Turun Sanomat made a pioneer trip to Nascar-races during Charlotte All Star -weekend. There we also saw Kimi Räikkönen for the first time in Camping World Truck -class.
The reporter and photographer arrived early on Friday morning in order to avoid traffic. The castle-like Motor Speedway -complex is a mighty entity surrounded by camping-areas. Yet the traffic was almost non-existing in the morning and the audiences were all empty although the practice sessions were about to begin.
Where is the audience when you expect over 100.000 spectators for the weekend?
– It's Friday, people are still at work. The race is in the evening, that's when the local people's freetime begins and the audiences are filled. Don’t worry, ESPN -channel's longtime motorsport reporter Lewis Franck told the Finns.
Each oval is different
We got to experience what it's like to drive on this 1,5 mile oval first hand when we got a ride with the pace car. It really has nothing to do with an European track race. On top of that each oval is different although they look similar. Their lenghts wary from half a mile to 2,5 mile.
Charlotte track's inclinations are 24 degrees in the corners and 5 degrees on the straight.
– The track has only one ideal driving line which is faster than the others. Since everybody can't take it they have to take the 2nd fastest line and those behind again the next best driving line. It takes time to learn how to manage on an oval when several cars go flatout side by side, the pace car driver explained to us.
Then the practice begins. There are more people than usual in the media center and every interesting driver is interviewed by the media one by one. The atmosphere is very open all the time like when old buddies meet each other. Even Räikkönen who trembled in practice talks on and on and he is remarkably laidback.
After Jim Clark, Mario Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve, Räikkönen brings breath of fresh air from F1-champion -level. It is revealed that he isn't even the serie's first Iceman.
When Räikkönen started karting as a little boy, a driver called Terry Labonte who had an exceptionally cool attitude was driving on Nascar-tracks, he was the one and only Nascar-Iceman.
The evening comes. Drivers are presented to the audience one by one on an estrade built in front of the main stand. A male choir sings USA's anthem, which the locals listen to holding their right hand on their heart.
Easy to supervise easy rules
Nascar is a package that functions well. There has been no need to change rules every year like in F1.
– The more simple rules, the easier it is to supervise them. That's why the rules haven't much been changed since the beginning. And because the pits and cars are so out in the open everyone sees immediately if the neighbor is trying to cheat in some way, reporter colleague Franck emphasizes.
When a Finnish world champion competes somewhere around the world, you usually see automatically supporters waving Finland's flag.
In Nascar you had to search and search in order to find Finland's flag. There were two of them. The duo from Hyvinkää carried their flag on the track-area and the other one was in the stand.
Columbian reporter Diego Mejia reminds that you don't really see Columbia's flags either.
– When Juan Pablo Montoya drove in the Indy-serie hundreds of Columbian fans with flags travelled to the spot. When Juan drove in F1 you could see Columbia's flags all over the world. Then when he came to Nascar in 2006 you didn't see the flags anymore. They have started to come back slowly, Meija tells.
Turun Sanomat
HEIKKI KULTA
Courtesy: Nicole
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