 Dave,
Jeff, and Dad took a trip to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to see a CART race. We drove
to the track 90 minutes each day from Cleveland, visiting in the evening with Grandma,
Grandy, Aunt Mar, Becky, Hannah, Grace, Aunt Barb, Clara, and Neal. |
 Here
is the front straight and start/finish at Mid Ohio. When playing the PC game of this
track, Dad usually crosses the finish line much later than Jeff! |
 Though it doesn't look like it in the photo, these cars are under
heavy braking, slowing from about 180mph to about 50mph in something like 100 feet. |
 With hills like these, the race has been described as a 90 minute
roller-coaster ride where competitors are constantly trying to push past you. |
 Get
on the throttle too hard coming out of turn 5 and you'll loop it. |
 Andretti
rockets past between turns 8 and 9.. |
 While
walking through the paddock, we stumbled upon the CART officials distributing the
"popoff valves" to each team. The valves regulate maximum turbo boost in
an effort to level the playing field. |
 A walkway above the Mid-Ohio garages provides an excellent view of
the mechanics at work. Here is Andretti's car. |
 Juan
Montoya, 1999 season champion, was fun to watch as he slid his car all over the track,
trying to compensate for an inadequate car setup. |
 Paul
Tracy ended the race early in some sort of wreck, not uncommon for him. |
 Here is Dad in
front of the Penske garage whose two teammates finished 1-2 for the day. |
 On
display was a 1999 McLaren Formula One car. With a per-season budget of roughly 200
million dollars to run 2 cars in 14 races, it's no wonder the engineering & build
quality was outstanding. |
Dave,
Jeff, and Dad took a trip to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to see a CART race. We drove
to the track 90 minutes each day from Cleveland, visiting in the evening with Grandma,
Grandy, Aunt Mar, Becky, Hannah, Grace, Aunt Barb, Clara, and Neal.
Here
is the front straight and start/finish at Mid Ohio. When playing the PC game of this
track, Dad usually crosses the finish line much later than Jeff!
Though it doesn't look like it in the photo, these cars are under
heavy braking, slowing from about 180mph to about 50mph in something like 100 feet.
With hills like these, the race has been described as a 90 minute
roller-coaster ride where competitors are constantly trying to push past you.
Get
on the throttle too hard coming out of turn 5 and you'll loop it.
Andretti
rockets past between turns 8 and 9..
While
walking through the paddock, we stumbled upon the CART officials distributing the
"popoff valves" to each team. The valves regulate maximum turbo boost in
an effort to level the playing field.
A walkway above the Mid-Ohio garages provides an excellent view of
the mechanics at work. Here is Andretti's car.
Juan
Montoya, 1999 season champion, was fun to watch as he slid his car all over the track,
trying to compensate for an inadequate car setup.
Paul
Tracy ended the race early in some sort of wreck, not uncommon for him.
Here is Dad in
front of the Penske garage whose two teammates finished 1-2 for the day.
On
display was a 1999 McLaren Formula One car. With a per-season budget of roughly 200
million dollars to run 2 cars in 14 races, it's no wonder the engineering & build
quality was outstanding.