My birthday present....

[Crawlin]

I had a sneaking suspension as to what it was, but at last minute was changed to something EVEN better.

My girlfriend Beka had been keeping this a suprise for the past 3-4 months. And what a suprise it was.

We spent the weekend up in the Dells. No big deal right? Just a nice little vacation at the Chula Vista resort. It's got some cool water slides. We didn't go anywhere else since it was an all inclusive package. Did walk downtown of course, and that was fun.

Then comes this morning. I had an idea where we were going, but that all changed compared to what I thought it was. Beka had given me some clues, but then changed them all up because of a price difference that made this one even better. And we would have never known had it not been for the advertisement on the Chula Vista website.

So here's some pics...

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00487.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00486.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00488.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00489.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00490.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00495.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00497.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00501.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00502.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00503.jpg

[Crawlin]

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00507.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00510.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00511.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00514.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00517.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00519.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00520.jpg
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00521.jpg


Obligatory cheezy shot at the end...

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i209/z28kid98/Dells%20Raceway%20Park/DSC00528.jpg

[Josepy]

badass chris. send her my way when your done

[juicedimpss]

so when you getting a roundy car now?

i know it had to be a blast.

[Exitspeed]

I bet that was fun. I'm not a fan of oval racing but I'm sure it's gotta be fun as hell to do that.

[Crawlin]

Now, the clues she had given me had mentioned the "NASCAR experience" and I had told a few friends that's where I thought I was going. This was 100x's better than that could be. First, price.... to do this and 10 laps, was only $95 compared to the NASCAR stuff. Yes you could go faster on the NASCAR stuff, but this was so much fun. The leader was impressed cause he didn't have to body signal me at any point. Then again I just was enjoying it, not trying to set a lap record, haha. Because of how cheap it was, you can actually set up a half day session that equals 5 sessions of 15 minutes on course each where they give you instruction and everything. It was 100% awesome. I never in my life had as much fun at any point in drag racing. So we ended up doing this instead of going to Chicagoland like she had originally thought out, but figured since this was closer and gave more running time, that this would be more fun. And it was. It was just me, Beka taking pics, the guy running the program, and the pace driver who is an instructor there I guess. Denny was his name in case any of the other roundy guys know of him. Has won quite often there I guess. There were no spectators, no other drivers, nothing. So it allowed us to just go out and have fun. Denny said he had a great time since most people just do the 25mph and cruise around. He will go as fast as your lines are dictating you can handle.

SO MUCH FUN!!! And for those that just want that 1hr experience, that's the $95. The mutliple sessions were a bit more, but I'm not sure since Beka had it as a suprise.

If you are up in the Dells for a small trip, you GOTTA do this!

[Bobby "Big Daddy" Flay]

Looks awesome Chris.

[Crawlin]

so when you getting a roundy car now?

i know it had to be a blast.


I swear I thought about it the whole way home, hahaha

[michelle]

Sweet! That's a great idea.

She sounds like a keeper. (:

[94greenbandit]

Got a link for this place since I am too lazy to google. Looks awesome and a lot of fun

[94greenbandit]

Nevermind I found a second wind:

http://www.dellsracewaypark.com/

[Crawlin]

DRP experience.

The classroom portion of it lasted about 5 minutes just talking about lines and what each handsignal meant. Then about 10 minutes of instruction inside the car and a reminder of what hand signals meant(in case your line was too high, in case you were following too close, etc...)

[BAD LS1]

Thats really cool! Those things LS powered? hahah

[0TransAm0]

Looks like it was fun.. i did a thing like that at the milwaukee mile. it was a blast!

[Silver86]

looks like it was a good time!

[lordairgtar]

Sure beat the hell out of the go-karts, didn't it, Crawlin'.

[Beagle]

shes a keeper. Thats bad ass!!!!!

[pOrk]

how fast did you get to go?

[Crawlin]

No speedo in there, just a tach. Powerglide car (I think. had 1-2-3, but 3 was crossed off)so that way everyone can race and concentrate on just driving it. Like I said, he would only speed up if he felt you were doing well and keeping a good line. If you looked like you were fighting the car too much, then they'd slow it down. They said I was a bit high on the corner line, probably a half foot off where I was supposed to be, but they said that they were impressed that I kept that same line no matter how fast we were going. The pace guy was laughing that alot of times he doesn't get to have fun because people can't drive as fast as he normally goes.

I was by far NO WHERE close to how fast they normally go, but I'll tell you, it just doesn't matter as it was so much fun. That site says 100mph, and I MAYBE hit 85 on the straight once towards the end.

1st lap you go around and get used to the corner and they bring you around again and 2nd lap would be green flag. Each lap if you hold your line you go up another 500rpm. So figure you are starting at like 3000rpm in 2nd gear(1:1). I honestly wasnt paying too much attention to where exactly the tach was. I just wanted to keep the right position and distance away from the pace guy.

After a couple sessions they said the lap times were around 17 seconds. The guy saturday night qualified top w/ 14.5 seconds. A 16second lap is averaging 70mph around the whole thing they said.

I'd totally do it again if I was up there. That isn't an easy chore huffing that thing through the corners. I expected the steering to be alot easier than it was. I couldn't imagine doing 40 laps all in a row, and that after all the qualifiers. And I couldn't imagine how it would be going faster and diving harder into those corners.

Like I said, it beat any trip down the 1/4 mile I've ever made or any event I ever attended.

[Reverend Cooper]

how awesome man that is so cool i wanna do that at some time

[Red97GTP]

i got to do something like that last year at the mile. it was a retired nascar with a four speed. with about 500 horse. absolute blast!

[Yooformula]

dude, that is so cool!