August 24, 2003

Clear The Track! Get Out Of The Road!

Six and a half years I've been here and this is the first Adult Soapbox Derby I've watched. Unfortunately, the two pictures included here and pretty much the only semi-decent ones I got with my digital camera. There are much better ones on the four rolls of film I shot with the Canon A-1. Basically, an autofocus digital with no hands-on lens control is just not suited for racing shots. Time to start strategizing towards the new digital Canon Rebel, I guess.

Anyway, six or so hours in the sun taking pictures was exhausting enough. I have no idea how the racers themselves must feel, although they all pretty much ended up at Bar of the Gods afterwards.

There was one definite accident, in which a car had a run-in with spectators along the so-called "Learning Curve." As far as I know, everyone was fine, but the car, racers, and spectators all got knocked partway down the hill, maybe around 15-20 feet down from the road. Racing as suspended while EMTs were called in to check on everyone.

But racing did resume, six or so hours simply didn't feel like six or so hours, and in the end I don't know what I've been doing for six years not going to watch these races.

What's mind-boggling is how difficult it was at times for the race officials to get people to clear off the track. I'm sure that most people simply figured it was no big deal, because they could get themselves out of the way in time to avoid any trouble for themselves. Problem is, I would think that the officials are less concerned with the idiots who think it's okay to stay in the road than they are with the racers hurtling down the roads of Mt. Tabor at forty miles per hour.

But really, the one true regret is that there was just not quite enough of the Winnebago.

Posted at 10:18 PM | PermalinkComments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
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