Vegas
*Part of the reason I was in Vegas was to watch the Skusa SuperNationals, Oli was at the SuperNationals working for TrueNorth Motorsport*
Day One: Arrived in Vegas at around 12:30ish. Step off the airplane and the first thing I hear is the ringing of slot machines, make a mental note to myself that before I leave I must place a quater in one of these airport slot machines. Oli scares the crap outta me when I was getting my luggage off the carosel! Once I got my bags I went straight to Sam Boyd Stadium to unload the karting stuff. Spent the next few hours working on the karts. Well the guys did at least. I just watched. And went and got some lights at the Home Depot. Ate a wonderful (it was nasty) american meal at the hotels restaurant that was at the top of the smoky casino (this is normal, you have to walk through a casino to get anywhere in Vegas and they can smoke where ever they like.). God Damn Americans smoke everywhere!! At least our hotel room didn't smell like smoke like most "smoke-free" rooms in the states. I was greatly impressed with that. And there was NO mold on the ceiling in the bathroom.
Day Two: Up at 6:30 at the track by 7am. McDicks for breakfast. YUCK!! Anyways spent like 14 hours in a parking lot pit area watching guys race around a track at 110ish km/hr. Got some good sun! Oh and I got to drive the team's rented van! HAHHAHAHA And I made the boys lunch sandwiches and veggies. Lucky Boys!!!
Day Three: Same as day two but this time I got to drive the rental van more! At the end of the day I snuck a racer and his go-kart into the parking lot cause the anal security guard wouldn't let him in cause registration was closed and he didn't have his pit pass. The kid had pre-registered!! This security guard gave sooo many people problems that weekend! Ate dinner again at the super crappy hotel restaurant. If you have a choice of cheap hotel food or mcdonalds which you may have to walk further too. Go with the McDonalds food unless your at a really nice strip hotel which we were not at. We stayed at Arizona Charlies which is over by Sam Boyd Stadium, which is the university of northern las vegas's(something like that) college football stadium. The guys raced in the parking lot of it.
Day Four: Got up at good ol' 6:30 but this morning I got to go back to the hotel and pick up the kid whose class didn't start racing til later that morning. It took like 2 and half hours to get through 12 classes of karts! Geez thats forever (they didn't allow for enough in-between kart classes time). Anyways I got lots of napping done today! But the best part of this day is we went into the strip. The first thing we did was headed over to New York New York and went on the rollar coaster. That casino was huge!! It is amazing how much the people of Vegas go all out to put on a fancy show. Saw the Belegio Fountain Show as we walked down to the Nascar Cafe. It was cool. The fountain show was themed to some Elvis song that time. They change the song they put the show to everytime. Then we walked half way down to Circus Circus to go on the rollar coaster at the Nascar Cafe but ran outta time so we HURRIED and I mean HURRIED back to New York New York where we were being picked up. (thats a long way to walk!) When we picked up the team owner and a Dad thats kid races for the team they were soo drunk all us 'young' people laughed sooo much at them.
Day Five: At the track all day. Lorenzo Mandarino a excellent Canadian Kart driver won his engine class and won $5000 american dollars! It was a sweet race. The rest of the Canadians didn't fare to well only one made the Main race and he ended up crashing out. Oh well at least we tried. (they were using a engine that hadn't been tested at vegas' altitude) Went out onto the strip on sunday night. Went to the Flamigo Buffet. It was pretty good. I got to eat crab for the first time ever!! Everyone else seemed to be grumpy with someone on the team. I lucked out and no one was grumpy at me. Saw glimpse of the Pirate show from the road as we drove past... can't remember what Hotel that is was at but it looked cool. OH OH OH!!! Big News I saw and said Hi to Scott Speed the newest rookie in F1 AHHHH! and I have a picture on him! SOOO crazy!
Day Six: Up at 4:30am to leave by 5am for a 7am flight. Blah I was so tired. When we left the hotel to go to the airport there was a pick-up truck totally engulfed in flames. Crazy Veagas. Got to the airport did all the airport stuff. Bought two shot glasses one for me and one for my bro. Made it back to Canada in time for my midterm. Once I got home it was straight to bed for me.
Day One: Arrived in Vegas at around 12:30ish. Step off the airplane and the first thing I hear is the ringing of slot machines, make a mental note to myself that before I leave I must place a quater in one of these airport slot machines. Oli scares the crap outta me when I was getting my luggage off the carosel! Once I got my bags I went straight to Sam Boyd Stadium to unload the karting stuff. Spent the next few hours working on the karts. Well the guys did at least. I just watched. And went and got some lights at the Home Depot. Ate a wonderful (it was nasty) american meal at the hotels restaurant that was at the top of the smoky casino (this is normal, you have to walk through a casino to get anywhere in Vegas and they can smoke where ever they like.). God Damn Americans smoke everywhere!! At least our hotel room didn't smell like smoke like most "smoke-free" rooms in the states. I was greatly impressed with that. And there was NO mold on the ceiling in the bathroom.
Day Two: Up at 6:30 at the track by 7am. McDicks for breakfast. YUCK!! Anyways spent like 14 hours in a parking lot pit area watching guys race around a track at 110ish km/hr. Got some good sun! Oh and I got to drive the team's rented van! HAHHAHAHA And I made the boys lunch sandwiches and veggies. Lucky Boys!!!
Day Three: Same as day two but this time I got to drive the rental van more! At the end of the day I snuck a racer and his go-kart into the parking lot cause the anal security guard wouldn't let him in cause registration was closed and he didn't have his pit pass. The kid had pre-registered!! This security guard gave sooo many people problems that weekend! Ate dinner again at the super crappy hotel restaurant. If you have a choice of cheap hotel food or mcdonalds which you may have to walk further too. Go with the McDonalds food unless your at a really nice strip hotel which we were not at. We stayed at Arizona Charlies which is over by Sam Boyd Stadium, which is the university of northern las vegas's(something like that) college football stadium. The guys raced in the parking lot of it.
Day Four: Got up at good ol' 6:30 but this morning I got to go back to the hotel and pick up the kid whose class didn't start racing til later that morning. It took like 2 and half hours to get through 12 classes of karts! Geez thats forever (they didn't allow for enough in-between kart classes time). Anyways I got lots of napping done today! But the best part of this day is we went into the strip. The first thing we did was headed over to New York New York and went on the rollar coaster. That casino was huge!! It is amazing how much the people of Vegas go all out to put on a fancy show. Saw the Belegio Fountain Show as we walked down to the Nascar Cafe. It was cool. The fountain show was themed to some Elvis song that time. They change the song they put the show to everytime. Then we walked half way down to Circus Circus to go on the rollar coaster at the Nascar Cafe but ran outta time so we HURRIED and I mean HURRIED back to New York New York where we were being picked up. (thats a long way to walk!) When we picked up the team owner and a Dad thats kid races for the team they were soo drunk all us 'young' people laughed sooo much at them.
Day Five: At the track all day. Lorenzo Mandarino a excellent Canadian Kart driver won his engine class and won $5000 american dollars! It was a sweet race. The rest of the Canadians didn't fare to well only one made the Main race and he ended up crashing out. Oh well at least we tried. (they were using a engine that hadn't been tested at vegas' altitude) Went out onto the strip on sunday night. Went to the Flamigo Buffet. It was pretty good. I got to eat crab for the first time ever!! Everyone else seemed to be grumpy with someone on the team. I lucked out and no one was grumpy at me. Saw glimpse of the Pirate show from the road as we drove past... can't remember what Hotel that is was at but it looked cool. OH OH OH!!! Big News I saw and said Hi to Scott Speed the newest rookie in F1 AHHHH! and I have a picture on him! SOOO crazy!
Day Six: Up at 4:30am to leave by 5am for a 7am flight. Blah I was so tired. When we left the hotel to go to the airport there was a pick-up truck totally engulfed in flames. Crazy Veagas. Got to the airport did all the airport stuff. Bought two shot glasses one for me and one for my bro. Made it back to Canada in time for my midterm. Once I got home it was straight to bed for me.