Talladega Trip

[MIKE IN lINO III]

The wife and I want to go to Talladega April 25- 28th for the races. Neither one of us has been to a Nascar race and I am looking for some pointers from the experts here on the Forum.

Any information on the Do's and Don'ts would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

[fishinchicks]

I have only been to two tracks so far, but I think I can give you a few tips. We went with another couple to both tracks, which mde it a lot more fun for all of us. We now have a tradition going.

Get tickets for both Saturday and Sunday. If you are flying, schedule your return for late Monday in case the Sunday race gets rained out. Buy most of your t-shirts and stuff on Saturday. By race time on Sunday, the lines will be long!

Rent TrackScan for both days. You can get two headphones with one scanner. It will save on your hearing, and it is fun to listen to the drivers talk about each other. MRN is on the scanner without commercials, so you can listen to the broadcasters talk during their break. Sometimes that is the best commentary!

Go to the Talledega HSOforum and look for a guest guide that will tell you what you can and cannot bring into the track. All bags get searched, and all tracks have a limit on the number of things you can bring in, and the size. There were many people in Phoenix that had to leave stuff at the gate or bring it back to their car.

Check out parking issues ahead of time as well. Daytona had at least twice as many people tailgating as Phoenix did, mostly due to the way parking is handled.

Don't choose a food item based on price. The hotdogs in Phoenix were the nastiest hotdogs I have ever eaten!

Most importantly, have a great time, and relax!

[fishinchicks]

I should have added in the last post to book your flight, hotel, and rental car as soon as possible to make sure there is space available. We went through a travel agent for that part of it. The only thing we had to worry about was the race tickets.

[lawdog]

pretty good advice so far except this: SKIP THE RENTAL CAR AND HOTEL AND CAMP AT THE TRACK!!! You can rent an RV for about the same as the hotel and rental car and you will be at the track the whole weekend and get in on WAY more of the festival atmosphere of the weekend. Its a several day long party at the track campgrounds.

[fishinchicks]

I was looking at it from a woman's perspective.

If your wife wants to go sight seeing at the local mall, or just get away from the track, go the hotel and rental way. If she doesn't mind camping, the cost for a space in the infield for an RV ranges from $330 to $525 (I believe that includes the two tickets you need for entry) at Talledega.

Both options are fun, but you may want to see how she feels on that. You wouldn't want her to be grumpy all weekend.

[VMS]

Quote:

---

pretty good advice so far except this: SKIP THE RENTAL CAR AND HOTEL AND CAMP AT THE TRACK!!! You can rent an RV for about the same as the hotel and rental car and you will be at the track the whole weekend and get in on WAY more of the festival atmosphere of the weekend. Its a several day long party at the track campgrounds.

---

But...if you don't like the fact of not being able to sleep until 3 in the morning on Friday or Saturday night, you might want other plans. Been there, done that, took the sleep aide and put the ear plugs in to do my best to get through it...

Chicks is right on it...

OR!!! if you do a bit of research you can find a package deal which may include hotel fare, ticket fare, transportation to and from the track, and potentially more with other perks like hospitality tent stuff etc. I don't recall what company my wife went through for this coming year's Daytona 500, but it worked out to be a pretty decent deal...

I'll post the name of the company as soon as she gets home to tell me...

Grand Prix tours is the name...

http://www.gptours.com

Steve