We spent the day at the Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway at the NHRA nationals drag races. (NHRA stands for National Hot Rod Association by the way)
These are the Top Fuel dragsters which go the fastest and also are the absolute loudest. I talked to my Dad this morning about going and he tried to express to me how powerful the cars really are. He (and Jaala) said that you could feel the rumble in your insides. I thought I understood what that meant, until I actually witnessed them racing. The starters were pretty loud and fast, but then when the top fuel guys came on, it was true: you could feel the rumble of the cars in your guts. When they drove by your vision blurred and you HAD to wear ear-plugs if you wanted to have all five senses at the end of the day. They were incredible! And if you'll see below, the times of two of the cars are posted above their respective lanes.
That is a 1/4 mile track, and the dragsters are running it in 3.8 seconds. Most run-of-the-mill cars run a 1/4 mile in around 12-15 seconds and that includes Ferraris and Lamborghinis and stuff. The other number on the boards is the top speed the car hit in the run, in MPH. You read that right, 312.21 and 313 mph respectively. Hella fast.
This guy's main job seemed to be to remove debris from the track. He can be seen here removing a blown drive belt from a top fuel dragster's engine. It's basically like a huge fan belt, and this one just ripped right in the middle of a run, which pretty much disabled the car.
This is a photo of the pre-run burnout's all the cars do to warm up their tires. There's a lot of smoke.
These are crew members from all the teams walking the track to make sure it is up to their standards of cleanliness and such before their drivers go nearly as fast as airplanes on it.
Here we begin the weirdness of auto-racing crowds. This couple of potatoes could not stop kissing outside the bathroom. They weren't french kissing or anything just very forcefully pecking over and over and over and over.
This guy is normal. He just seems a little old to be racing a motorcycle that goes nearly 200mph with no seatbelt or straps or guarantees of not flying off. Crazy guy.
Just one of the pro-stock race cars. These go a little slower than the top-fuelers (280 mph)
This lady was on par with several other women, at least in amount of skin shown. The difference here is her advanced years, and the dark stain on her left breast.....what is that?
Ike the Vike.....it was Halloween afterall.
This was a charming site really. The little guy was really into the races.
Nellis Air Force Base is practically right next to the speedway so this large cargo plane landed while we were there. Pretty neat.
This was the hottest chick at the races.
And the best looking fella.
And this was the fastest speed I noted for the day. 318.47 mph. That is some fast shiz.
This was a cool display. Johnny Carson's car is in this museum and it has a really cool story to go along with it. I won't bore you with the story (since I took a picture of the story... so read it yourself).
I just had to add this photo of the Dodge Viper because I love them and so does my brother. I took this photo and emailed it to him to make him jealous. Harrison and I think its pretty cool to live in a REAL city. A city with no limits or stops. We see pretty awesome (and very expensive) cars all the time. It just goes to show you that people around this town have REAL money to spend. Even though the economy in Las Vegas is one of the worst in the country right now, the folks who have the real money want to flaunt it for sure!
