"You boys sure are drinkin' fools": a YFIASB Fan Fest Recap

As mentioned last week, this Saturday night was the inaugural Your Face is a Sports Blog Fan Fest, held at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. I'd like the thank all of the fans who came by the booth to see it - I know the lines were kind of long, and I'm sorry that we couldn't sign for everyone. But rest assured we'll be doing more of these in the future, and hopefully we'll have better crowd control then.

Actually, I'm lying: the "fans" consisted of McLane's brother Rob and the blog's No. 1 commenter Clydesdale. But regardless, I can report that the evening was a total success. The races were pretty darned good - even without the big sprint cars (rescheduled for some reason), there was a lot of good sporty racing. The mini-sprints put on a good show, and there were even a couple of cool looking (but benign) flips.

But what really sold everyone on the races were the $2 beers. In a can.

Manzanita Speedway has a running promotion where their beers are half-priced from when the gates open (about 5:30 p.m.) to the first race (about 7 p.m. or so). Needless to say, our crew arrived early, headed to the beer stand and each order a tall, cool MGD. After heading to the bleachers and quickly finishing our first round, McLane decided to go make a beer run, and try to bring back extras so we wouldn't have to keep going back and forth.

Now normally, you can't order more than two beers per customer - in fact, there was a giant sign at the beer stand stating as much. Thankfully, the women working the counter seemed to take a pretty...liberal?...view of this law, as judged by the follow conversation:

Beer Lady: "What can I get for you?"

McLane: "How many beers can I get?"

Beer Lady: "How many do you want?"

(McLane starts grinning from ear to ear.)

McLane: "How about 8?"

The Beer Lady then proceeded to grab eight beers and put them into a plastic grocery bag along with a bunch of ice. McLane said that he had the sense that she had done this exact thing before.

Thus, "Bags o' Beer" became the phrase of the night, as in how many we would get. The first race was delayed for a variety of reasons, giving us more time to pound down beers and then make a "last" run to the beer stand for a Bag o' Beer. We wound up getting four Bags o' Beer, which is amazing considering that Clydesdale was driving and stopped drinking after maybe two. Using my math skills, I can tell you that left a lot for the three of us.

On a related note: loading up on Jack in the Box tacos afterwards right before going to bed might help avoid a hangover, but the trade-off is basically feeling like you ingested Drano the rest of the night.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 9:57 AM 2 comments  

The Inaugural Your Face is a Sports Blog Fan Fest is this Saturday in Phoenix

You heard right: due to popular demand, Your Face is a Sports Blog will be holding our first-ever Fan Fest this Saturday at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix in conjunction with that night's sprint car racing. Both myself and fknmclane will be there, signing autographs and taking questions from the fans. We'll have prizes to give away* and there may even be some special guests.

Make sure you look for us at the Your Face is a Sports Blog booth at the parking lot outside of the track before the races. We'll be the ones covered in empty MGD cans!

*there are no prizes.

So yeah, I'm flying out to Phoenix this weekend to go to the sprint car races with fknmclane. He's never been, and I think he's pretty pumped about it. I hope that it's a good night of racing, and not a complete mess. The fact that I was told be the racetrack over the phone last night that racing had been cancelled, sending me into a downward spiral of depression, only to have fknmclane be told that no, racing was on this Saturday, doesn't bode well. But whatever - we're going to have a wild time, get into a lot of trouble, and have blog posts for weeks about it.

Note: Since I'm writing about the trip, it's now a business expense. Suck on it, IRS!

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 10:00 AM 2 comments  

Flying dirt, midgets and a big, hot steamy Chili Bowl

It might be hard to believe, but my beneath my suave, sophisticated exterior lurks a secret. Something so dark that only my closest friends know it, but because of the shame that it would cause me and the embarrassment it causes them, it's something that we never talk about. Since I've been doing this blog for several months now, though, this secret has been an anchor that is like an albatross on my neck, forcing me to mix metaphors just to explain it. But if you, dear reader, are going to be invested in this blog, I feel like the truth, however ugly or shocking, needs to come out.

Here it goes:

I am a redneck. I go to Dollywood for vacations. I get very excited about seeing The General Lee at Cooter's in the Smokies. And I love dirt track racing. I've been going since I was about four years old - it's one of the earliest memories I have, going to the local dirt track outside of Fresno with my dad and brother. And it's something that I've held onto ever since. Sprint car and midget car racing

Is part of it nostalgia? Perhaps, but the bottom line is that I also think it's the best form of racing that you can see as a spectator. Why?

The format: Do you try to watch NASCAR on occasion, but cannot sit through four hours of nothing much happening, just to get to the final 30 laps when all the interesting stuff is taking place? Imagine if the race itself was just those final 30 laps? That's pretty much what dirt track racing is. The typical format will have several short (usually 8 to 12 laps, depending on the size of the track) heats or qualifying races, and then a main event that is typically between 30 and 40 laps. So all the good stuff is compressed into compact, bite-sized packets of entertainment. Perfect for your short-attention span, YouTube-addicted, Internet-addled minds!
All action, all the time: The typical main event has up to 24 cars on a track that ranges in size from a quarter-mile to a half-mile long. So instead of lap after lap of cars strung out throughout the track, with no passing or excitement whatsoever, on a dirt track there is always action - with battles for position, leaders trying to get through lapped traffic, etc.
The atmosphere: Until you go to a race, it's hard to explain why it's so much fun. Consider it part sporting event, part county fair (which isn't surprising, since a lot of tracks are on county fairground sites). There's BBQ, popcorn and lots of cheap beer in the concession stands. The fans are very friendly, often with a mouthful of chaw or said beer. And the cars themselves: a sprint car can get well beyond 125 mph at a fast track, something that is always lost on TV. Add to that the smell of gasoline and burning rubber (and again, beer and chaw), and it's quite the sensory experience.
Big crashes: Anyone who says that they are fans of racing, but don't get excited for crashes is, quite frankly, delusional/a lair/Communist. Tell Boris to go back to the Mother Country, or to admit to himself that seeing a big crash is part of the thrill of going to a track. Obviously, part of the visceral thrill is the sigh of relief and the amazement when someone walks away from a seemingly vicious crash, and no one (except for some goons on YouTube, I'm sure), want to see people get hurt or killed. And there really isn't anything more spectacular than an open-wheel sprint car or midget car crash, as you can see for yourself. (Note: I have yet to see a crash video on YouTube not set to God Awful Nu Metal. If you have any taste in music, you'll want to turn down your speakers.)

Why do I bring this all up now? Because you might not know it, but this is one of the biggest weekends of the year for open wheel racing fans. It's the weekend of the 22nd Annual Chili Bowl, held in the former Convention Center in Tulsa, OK. This is the Super Bowl of midget car racing.

How big is this race? They expect more than 25,000 people to watch the finals on Saturday night, including many people who won't actually be able to see the track but will pay just to have a view of the scoreboard. There were, at last count, 274 entries for the race, all looking to fill 24 spots in the main event. Pretty much, if you are an open wheel driver in the United States, you are here. It's a veritable who's who of drivers, including people that even casual fans know. Tony Stewart is the defending champion of the race. Other NASCAR drivers such as JJ Yeley and Kasey Kahne will be there, too.

The exciting news this year is the HBO is going to offer live, flag-to-flag coverage of the final night of racing on Saturday as a PPV event, and NASCAR.com is going to offer live, streaming coverage of tonight's preliminary races start at 8 p.m. Eastern. The success of HBO's PPV of the "Prelude to the Dream" at Eldora last season apparently has sparked interested in more open wheel coverage, which is obviously great news for the sport.

I can't urge you strongly enough to watch the racing from the Chili Bowl this weekend. Like it or not, I'll be giving updates through the week, and may possibly be doing the site's first LIVE BLOG OF AN EVENT on Saturday. To give you a taste, here are some highlights from last year's action (note: same disclaimer about crappy Nu Metal from the last video applies).

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 10:59 AM 1 comments