A day at the racer !

Sometimes you just have to follow a good one - And it was precisely this idea that did that I got a completely different and wild experience. Last night in Grand Forks, I was in a local mall to buy some cheap clothes. On one of the shelves, I saw a small race car and remembered that one of my colleagues in the city actually built race cars. (Last time I was in Grand Forks, I was out and see his garage - I was inspired by the little race car on the shelf to drive past his place.)

I drove my rented car (a white Mustang) over to his garage - And there was as usual high activity. - The place smells of beer - motor oil and friendships - And just this evening was also filled with excitement. For tonight, it was race day at the local race track. Bruce invited me to watch the race. Designated both where tickets could be purchased and where the entrance to the track lay. I immediately started calling my Polish colleague -  And we got an fantastic experience. The Americans call it Speedway (In Denmark this is about motorcycles - but in the U.S. it is cars on the dirt track)

It does not get more American - While waiting for the race to start - We started with American beer in a can - and extreme nachos (A huge portion) - We had to sit on the part of the grandstand which was allowed to drink alcohol. The other part were for families and kids.
Just before the race start was a young woman sang their national anthem. Quite an experience to see all stand up - Hold there hat in hand and sing along. Here I could really feel a sense of patriotism rarely found in the rest of the world.

Then started the race - on the River cities Speedwaytrack. I've never heard so much noise in one place. Very potent engines, with an equally potent sound. - And they could run fast. I do not remember that I have seen the car with such a quick acceleration.  There were both Speedway cars and Sprint cars. It was absolutely fantastic. All driver was extreme skilled and they managed to get around almost without incident. (There was, however, a real bad crash - but no one was hurt)

I got a very unique experience - and I even got a special item to take home. My colleague Bruce Hart gave me one of his promotional hats "Hart Attack Racing" - The hat will have a place of honor among all my sports equipment.