Top five events

[CraigMorrison]

Ok - I was watching the replay of the Spanish GP and over sips on the MaiTai, I was thinking: if you could go to 5 gearhead events regardless of budget what would they be?

So mine are
1: 24 Hours of LeMans
2: Monaco Grand Prix
3: Indy 500
4: Daytona 500
5: Goodwood Festival of Speed - tied with Bonneville Speed Week,


These events have always been on the "things to do before I die list", there are a lot more, but these are "the ones"
So what's yours?




PS- make that "events" not "evens" I guess I should put down the keyboard and return to the MaiTai

[alcino]

1. SilverStateClassic
2. YearOne Event
3. Pikes Peak hill climb
4. SEMA
5. FourWheeler Top Truck Challenge

[shmoov69]

Bristol Night race
Orlando World Street Finals
US Nationals at Indy
Speedweek at Bonneville
Silver State Classic

[Bill Howell]

Bristol Night race
Orlando World Street Finals
US Nationals at Indy
Speedweek at Bonneville
Silver State Classic

Bristol night race? Really? Come go with me sometime. It is a great event.

1) Monaco GP, Top of list no doubt
2) Bonneville
3) Some form of a Gum Ball Rally
4) F1 at Indy
5) Run a Porsche a few laps around the ring.(I can not spell the full name of the track)

[J-Rod]

Bristol night race? Really? Come go with me sometime. It is a great event.

1) Monaco GP, Top of list no doubt
2) Bonneville
3) Some form of a Gum Ball Rally
*****4) F1 at Indy*****
5) Run a Porsche a few laps around the ring.(I can not spell the full name of the track)

As long as we don't have a repeat of last years race.

/rollseyes

[Bill Howell]

Sadly, I fear that will end up being the thing that kills that race. Bernie and crew can not get their act together and it really came to a head at the US event last year.I would really rather see it on a road coarse in one of the big citys, but I know that will never happen again, even though there was talk about it in Long Beach last year. The rpm's those cars turn are just insane, and I would love to be right at the fence to hear them go by.

[J-Rod]

Heh, I was at the Monterey Historics a couple years back when Ferarri was the Marquee manufacturer. They Reubens 2003 car there, along with a test driver, tearin ass around laguna seca. Being at the bottom of the corkscrew on his parade lap, when he bounced it off the rev limiter.....a divine experience, I tell you.

It's time for Bernie to pass the torch. He comes from a different time, a time where his remarks to Danica wouldn't have been outta place.....

But this is 2006. Come on now.

[shmoov69]

Bristol night race? Really? Come go with me sometime. It is a great event.

Don't tease me like that!! Do you go every year?

[Bill Howell]

Yep! Season tickets, row 9 aisle seat start/finish, reserved section! I have had them for about 5 years now. However, there are no bad seats at Bristol, racing the way it ought to be!

[CraigMorrison]

There's nothing like the sound of a V10 running to 18,000rpm! I was able to go to the F1 race when I was in Australia a few years back and the first time I heard those cars run it took about 3 hours for the goosebumps to go away! Took a ton of pics and managed to get some really great autographs. A very cool weekend.

[Matt]

For my taste at least...

In no particular order...
1. Silver State Classic.
2. F1 GP at Monaco.
3. 24 Hours of Daytona
4. Historic Trans-Am at Laguna Seca.
5. A track day for myself (pay and go.. can do damn near anytime) at Nurburgring.

Great topic man.

Edit: The 3 coolest gear head experiences I've had so far
1. NHRA race in Phoenix. The top fuel dragsters blew my mind.
2. World Ford in St. Louis 3 years ago.... total blast.
3. Aka Rally (one of those gumball things... actually the one that was on MTV)

[MarkM66]

Goodwood Festival of Speed looks really cool to me.

[CraigMorrison]

Yes, and Goodwood is only about an hour's drive from my in-laws house. Just need to get the timing right on a visit sometime.

[1sick65]

[quote=Bill Howell]Yep! Season tickets, row 9 aisle seat start/finish, reserved section! I have had them for about 5 years now. However, there are no bad seats at Bristol, racing the way it ought to be


No doubt, Bristol night race is awesome. Last year I was able to get hot passes and watch the entire race from Dale Jr's pits. That had to be one of my top five.

[Jewce]

1. 24 of Spa
2. 24 of the 'Ring
3. 24 of LeMans
4. Monaco GP
5. 1000 of Bathurst (Australia)
6. F1 at Road America/Laguna Seca. I had to add this one in if Bernie ever gets of off his arse and realized this is where it needs to be.

[Mean 69]

I read that Bernie has sold a significant amount of his stake in the F1 franchise, I think there was an article in Racer magazine this past issue. It implied that there was a desire for the new majority stakeholder to move into a different direction with F1, but it further implied the nasty word "profit" (which from a business standpoint is not a bad thing, but greed forces bad decisions).

I'd have to agree with several of you guys, my list would include LeMans, Spa, Monaco, US GP at a place other than Indy (Road America/Atlanta, or possibly the brand new track outside of Salt Lake City that is supposed to be World Class), and probably Goodwood. Other than that, any Sports Car racing event, anywhere, anytime.

M

[scogin918]

Daytona Speedweeks as a whole 24 Hours thru the Daytona 500
NHRA Finals at Pamona
Formula 1 at Monaco
Silver State Classic
Bonneville

These would constitute a "pie in the sky" dream fullfilment.

A more realistic list would be
NHRA Southern Nationals at Commerce
A Darlington race renamed the Southern 500
Turkey Rod Run
ECTA Standing mile in Maxton, NC
Open track day at either Roebling Road or Carolina Motorsports Park

[bret]

My 5 favorite so far:
Street Machine Nationals in the 80's
Goodguys Indy, Columbus, or Pleasanton
Barrett Jackson Scottsdale
Bondurant Driving School
Year One Experience
Drag Week [I know, that's 6]

What I want to go to yet:
Maxton
Silver State
One Lap
Hotrod's Open Track Smackdown in October
Great Race

[ProStreet R/T]

Races/Events I attend almost religiously:

NHRA Winternationals and Finals in Pomona. 1st and last race of the year.
US Open of Supercross in Vegas. Along with 3-4 Local races (2-3 Anaheim's and San Diego)

US World Cup downhill race (mountain bike) Used to race, now it's just for the party.

Daytona Bike Week (includes a killer SX as well)

SEMA. Everyone has to go just once

Need to add an F1 and WRC event to the list.


Races I would like to enter:

Unlimited @ Silverstate. My first time this year being there and it's a fantastic event. Going to do some driving come september.

Gumball 3000

Year One event and/or Power Tour.

Hopefully hitting speed week @ bonneville next year as well.

[CraigMorrison]

Did anybody see the replay lastnight on SPEED of the Monaco practice session? INCREDIBLE! Like they said last night, "Monaco is one of those tracks that you realize that no matter how much practice you could have you probably couldn't do what those drivers are doing." It is insane just how fast those guys are going from the tunnel and through the twisties along the waterfront.