Enduro Season Opener

Summer is back, and that means it's time for Enduros! If you don't know what an Enduro is, you are missing out! Imagine 150-200 cars on a 3/8 mile track going for 200 laps or last car moving. If you get into a wreck, you gotta work your car out of it or your car will stay on the track for the duration of the race. The only time the racing stops is if there is major debris flying around on the track or a serious injury. If your car becomes inoperable, you have to stay in it on the track until there is a red flag thrown, then you get out but your car remains on the track until the race is over. Most cars don't have break lights either, so good luck following anybody and figuring out what they are doing.

Common occurrences at an Enduro: crashes at speeds of 50 MPH, cars sliding into walls, five car pile ups, flying car parts, smoking radiators, and screaming Herubins in the stands. Things you don't see everyday, but we have witnessed: Cars on fire, cars flipped upside down, cars flipped upside down onto other cars. The BEST!!!

Tonight was the first Enduro of the season for us, we took the whole family and met up with the Velo family. Before the race even began we knew it would be a good night. They had Spectator Drags, which is where anybody who wants to race their car can come compete in one-lap races. They run two at a time with single elimination, the winners then go against the other winners, ending in the best two-out-of-three for the top two cars.

Well, we'd seen idiots trying this before and ruining good tires, or nearly missing the wall in the past. Today, well... first there was the one car who lost control at the finish line and drove straight into the wall at turn one. That was nothing next to the final round, when a souped-up cherry red Camaro lost control at the finish line, spun in a perfect 180 and slammed his entire passenger's side flat into the wall. The wrecker had to get him off the track, his car was so obliterated. Remember, these are street cars, not race cars. Good luck with that insurance claim, buddy.

Anyhow, it was beautiful weather for the Enduro, and the boys were jumping up and down and cheering for the first half. We were sitting at turn four, and most of the good wrecks had been happening at turn two, but it was still fun to watch. Toward the last fourth of the race, oil had spilled at turn three, right near us, and turn after turn one car after another began to lose control and slam into the wall! Fun!!! That's what I pay good money for. At about 10 laps to go, the lead car (who had four laps on the second place car,) hit some oil and then hit the wall. Out of commission for good, and stuck on the track to stew over it as the race ended. What a great finish.

Next they had a Powder Puff Enduro, which is where the girls go out and do the same thing, but they only went 35 laps. Somebody forgot to tell one girl about the oil in turn three, because on the second lap she hit it at full speed and went flying. She could give the guys some lessons because that girls should have been in a wall, but instead managed to do a 360 and straighten it out to save the car. Of course she slowed down a good 15 MPH after that, go figure.

Shortly after the Powder Puff, we got to enjoy the firework show put on by the track on Enduro Night. Usually Corey really freaks out for this part, (really big and loud professional fireworks, here, folks,) but he was a trooper tonight. He covered his ears for the first minute, but after that he was yelling and 'oohing' and 'ahhing' with the rest of us. It was so refreshing to witness a fireworks show without the accompaniment of Lee Greenwood. The meaning of it is wonderful and everything, but sorry, ya'll, if I hear Proud to be an American one more time I'll scream. The display was made so much more reflective by just listening to the booming of the fireworks and understanding what they represented, their majesty punctuated by the silence in between. (At least when the announcers weren't throwing out moronic comments... you don't want to know.)

At the end of the night we managed to get out of the lot within five minutes, and home in twenty. On the way home, Shannon decided it was a good time to tattle on his bus driver. "You know what? My bus driver passes 'Do Not Pass' signs all the time. He doesn't even look at them! He's crazy..." We were cracking up the whole way home, and he had no idea why. Then I pointed out a 'Pass With Care' sign, and Shannon mentioned his bus driver passes those, too. He wondered aloud, "I bet he says he doesn't care about the signs, but if a policeman caught him, he would say he cares about the 'Pass With Care' sign..." Dang that kid, he can be so funny.

Anyhow, the kids fell asleep as soon and they hit their beds, and it was a very good night for all. The next Enduro is on the 4th of July weekend, who's up for it?