March 24, 2001
My body wasn't built for these 3 AM wake up calls. Isn't retirement supposed to mean no more alarm clocks? Well, maybe for some, but the price of being a volunteer and getting free parking, free electricity, free water, free garbage, free sewer and free laundry facilities is giving a few hours a week to the cause. And as you can tell from the pictures, we're having a ball and think it's mostly worth it. I'm sitting (well, precious little sitting so far this morning as it's Saturday and lots of hunters are coming in to try their luck at getting a turkey) at the remote gate again today, so should be able to finish posting the pictures up to our last outing. Doggone water level is so low I like to wore myself out pumping up enough water to wash my hands. This poor state is in real trouble due to lack of rain. Another year or so like this and the wildlife will take a major hit as well.
Here we are "doing" race week at Sebring International Raceway. Wednesday through Sunday, with the 12 hour endurance race on Saturday from 10:40 AM to 10:40 PM. Sebring is the oldest road racing track in the country, and I first heard about it in 1953 when I began to take an interest in racing. As a young man I often thought about coming here, and while the desire had slipped away like many dreams do, the opportunity to attend while we were living 25 miles away was too great to let pass. The picture on the left is looking down pit row. The race track is to the extreme left, the pits are in the center, and the building to the right houses the tower and the pit suites as well as the covered pit boxes for spectators. One of the unique things about this track is the lack of a grandstand anywhere. There are "berms", little man-made hills here and there at strategic places where people bring their lawn chairs or blankets to watch the race. Like all race tracks, there's an area for the hearty party types, and there are places for the more sedate family types. We bought tickets for one of the suites so we could take advantage of air conditioning if we wanted it, as well as access to the pit box. Free food and beverages on Saturday went along with it. The tickets gave us acces to the paddock area where the cars are parked and worked on when not racing. On the right is a shot of one of the formula cars in the pits. There were two formula classes racing, where all the cars are identical with the same bodies, suspension and engines. I'm personally drawn to the formula cars, and in my youth did some club racing with them.
On the left is a view of the paddock area behind where we had seats, and on the right is yours truly holding down my favorite seat. In retrospect we'd have been just as well off with a pit box seat rather than the suite, as I like the action in the pits and the sound and view availability that this outside seating gave me. Barb did a good bit more wandering than I did during the 12 hours. I was pretty much always here or getting something to eat or drink or using the restroom. Which was one of the principal advantages of the suite. Clean restrooms with very little waiting. The older I get the more important that seems to be getting to me.
Looking toward turn one over the start-finish line during the vintage car racing. I'll have to admit (I don't suppose I have to admit it, although those who know me know it to be true) that I was more thrilled to watch the old cars than I was the new ones. Having been particularly interested in sports cars when most of these were built. On the right is a Jaguar XK120 similar to the one my late brother Bill owned for a while and that I got to work on and drive a little.
On the left is a Mini-Cooper, and while I never owned one I had friends who did. This little box was/is a real screamer. On the right is a '63 Lotus Elite like the one Barb and I had in Alaska for a while.
On the left a '57 or '58 Corvette like my friend Chuck had in high school, and next a '68 Porsche in nearly same color as the one Barb and I had.
Both son Doug and I had Porsche 914's like the one in the left picture, and on the right is the car that was nearly my downfall. Second year of college a girlfriend bought one, gave me a key to it, and "we" nearly drove the wheels off that little Austin Healy Bugeyed Sprite. It was the first car I ever legally and officially raced. As I recall it cost just under or just over $2,000 new, and was a real kick in the pants to drive. Last time we visited son Doug's shop he had one in there that he was restoring. Sure brought back memories.
There were four Audi R8's entered. Two by the factory and these two private entries. The factory cars were one and two finishers, and these came in right behind for an Audi sweep of the 12 hour race. To me, these cars are beautiful combinations of form and function. The fact that they took the back straight at over 200 mph is attractive as well.
Even the pit cars were fun. This was about the wildest paint job I've ever seen on a golf cart. And then looking up the track as the TransAm cars were lining up for their race. Lots of ceremony accompanies racing, and I enjoy the pagentry almost as much as the race itself.
More of the ceremonies preceeding the TransAm race. In the background you can see the RV's lined up against the fence, and in the distance you might be able to see the big cherry picker that somebody rented for the occasion. Good view from there, I'd bet. We'd probably not bring our RV in to a race like this simply because of the desire on our parts to sleep at night rather than party. There was only one arrest for public nudity that we heard about, so maybe the partying is taming down.
Another shot of the spectator area along with some of the commercial vendors booths. In the first picture you can see another of those cherry pickers taking somebody up. The other tall item in that picture is an antenna for something. And the picture on the right is simply a reminder that it's St. Patrick's day. Friendly fellow, green beard and all. Barb of course, regretted not thinking of dying my beard green for the day. Hrumpfh!
Well, it's getting close to the start of the 12 hours. First a picture of the pits below us, and then a shot of the cars lining up against the wall as part of the ceremonies. Originally and until about '73 or so, the cars would line up against the wall in order of qualifying times, and the drivers would line up against the wall on the opposite side of the track from their cars. When the starters gun would go off, the drivers would run to their car, and that's the way the race would start. For obvious safety reasons that was discontinued, and the race starts in a much more conventional way today.
And they're off! The first picture is of them coming out of the last turn onto the straightaway for the green flag, and the second is of them heading into turn one. The silver cars are the factory Audi R8's, and right behind them the private entries. And that's how they finished the race 12 hours later.
And by now we're a couple of laps into the race. The spectators are all on their home built platforms, the roof's of their RV's or in some rare cases up in those cherry pickers that make my hands sweat just to look at.
Barb took the shot of the tires in somebody's pit while she was wandering, and there we are with the wind blowing in our faces making Barb's hair do funny things. For access to this area you have to have the right ticket which we have hanging on the black and white string, and then I have a yellow and black string holding my glasses so I can drop them when I want to use my binoculars, and then the green things are beads that we got as we came in...and we didn't even have to take our shirts off to get them! And besides that, we have to have the green and white wrist band that you can see on Barb's right wrist. Security was pretty tight until the last 1/2 of the 12 hour race.
Sitting on the ladder across from where we are is a guy in a cow costume. The udder is about the middle of his stomach, and he's one of about 4 of these guys running around. One of them had a teat rigged up to a squirt gun, and would give a shot of water to a passerby as they stared at him. Great fun. And the picture below is of a Porsche coming in for a pit stop. In this race no work can begin on the car until the fueling is done.
More pit action. It was really fun for me to watch these guys refuel, change drivers and 4 tires. This Porsche had brake trouble and later some work was done on the steering, but it finished the race.
On the left you can see the guy with the red helmet leaning over the front of the car. He's refueling it while the others are waiting for it to finish. The fellow standing closest to him is holding a fire extinguisher (which we saw used on a car further up pit row) and the officials are the guys with the white jackets on. The next picture (as you can tell by the time) are one of the winning Audi's coming down between the pits and the spectators, heading for the victory circle. It was kind of confusing, and we were glad to be up here where we could see most of what was happening.
The winning car, a factory Audi R8 with crew members come down on their way to the victory circle, and then a shot of the victory ceremonies from our vantage point.
And the grand finale. Great fireworks. And then we dragged our tired bodies home. There were more vintage races on Sunday, but they had to race without us. We were all raced out. Well, I suppose that's 1/2 true. Barb had about all she wanted, and I suppose that if I'd had the energy and desire for another day of it she'd have come along, but it was better for both of us to just bag it. Go to church and take long naps and just puttering around taking it easy was the order of the day for us.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... We found it interesting that these citrus trees (I think they were orange trees, but I could be wrong) will blossom while they still have fruit on them. Where we come from, a tree will blossom and have fruit and that's it for the year. Not so with these trees. This truly is a thrill a day place for us.
And speaking of a thrill a day. Can you see the 3 little alligators and one real tiny one and the bigger mama alligator in the picture on the left? Or how 'bout the otter heading for the muddy puddle in the picture on the right? Well, that's what's there. We went bike riding in that state park again with some fellow volunteers and friends, and our favorite pond didn't let us down this time either. In spite of the fact that Barby couldn't find her turtles.
On the left is the otter sticking it's head into the puddle, and then for the next few minutes it swam around, kicked up a lot of water and made quite a show for us, and then popped out and in the picture on the right is eating the fish it caught. We stood there and watched while it caught and ate six fish out of that little puddle. Must have been quite a hole. When we first came to this park that puddle was just a part of the pond. You can see the water marks on the cypress up the hill from the puddle. The drought is serious. We didn't see the really large 'gator we usually do when we come here, so either it was under water or has moved on as many of them have because of the low water.
And that brings us up to date at last. Sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience. We hope you enjoy traveling with us.