit (100 shot). The track was prepped perfectly, but the fastest I could get out of her was a 10.96. I qualified 6th or 7th, but Keith (Camaro21) beat me in the first round.
I hate you Keith!
We had some crazy drama on the way home. One of our guys had a flat tire on his trailer, and after changing it we headed back down the road. We only got a few miles when I heard someone in the caravan scream something on the radio. I couldn't understand what she said, but I suddenly saw Owen swerving his big trailer up the road left, and a trailer on the right suddenly smash into the rock wall! At first I thought it was our lead trailer, but then realized it was way too big. It was a group of carnival workers that lived in the trailer, and were hauling it with a Tahoe. We all pulled over and ran back to see if anyone was injured.
It had to be a miracle, because everyone was out of the vehicle and fine. We noticed they had a 2 year old baby with no car seat, and found out the baby was sitting on somebody's lap. Idiots.
Owen had swerved to keep from hitting their dog that was thrown from the truck. It had a little road rash on it, but looked OK otherwise. I think one of their cats was in the trailer, and I don't know if they ever found it. One of our guys was a volunteer fireman, and took over until emergency vehicles arrived. He told everyone to get back because there were two live propane tanks on the trailer. Once personnel arrived and told us the tanks were OK, we passed the truck and got back on the road. Within a few hundred miles we saw an overturned 18 wheeler, and another car in the ditch. Definitely glad everyone made it home safe.
Here are some pics and a link to more.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242636