Originally Posted By Autopia Deb It's always a relief when the drivers walk away from a crash. As for the sound of the engines, there is such a variety that some vehicles (the minority) are not much louder than a normal street car and others are as loud as a top fuel dragster. Most are somewhere in between. The flying saucer is a car called "The Pumpkin Seed" and it is (believe it or not) a vintage race car, it's been racing b-ville since the early sixties. It was in the movie "The Worlds Fastest Indian" because it was around at the time the movie took place. Today we had 18 knot cross winds on the course so it was shut down for an hour or so this morning. I took several pix of cars waiting to run. I even got a shot of a guy snoozing next to his race car, lol. <a href="http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/autopia_deb/album?.dir=/581cscd" target="_blank">http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ autopia_deb/album?.dir=/581cscd</a> While I was in the timing tower the chief timer while on break was telling me and the guy I work with how the day was not too exciting. Shortly after that we had an hour or more of cars dropping parts on the course, several spins (no one hurt) and a crash in the pit area, speak not of the devil or he will appear! The crash in the pits was somewhat amusing for those of us not involved. We have a guy who sells ice cream out of a truck (just like your neighborhood ice cream man) and he's been getting blotto all week. He was drunk again and rear ended someone on the return road (where the push trucks go to follow the race cars and to push them up to the line). According to the chief timer who responded to the scene, no one was hurt and there were ice cream bars and trash EVERYWHERE. I have a feeling we will have a new vendor next year. We shut down racing today so the course could be moved a mile down (the 2 mile becomes the 1, the 3 mile the 2, etc). This meens the timing and starting people who work very long hours get a break but the line manager will probably be on the salt until 1:00AM. I hope he gets enough help so they can get out of there soon.
Originally Posted By alexbook Looks like a lot of fun (although I was hoping for a shot of the ice cream truck wreck). Was that a real Redondo Beach police car?
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb >>>Was that a real Redondo Beach police car?<<< Yes and no. It is a real car used by the Redondo Beach PD as a recruiting tool, but it is not a patrol car. When it's not running they have lights they put on top. Some of us thought it would be fun if they ran with the lights and siren going. I never saw the ice cream truck wreck. I just heard they air lifted the guy to Salt Lake because he was complaining (loudly) about being injured. It'll be interesting to hear how his tox screen came out, lol. (btw, the lol is because NO ONE, believes he is hurt in the least).
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb <a href="http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/autopia_deb/my_photos" target="_blank">http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ autopia_deb/my_photos</a> I've got 2 new days of pix up since my last post, so I've just posted the parent URL this time. Not many pix for yesterday. We were shut down for almost 2 hours when the blue/green car crashed. Looking back on my album, the picture after it might be in bad taste, but it looks like the driver will be fine. He's hurting and did take a head injury, so they will have to watch out for brain swelling. But he's talking and coherant. So far the meet is going really well and we're on our last day, which is good because most workers are looking like the walking dead from a zombie movie, lol.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb It's all done except for the crying (clean up). I'm not working clean up this year so I'm done until next time, which could be as soon as October or as long as a year. The photos for the last day of Speed Week 2006 are up on my yahoo site now. There's even a pic of me and the long course starters Jim and Wes. Final thoughts on Speed Week 06: I saw the car that crashed yesterday up close and man is it a mess. It's amazing to believe someone could live through a crash that left a car looking the way this one did. My dad says this car had it's roll cage replaced after a fatal wreck last year involving the man who built the origional cage and it saved this guys life! I didn't want to jinx it so I haven't been voicing this, but we've gotten through Speed Week with out a single fatality on the course (there was a heart attack in the pits, and in spite of a dedicated pit ambulence it was fatal). When you consider you have many people going over 300 MPH in cars and several 200+ MPH motor cycles it's always a relief when everyone makes it back home. Thanks for reading my rants and thoughts on my racing obsession and I should be back to my regular Disney obsession on my return home in a few days, lol.
Originally Posted By LacyBelle Thanks for sharing the pictures and your experiences, Deb. It is truly fortunate that there were no fatalities given the speeds. Glad you had a great time and have a safe trip home.
Originally Posted By 4Disnee Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful week with us and all of your awesome photos I really have enjoyed them so much! I also hope that you have a safe trip home.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Safely home and after an early bed time last night and a long nap this afternoon I can say I am all recovered (except for the impending laundry) from my trip. I heard a rumour that the driver in the bad accident was released from the hospital, good news there. The next race is a one day meet at El Mirage lake bed here in So Cal on September 10. Now that I'm back in Cali I will start going to those meets again, I can hardly wait, lol.
Originally Posted By LacyBelle Welcome home, Deb. I'm glad you had a great trip and that the driver seems to be okay.
Originally Posted By 4Disnee Hello, I am so glad that you made it home nice and safe. That is good that the driver has been released from the hospital poor guy. We went to a car show yesterday Sunday the 20th. It was Andys Picnic a car show for pre 49 cars and there were a few that were from speed week. They still had the salt on them. I thought about you and all your wonderful posts when I saw them. Thanks again for keeping us updated it was great.
