Brewster Inn Blog

Almost at the end of our trip and its time for the big event. The Nascar race weekend at Dover Delaware. Our friends Tammy and Casie, Judith and me headed down from Maine for the race weekend. We were looking forward very much to  it and whatever else would happen to us with regard to Richard Childress Racing whilst we were there.

 We arrived at the track on  Saturday morning. I had instructions to go to the Nascar credentials truck to get the pit passes for all of us but they never had them so they directed us halfway round the speedway to a gate where we would have to give our names so that we could go in past the grandstands, cross the bridge over the track and get into the infield. This we did and we managed to talk our way past 2 security gates to get right down by pit lane. We were looking for a red single story building that was where we would have to show ID and they would get the PR guy from the 07 team to come out with our passes. 30mins later and whooohoooo we have the passes!!

So much happened to us over the next 2 days as we utilised our “hot” pit passes to the full. In Nascar terms “Hot” means “access all areas” and thats just what we did. It would take a long time to write half of it down here, so with words and pictures i’ll give you a feel for it for now.

Saturday was spent in the pits all morning until the Busch series race in the afternoon. We took plenty of photos of cars and people coming and  going all round us whilst practise and qualifying for the races was in progress

Kevin Harvick

Jimmy Johnson

 Ryan Newman

Mark Martin 

Kurt Busch

Tony Stewart

Dale Earnhardt Jnr

Judith met this guy…

Yeah, its Richard Petty and during our time at the track Judith wandered off. 5 minutes later she reappears and said “I got an autograph” to which i replied “Great! who of?”
“I don’t know” she said. “There was this other guy having his pit pass signed so i thought i’d get mine done too”
“Ok” i replied “where is he?” And Judith pointed to the man in the hat. None other than Richard Petty! LOL

A bit later on  we’re still watching what was happening in pit lane and there was a bit of a crowd gathering. On closer investigation we see Jeff Gordon surrounded by “his people” and about 10 yards away we see a tall guy surrounded by “people” too. Both groups get closer and then the 2 men go to each other,  shake hands and start walking slowly along pit lane talking like they’ve known each other all their lives. Turns out the other guy was the quarterback for the Philidelphia Eagles NFL team and this was a staged photocall.

 

Heres some more photos of the pit lane area this time from Sunday

The gas tanks they use are so much bigger than they seem on tv

 

And then during the pre race stuff, it was time for Nascar to interview me by Kevin Harvicks car for part of the “Nascar Nation” tv programme.The lady that interviewed me was tall at about 6′ and she had a cold that day too. This was all in preperation for the interview a few minutes later that was going to be done for tv with me and RCR owner Richard Childress. Heres some pictures from the interview session

Tammy, Judith, Jeff Burton (31 car) and me

Judith and me with Richard Childress. He was a really nice down to earth man as well.

Tammy, Richard and me

After the pit stops during a race the team members that work on filling the car with fuel each time then use a trolley to take 2 of the empty gas tanks down to a main filling area operated by Sunoco who supply the fuel for Nascar where they have to leave the empty tanks on the trolley and whilst they walk to the other end of the walkway, the Sunoco employees then fill the tanks before handing them back to the race team members who take them back to their own particular pit box

As the race started in 100+ degree heat we were up in victory lane watching what was happening. Victory lane might be where the winning car goes at the end of the race, but at the start its where all the unused race tyres are stored

Watching the 31 team during pit stops

It gets a bit crowded in pit lane during the race

And people can get injured

The race was won by Greg Biffle with the 16 “National Guard” car. The crewman above is one of his. Whilst i was up in victory lane during the race, the guy from the National Guard that was in charge of sponsorship for the 16 team came up  to stand by me and tripped as he reached the last couple of steps. We got talking and he asked about our trip. At the end of the chat he gave me his card and told me to get in touch when we got home which we did. About 5 weeks after we got home we had a package arrive from the National Guard with a t-shirt and signed diecast of the race winning car!

That was pretty much the end of the trip and at this time we realised we enjoyed being in America and it was while we were driving back to Dulles airport in Washington that we made the decison to try and make it to America to live and work and so the next stage of the story starts…

After leaving Perth we had a days drive to go around the south side of Montreal to Sherbrooke and then crossed the border back in to Maine at what seemed like a very quiet point. We hadn’t seen a car in ages as we approached the border crossing and as we drove right up to it a US border control guy (that looked around 70 years old) appeared and gestured for us to stop.

Here was complete car check number 2. Just like when we went into Canada this guy wanted everything out of the car as well, keeping us out of his view as he checked everything we had in the car. He couldn’t quite figure out why we had just spent 3 days in Canada no matter how many times we explained to him that we just thought the drive would be more pleasant going via Toronto than Cleveland but we don’t think he believed us. After an hour of checking us all out he decided that we were ok to travel on, gave us a guidebook on Maine and let us carry on our way to Belgrade Lakes.

Our destination here was Yeaton Farm Inn. Its a very historic property built in 1826 and run by a lady thats become a good friend of ours over time called Connie Parker. Shes a former art director thats worked in New York and Hollywood and after so many years of that life decided one day that she wanted to escape out to the country. Connies  helped us a lot to not only make it to Maine but also to offer advice and help now that we’re here too. If you want peace and quiet with no TV then this is another good place to be.

From here we headed to Bar Harbor and Arcadia National Park for a couple of days. This area is very pretty. Interesting places and things to see and do and the National Park is wonderful for sight seeing and walking. Then we took a  scenic drive down to Portland following  Route 1 most of the way. We stayed there over night before carrying on our journey to the town of Waterboro to stay with friends of ours for a week before we all set off to Dover Delaware for a weekend of Nascar racing prior to starting our journey back home to England

 We were staying with our friend Tammy, her husband Nelson and their teenage daughters Casie and Alicia. In this photo are the 3 ladies having lunch with us at Sarges Nascar themed bar and grill in Saco ME

Heres just a few photos that we took from around the Portland area.

 ”Lenny” the chocolate moose. 1700lb of the finest chocolate too!

Whilst we stayed with Tammy, we spent the weekend with them at their lakeside camp. We had a great time and i even got taught by Casie and Alicia how to fish!
Heres the proof. I know its just a “tiddler” but its a fish!

We had a bit of a “moment” with a box of Oreo cookies. Theres me, Judith, Tammy, Casie and Alicia sat around the dinner table. Tammy and her girls are dunking the Oreos into a glass of milk and suggest that i should do the same. I decline their most generous offer to dunk in their milk as i’m a firm believer that cookies (or biscuits as we say) should be eaten dry and not soaking in cold milk! Then they suggested to me a 2nd time i really should give it a try to which i again politely declined the offer.
Tammy however wasn’t taking “no” for an answer and she grabbed my hand which was holding a dry Oreo, pulled me towards the glass of milk and thrust my hand with Oreo still attached into the milk as she shouted “Just dunk the damn cookie!!!”

She drowned my hand and then demanded that i eat the now soaking wet milky cookie.
I had a little nibble and it tasted awful! And to roars of laughter i chucked the half eaten soaking wet cookie back on the plate on the table.

Next stop Nascar at Dover