Monday, August 08, 2005
Off to the Races
No, not horses – cars! On the July 31-Aug 1 weekend Larry and I went up to the Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. I, of course, thought it was going to be a hot, smelly, boring weekend. Quite the contrary! This beautiful track is almost shaped like a figure 8 without the crossover.
The cars race clockwise and because the track has dips, hills and many turns, it is very exciting. We had tickets to the Paddock, which is air conditioned, has constant food, 20 TV sets showing the race, and oversees much of the track.
Auburn sent up a crowd of people from both Development and Engineering. Development people were interested in talking to the Auburn alum who developed the track and Engineering people were interested in two 16 year old kids who were driving a Daytona Prototype car in one of the races.
On Saturday the Auburn people, including Larry and me, got to hold the row markers down on the track for the line up of the Saturday race. I lost my camera on Saturday, so I don’t have a photo of me holding #16! We did get a real close up of the cars and drivers, and some feeling for the noise on the track.
The staff at our hotel found my camera, so we have pictures from Sunday. We spent a lot of time down in the pits with the Team 16 car so the Engineering guys could visit with the boys, Brad Coleman and Colin Braun. These are two very nice, very bright kids, who can drive your car at 200 miles per hour, if you’d let them. Aubie showed up on Sunday, as did 4 of the Auburn hosts and hostesses. All the rest of us Auburn people hung around to support Team 16, get pictures with Aubie and exude good karma. I got to meet Aubie “unmasked†later in the Paddock.
The #5 car raced on Sunday. It lost its hood on lap three, so Colin pitted to replace the hood. It spun out in the tight turn about halfway through the race, but got started again.
A few laps later they changed tires and drivers, finishing 13 out of 28 cars. Brad and his father, a Texas A&M grad, will be in Auburn next week, as Brad is looking for a university for next year. Larry and the other Auburn people will host them while they are here.