Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Jail and Racing
Usually those two words together are not good but when you live in the heart of the racing community (for NASCAR anyway) it's not a bad thing. I had the opportunity to go to the second annual Jail and Bail event on October 14th and then the last race at Lowe's Motor Speedway on October 17th (the track will have a new name next year).
Wednesday, October 14th I went to the Jail and Bail. The Jail and Bail event is actually pretty cool in my opinion. The event is a fundraiser for scholarship money for girls (like me) that want to go into mechanics and want to attent UTI or NTI. As far as I know I don't qualify for it since I am already attending school but I'm going to look into it and find out for sure. At the event they have a bunch of different drivers that they put in "jail" and you can either donate money to get them out of jail or donate money to increase their bail amount. There is a judge there that sets the bail amount for each driver and they also do an auction as well. The drivers will take money from you there so I gave some money to Kevin Harvick because he is Robyn's driver. My driver wasn't there but he did donate money to one of the people in jail to get her out (she is an announcer on the Speed channel). I gave money to Kevin pretty much to make Robybn jealous. That's pretty much my goal while I am out here...do everything I can that Robyn would like to do then send her pictures. :) At the fundraiser they also had the country music artist Tracy Atkins (I could totally be spelling his name wrong too) and that was pretty cool. It was misting that day so there wasn't a huge turn out for the event as far as I could tell but they did raise a lot of money and it was more up close and personal than I ever expected it to be.
Saturday, October 17th I went to the race. Yes, I went by myself and yes, it was very scary to do by myself. Sometimes you just want someone to do stuff with but I don't really have anyone that I hang out with too much yet. I hang out with a girl named Ashley but she was working that day so she couldn't go. The only thing I regret about the race is the fact that I did not dress warm enough. I froze my butt off. It was nice to go to a different track since I have only been to the one in Phoenix so far and I did notice a difference. Biggest difference to me was that this race track didn't seem as loud to me. Don't get me wrong, it was plenty loud but it either wasn't as loud as Phoenix or my memory of Phoenix made is wrong. Either one is a possiblity.
Today I had the day off from work so I went to Kevin Harvick, Inc. pretty much just to make Robyn jealous. A lot of the racing facilities aren't open to the public on the weekend so I don't get to check them out like I would like to. Kevin's facility was the farthest away that I'd found so I figured I'd get it today and maybe hit some of the closer ones next Wednesday. I've posted pictures from that trip so I hope you enjoy them. I'm working on the slideshow of the rest of the stuff I have done over the last few weeks so I'll try to get that posted tonight too.
I am currently taking my third class which is manual drivetrain (aka manual transmission plus mroe). I'm getting a good grade but I don't feel like I've learned that much. It's not that they aren't teaching it; I'm just not retaining it like I would like to. I've had to do more studying for this class than I have for the other two classes but it just isn't clicking. I know once it clicks it will be super easy. I'm hoping it clicks soon. I have mixed feelings about getting good grades when I feel like I don't know anything. On the plus side though, I did get the highest grade in the class on my last class and I will be getting a pin to wear on my ID badge. One person in each class gets that so I'm pretty happy that I get one. I hope to get more in the future because it is something that you can put on your resume and everything. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm dead tired but I figured I better update my blog before I start getting chewed out by certain family members. :D
Wednesday, October 14th I went to the Jail and Bail. The Jail and Bail event is actually pretty cool in my opinion. The event is a fundraiser for scholarship money for girls (like me) that want to go into mechanics and want to attent UTI or NTI. As far as I know I don't qualify for it since I am already attending school but I'm going to look into it and find out for sure. At the event they have a bunch of different drivers that they put in "jail" and you can either donate money to get them out of jail or donate money to increase their bail amount. There is a judge there that sets the bail amount for each driver and they also do an auction as well. The drivers will take money from you there so I gave some money to Kevin Harvick because he is Robyn's driver. My driver wasn't there but he did donate money to one of the people in jail to get her out (she is an announcer on the Speed channel). I gave money to Kevin pretty much to make Robybn jealous. That's pretty much my goal while I am out here...do everything I can that Robyn would like to do then send her pictures. :) At the fundraiser they also had the country music artist Tracy Atkins (I could totally be spelling his name wrong too) and that was pretty cool. It was misting that day so there wasn't a huge turn out for the event as far as I could tell but they did raise a lot of money and it was more up close and personal than I ever expected it to be.
Saturday, October 17th I went to the race. Yes, I went by myself and yes, it was very scary to do by myself. Sometimes you just want someone to do stuff with but I don't really have anyone that I hang out with too much yet. I hang out with a girl named Ashley but she was working that day so she couldn't go. The only thing I regret about the race is the fact that I did not dress warm enough. I froze my butt off. It was nice to go to a different track since I have only been to the one in Phoenix so far and I did notice a difference. Biggest difference to me was that this race track didn't seem as loud to me. Don't get me wrong, it was plenty loud but it either wasn't as loud as Phoenix or my memory of Phoenix made is wrong. Either one is a possiblity.
Today I had the day off from work so I went to Kevin Harvick, Inc. pretty much just to make Robyn jealous. A lot of the racing facilities aren't open to the public on the weekend so I don't get to check them out like I would like to. Kevin's facility was the farthest away that I'd found so I figured I'd get it today and maybe hit some of the closer ones next Wednesday. I've posted pictures from that trip so I hope you enjoy them. I'm working on the slideshow of the rest of the stuff I have done over the last few weeks so I'll try to get that posted tonight too.
I am currently taking my third class which is manual drivetrain (aka manual transmission plus mroe). I'm getting a good grade but I don't feel like I've learned that much. It's not that they aren't teaching it; I'm just not retaining it like I would like to. I've had to do more studying for this class than I have for the other two classes but it just isn't clicking. I know once it clicks it will be super easy. I'm hoping it clicks soon. I have mixed feelings about getting good grades when I feel like I don't know anything. On the plus side though, I did get the highest grade in the class on my last class and I will be getting a pin to wear on my ID badge. One person in each class gets that so I'm pretty happy that I get one. I hope to get more in the future because it is something that you can put on your resume and everything. Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm dead tired but I figured I better update my blog before I start getting chewed out by certain family members. :D
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