RaceBud

The Turn 3 Race Team just had another meeting at its home track, Texas Motor Speedway. The annual summer show features Craftsman Truck races on Friday night and Indy cars on Saturday night.

We were blessed with typical Texas summer heat, stout wind and good racing. The mainstream media sources did their typical job of reporting the racing news…but they completely overlooked the mouse in the house. I’ll explain.

One of the race team indulgences at the palatial Turn 3 campsites is the rental of the little blue building – the Porta-Potty. It’s always spotlessly clean and smells fresh as a summer rain. It does of a great job of lightening the load of the holding tanks, eliminating the need for a pump-out during the weekend.

After Friday’s long drive from Austin to Fort Worth, we greeted the other team members and Jeanette excused herself to the Porta-Potty.

We weren’t timing her, but somewhere around two minutes later, Jeanette was back in the motor home, where the air conditioner was waging a noble battle with the track heat. Jeanette wasn’t panicked, but her heart rate was definitely above the resting level.

“There’s an animal in that thing!” she let us know. As one, five surprised non-believers looked up from our beers and challenged, “where?”

“In the outhouse!” Continue Reading »

It’s the good fortune of the Turn 3 Race Team to have the Texas Motor Speedway as our home track. This is one of the great NASCAR venues in the country. A few others compete closely, maybe even win the Best Track in the Country competition, but here are nine reasons the Texas track claims its place among the best.

1. Plenty of campgrounds. Serious NASCAR fans don’t just show up for a race. It takes time – more than a day or two – to properly enjoy one these events. Certain food and drink must be enjoyed, along with the company of longtime friends who meet a few times each year—same time, same place, same reason. And it takes a fair amount of space to spend that time in. Texas has that. Continue Reading »

There’s an air of excitement at RaceBud’s home track these days. We are busy taking inventory of race shirts to pack, crossing items off the shopping list, brewing a pot of racetrack stew and charging the scanners. And we’re keeping a watchful eye on the north Texas weather forecast, which is looking to be exceptional.

It’s time to load the pickup truck and head off to the fall races at the Texas Motor Speedway. The Turn 3 Race Team is about to meet at the track!

I spent a little time reflecting on what makes the races such an important thing to us. It proved to be so much more than fast cars making left turns. 

1. Spending time with old friends. Some of the folks we get to share track time with have been friends for some 40 years. Others for a much shorter time. But it’s good to see all of them, telling the stories and sharing meals. Continue Reading »

Five minutes left us with a lifelong memory. Here’s how:

The Turn 3 Race Team had descended on Ponder, Texas for the annual Pre-Race Steak Night outing. Ranchman’s Steakhouse is the nearest sit-down dining to the Texas Motor Speedway, and enjoys a fairly heavy crowd of speedway diners during race weekends. It’s a place you have to call ahead if you want a baked potato. A day earlier than the normal race crowd, we were the only group in the place wearing typical race attire.

Our salads had just been served when Richard Childress walked in with two loud, obviously-Texan guests and sat at the table next to ours. Here was one of NASCAR’s biggest names sitting right beside us. As fairly normal race fans, we were awestruck. But, with good upbringing and all, we remained polite enough to leave the man alone to enjoy his dinner and his company.
Continue Reading »