The Twelve Days of Yelpmas
Day Four
Short tracks like this are the foundation of auto racing. They got a rough around the edges glory and a weird mix of wholesomeness and griminess. It's a subculture far enough removed from Yelp that this here Yankee had to create a listing and contribute the first photos and first review.
I caught the last event of the year 2024 here on December 14 with my dad in tow. I saw from Google reviews, which I guess are more NASCAR and Yelp is more Formula 1, and from Google Maps that seating is very limited so I brought along 2 folding chairs. That turned out to be unnecessary as the scant bleachers never even reached half capacity. Seems the crowd at short tracks is usually just friends and families of the drivers. It was tough figuring out where to park as there's two areas with no clear delineation between the race haulers and race cars and regular vehicles.
The cars ranged from micro sprint cars to mini late models to legends class. The latter look like little ZZ Top cars. There were some pretty good on track battles for position on that dirt surface, a lot of getting sideways in the corners, and the tow carts got a good workout. Those guys seemed like bigger athletes than anyone the way they rushed out to clear up the track.
The PA system was used very sparingly, much more so than other races I'd been to at Auburndale down here in the Sunshine State or at Flat Rock back at home in Michigan. I didn't necessarily need a full play by play but some more rough framework would have been nice. Most of the pa verbiage was him haranguing lollygagging drivers to get their cars to the track for their heat races! And there were some lulls between the races.
I never needed to use the restroom but hit up the concessions twice. They made a mean cheeseburger and fries that really hit the spot with nice crispy crinkle fries. I had a Mountain Dew to drink, figuring when in Rome.... didn't see Monster Energy drink or NOS so it seemed the people's champ there. There was also a tent with some booze options down by the track. Not trying to dry snitch and I'm not sure if it was legit or even for sale but there were a few fifths down there. One way or another race fans are gonna get their drink on.
Later I went back to the concessions and ordered nachos and a blue Gatorade. As soon as I got those nachos and saw the absence of jalapeños and that neon yellow cheese I knew they were gonna be subpar. And indeed it was stale ass chips. 7 Eleven nachos slay the weak ones they have here. No awesome and hilarious painting of a hot dog waving a checkered flag at the Sevs though.
Twice there was delays due to damage to a concrete beam that runs along the top of the banking on one side of the track. The second was extensive and my cold, tired dad wanted to leave so we did. There was no updates and info from the PA system as to what was going on which I thought was pretty wack. We were there over two hours so we caught quite a bit of racing but I would have liked to watch the event to its conclusion. read more