Vinny’s Blog

Hi everybody,

Weekend is approaching and I don’t want to bore anyone and myself too with economic news. Markets have been rallying from last 2 days Thursday and Friday (today) so enjoy it. We will talk about that stuff on Monday…………I rather talk about travel, fun, and TGIF stuff than economy.

Economy it’s a torture man! I have to read so many news articles, understand them first and then find matching news to cross check, make sense out of them, then write about them….work just goes on and on and on…. since economic situation is very dynamic writing once is not enough…as soon as…a topic is covered another one opens up….so you see Jokes, Fun, TGIF, Travel stuff is simple and easy, you go have fun, take pictures, write about it, have fun writing about it…then enjoy reading about it.

Anyway, let us just talk about weekend stuff this weekend……I have mentioned Racetrack website information somewhere in this article you just need to find where it is…

Last weekend on Saturday I went to a car racetrack. It was actually my family and a friend of mine with his family. Kids (specially boys) they like cars. Guys like car races too, I am yet to find a guy who does not like cars. Some are way into it, others not but mostly all guys have some interest in it of varying degree.

This is a highly debatable question anywhere in the world - what is the most popular spectator sport in the world ?, you could see an answer to this question by clicking on the link below..

Click here for an answer.

However, I think, it mostly depends on whcih country you belong to, in south America such as Argentina ,Brazil most popular sport is soccer, in America it’s American Football/Baseball, in most other countries in the world (specially those ruled by British in the past ) it’s Cricket. But if people were asked to pick next best my guess is - it would always be a car race/car show/ or something related to cars.

I had never been to a racetrack until past weekend and had no idea what to expect, a year or two ago I was in Montreal Canada vacationing. There they have formula one championship races but I missed the season by a narrow margin. Since then I had been itching to go to a race track.

I don’t follow races and have no idea who to cheer up for. I don’t know if they race in teams or if it’s an individual sport. I don’t have much idea about it at all. But still this sport turned out to be sort of fun. You go there and right in front of you, see cars going with speed of 100s of miles per hour. You pick one or pick few in your mind and follow them in the race see how they are doing and there you go suddenly you’re involved in the race.

Few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine who is more like a family friend, our friendship goes way back all they way to 1988. So, it has been 20 years in making and holding that bond and trust. Each of us is respected in each other’s family very well.

Besides that - this is where those 20 years have taken us (I think it’s funny ) - Generally when either one of us pops up an idea the other one tends to agree with it almost then and there and with high certainty. We may not be able to execute all of our plans due to our schedules, busy life, jobs, family what have you. But, none the less we don’t disagrees with each other’s proposal at all J.

In case you’re wondering, yes ! he is reading this post as well and I think we both understand each others sense of humor by now very well - so chill !!

This time was no different, we agreed that race track sounds good and since neither of us had been to a race track this was an instant hit. Our interest was mostly focused on photography. My friend uses a Nikon camera and I use Canon. There is no competition between us to prove whose camera is better and who is a better photographer. I think we crossed that age of competition long back J but we exchange $h!^ load of notes on pictures we take, during that time our wives and kids on purpose find other things to do.

This place happens be in NJ it’s a brand new track which opened up this year only. My first recommendation is don’t go, unless you’re a die hard fan of racing THIS TRACK is not for you. Because it’s new and it’s still developing.

We purchased our tickets online for 15$ each. For us it was 100 mile drive one way (200 miles +) round trip. Last Saturday turned out to be very hot, it was actually humid and the slightly higher temperature made it worst, there is no shed, black tarmac makes it even hotter.

At this facility there are 2 race tracks and one separate one for cart racing, if counted all together there are 3 tracks. As soon as we reached the gate we were asked to fill out forms. You fill out forms and sign them declaring to suspend all liabilities towards the racetrack organization in case of an accident, you’re entering at your own risk blah..blah..blah…filling out form is not a problem, but it’s one form per person, separate one for kids, that’s excessive.

After crossing gates, we proceed for the race track and there you go. We need to fill out same type of form yet again. What ?? I asked, we just filled these at the gate why again ?? well, that’s the rule we were told. We had to fill out another 7 forms, we filled 7 forms just 5 minutes ago, when you go to the second race track, you are expected to fill out yet another set of forms for THAT race track also.

At this race track past Saturday there were more drivers and crew members and their family members and friends than spectators (did I mention earlier it was one of the most popular spectator sports ). Well, even if that is true it wasn’t past Saturday, not at this race track.

As soon as we reached at the track, race started, Porches were running with 100+ miles of speed on the tracks with tricked out engines, loud sounds, and it was a perfect site for photography. Our main interest was photography so I will spare race details. You rather turn on Speed channel and watch a live race than to hear a commentary from me on race.

Here are Porches pictures from the race, those who are into racing spend 100s and 1000s of dollars on these race cars. Check out few pictues here, they look fast even when at rest…you could click on them to make them bigger for better viewing…IF YOU CAN’T SEE PICTURES BELOW PLEASE OPEN THIS POST IN IE. FIREFOX DOES NOT SUPPORT FEW PLUGINS AND THAT MIGHT BE THE REASON.

Here are some racing….I watermarked all pictures so they could not be used without some serious cropping.

Then we went to the next race track where they were running Mazda cars Forumlax or something, these look like formula cars but due to their weight and speed and engine classification they fall into a separate category. Similar to boxing, lightweight, medium weight and heavy weight. We landed up holding a very long conversation with a team’s manager and it was fun talking with him, it was an eye opener for us on this sport, it’s very competitive and not all drives who race get paid and get picked up by top companies also called sponsors. Top companies like Hondas, Mazda…pick fastest driver, good drivers no one wants…a race drive has to be the best in it’s class, even to be picked up by a sponsor. Racing and winning comes next…………

Me and my friend went not so long ago to photograph an air show and we thought that could get difficult well cars going with 100s of miles per hour speed and you have 2-3 mile long track that you can see. Now as a photographer, you need to spot, track, focus, maintain panning or zooming and then take the picture is more challenging than picturing the air show.

Here are pictures from 2^nd race track……..now these are fast cars seriously.

This is the driver we had been cheering for……….this race will be on speed network in about 3 weeks time so we were told. So you could watch it on TV and compare my pictures and let me know if I did a good job taking these pictures.

Here is crew during warm up session….

Here is link to my whole Racetrack picture album lots of pictues, check them out…and if gets your heart pumping find a race track near by and pay them a visit.

Click here for Racetrack Album

Here is link to the Racetrack website http://www.njmotorsportspark.com/

Enjoy….