Beautiful Feet: Manzanita Speedway

Last Thursday night, I went with my aunt and uncle to watch the Western World Championships at Manzanita Speedway (car racetrack). It was the first night of racing to kick off the 3-day championship weekend. We had no idea what the event would be like, so the evening was a learning process. What was very interesting was that at the start of the event, someone with a microphone prayed over the race that evening. I'd never been to a professional sport where there was prayer, and I'd least expect it from car racing! Apparently, we watched two different types of cars race, the 'dirt modified' and the 'late models'. I was surprised at how fragile these cars are, the body is like aluminum or something really flimsy. On some of the turns, I could actually see fire inside the engine, not sure if that's supposed to happen?

There were at least 70 cars competing in total! For the first hour or so, each car did two laps to 'qualify' based on their time. The qualifying cars competed in different heats (each heat with about 10 cars). It was so amazing to see that many cars on the tracks at a time, only 2 cars can safely be side by side, and when 10 cars are rounding the corner within milliseconds of each other, it's almost a miracle that they can avoid hitting each other! It must take crazy skill to maneuver your own car, AND at the same time, take into account the maneuvers of 9 other cars when making split-second decisions. We did see a number of crashes, but thankfully, no one was hurt. There was a helicopter standing by, and at least 30 people standing around to make sure that everyone is safe. As soon as anything hazardous happens on the track, a yellow flag is waved and all the cars slow down. I'm glad that it was so organized and that they are serious about everyone's safety.

Towards the end of the night, the cars that didn't qualify for any reason have one 'last chance' to compete, and 16 cars get on the track at one time to race for 15 laps. Wow, it was awesome. And really LOUD! There were so many people in the stands, we were especially surprised at how many grandparents and kids were watching. The people in front of us were family of one of the drivers, it was nice to see people who are passionate about it. It was a fun learning experience. I'd love to go to one of the bigger car racing events one of these days. I highly recommend it. Well, my uncle says that in hindsight, he should have brought ear plugs and a face mask (it did kind of smell like burnt rubber after an hour, haha)!