Dirt Track Racin'

My buddy Foy Beal and I went to Clary's Speedway in Brinkleyville, NC tonight to see a little dirt track action, including watching cars in the Carolina Clash series run a 50-lap main event.

He picked me up a little after 3pm and we headed up the road. Made it to the track 4:30-ish(?) and got a good parking spot near the front gate. Not hard to do because there weren't a lot of people there.

Our view of the grandstand and the early arrivals:

This fellow here had the makings of a mondo mullet, just needed to get it cut right:

We enjoyed a few adult beverages as we got race-ready, finally going into the track just before 6pm.

A couple of water trucks had been spraying down the track the whole time we'd been onsite, in hopes of holding down the amount of dust & dirt that will be sent flying once the cars start running around. It worked great early in the evening, but the dust got worse and worse toward the end.

Some shots from the earlier races:




The main event, a 50-lapper:

Here's how bad the dust got during the main race. Note the fellows in the bottom left corner of the photo (red hat and blue hat), masking their faces:

It wasn't as bad as it could have been for us, as the prevailing wind carried the bulk of it to the other side of the track. We had a light coating, but had the wind changed, we would have been choking on that crap. No matter, I love dirt tracks enough to sit through it.

The winner:

Foy and I had managed to drink them slap out of Budweiser and had to switch brands for the last few rounds. I guess we'll need to warn them to stock up in advance the next time we're coming out here.

We just kinda sat in the stands after the race was over, recapping the event. We were the last guys to come down out of the stands, and Foy struck up a conversation with a fellow down by the concession stand that I believe turned out to be the owner of the track. Nice guy, and he gave each a 24oz. tall boy. Not my brand, but you know what they say: "There's two kinds of real beer in the world, free, and cold. And if it ain't one, it sure as hell better be the other." And seeing how it was free, no complaints.

We headed over to the other side of the track, where there was an after-party in the off-track pit area. Live band and a buncha drunk rednecks. Perfect!

Not sure what time we left the track, but we made it back to Northside Billiards in Raleigh at exactly 2:05am, just in time for last call. OK, last call by NB standards. I don't care, as long as I get that last one in…