No Problem Raceway

Hi all!

This is a joint post from Larry and me.

LARRY:  We arrived on-time to the New Orleans speedway at 3:50 a.m. after a 9 hour transit from Gainesville. It was dark with stinky refineries, and heavy, pea-soup fog.  The hotel was nice, but a little spooky.  The kid who checked us in was nice, but not the brightest bulb.  He kept trying to charge us twice the amount we actually owed.  Then there was Josie's paranoia. 

JOSIE: I admit that I was overly cautious.  The hotel was spooky with no other One Lappers and no other guests for that matter.  The parking lot was filled with drivers who did shift work - very transitory.  I think it was legitimate to sleep in the car.  We were only sleeping for 3 hours and I could scare the living crap out of anyone who might try to touch the car.

LARRY:  In the morning we went to get gas.  I was ready to put the pump into the car when I realized we had no gas cap.  Oh oh!  Josie was not pleased as we had already overslept and were late getting to the track.

JOSIE:  We arrived at the track, and I was still able to take my first run.  It was OK, but I was really tired.  The organizer has been repeatedly pushing me to go faster.  He has mentioned several times that he'd like to show me what the car can really do.....

Larry: Suddenly Josie is overcome by sleep, so I'll give a brief recap.

I think it must have been almost 10 by the time we arrived at the track.  The rules where prominently posted.  The only one I can remember now is: Have fun!  The other 2 rules were equally easy to abide by.  Josie did her usual thing by looking for trusted (presumably by now) advice on the lay of the track, or 'line' as I've heard it called around here.  I did my thing, laying out her suit, helmet, gloves, shoes and checking fluids before wiping down the car- we wouldn't want any pictures of a car with love bugs on the front, would we?  Actually, this would be my ideal for getting to the track- we are last, so 10ish gives us just enough time to check the car, check the track, and drive it before lunch.  By the way lunch was good and cheap- unusual for a concession.  They had crawfish or crabbugers $4 and some other fine things. 

Josie's first and second runs went well, and we had a short day. All done well before the 4PM schedule, and NO second track to get to for a change.  After a relatively short 6.5 hour run, we were in Leeds, Al at a little after 9PM at the first truly nice Hotel on the One Lap.  We'll Have at least 7 hours to sleep tonight, which is a good thing since tomorrow is the longest transit up to Joliet, about 11 hours if you count short stops.

To be continued!