Sunday

Arizona National Drag Races or Daytona 500....Hmmmm

To Dave, watching the Daytona 500 NASCAR race on TV signals the return of Spring.  He's never missed it - he loves NASCAR and he loves Springtime.   So you can imagine how shocked he was to find out that he had purchased tickets (on-line) for us to attend the Arizona National Drag Races at Firebird Raceway on Daytona  day.....thats what happens when you plan too far ahead!     I suggested we try to sell the drag tickets at the track and continue the springtime tradition, but he's a new man.....he takes life as it comes now (he tells me).  So drag races it was.

Today was forecast to be cool, sunny and windy so we dressed in layers fully expecting to peel those layers off as the sun strengthened.

great bleacher seats right on the end., brilliant Arizona sunshine,  strong, hot coffee and very stale churros .

a "fresh" breeze kept the flags busy

Well, it was sunny, cool and windy alright.    Steady wind of 25 mph, gusts to 40 mph and 53 degrees!
Our wonderful seats afforded us perfect views of the competitors as they did their burnouts, staged and then made their runs.  They also turned us into unobstructed targets for the relentless, bone chilling wind.   The sun was helpless to warm us.   As the morning wore on, more people came and we hoped that the warmth of combined bodies would help cut the cold, "hoped" being the operant word.

the sunny quarter mile

John Force's funny car getting ready

Tony Schumacher's top fuel dragster burnout

Turns out Dave didn't have to miss watching the Daytona 500 race on TV today after all.    Three hours sitting on cold aluminum bleachers in the frigid sun and numbing wind and we fled Firebird Raceway for our lovely warm Beluga and her HD TVs.   Dave sat in the sun and watched the last half of his Springtime tradition - all's well that ends well, right?