A Day at the Races

MrGrumpy got up quite early for a Saturday and headed down to the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca (near Monterey). Today was the American Le Mans race there.
It was sunny when he left San Jose, but as he got closer, the fog was thick.

More like an english race day

At the circuit (about 8:30am) it was quite chilly, MrGrumpy was regretting the t-shirt and shorts combo, anyway he paid his $70 to get in the hoped it would burn off during the day.
He parked the Mustang and headed over the bridge and towards the paddock area, picking up on the way his race programme (which was included in the ticket price).
To his surprise, it was an open paddock giving very close access to the cars and pit areas.
He walked around getting his bearings and trying to keep walm, he had a cup of coffee, that helped. Just about when he was considering buying a jacket or hoodie, the sun started to break through. It went from about 8-10 deg C to 25+ in minutes.

Fog, what fog

 From now on he would be looking for shade not warmth, there were several warm up races, Mazda MX5's (in the fog) and Porsche GT Cup, then the LeMans cars went out for a practice session.

MrGrumpy was able to stand in between the cars lined up ready to join the track, only a few minutes before they went did the marshalls move everybody back a couple of feet.

With the racing in progress he walked up the hill to find the famous "Corkscrew" curve. MrGrumpy was quite impressed at the drop, more impressive to see in reality than it looks on the PS3 or XBox.

The race started at 1:30pm and it was 6 Hours long, MrGrumpy did intend staying and watching it all, but even with a mid afternoon sit down and even a refreshing beer. By 5:30pm he was ready to head home.

Refreshes the Racing
other beers can't 

Only on slight technical issue, he could not remember where he had left the car...

He headed out of the track, back over he bridge and backtracked where he thought the car was. The parking was in colours, Red, Blue, Brown, Purple etc. He seemed to think Brown was about he right area, so headed that way. As he walked across the field, he could see a green mustang, tan roof. "Great" he thought and continued walking, "Hang on, that mustang has a spoiler and different alloy wheels, Damn...not mine" he said as he realised this was the wrong car park.

Off to the Purple parking area, this also did not look very familiar, as when he had arrived it was total fog, now in the clear hot sun it looked different. He could see a couple of tan roofs and headed towards them, nope, first one was a BMW Z3, the next a newer mustang. But then he could see the green nose and a mustang badge, over another row and he found the car.

Heading back to San Jose, the traffic was quite slow anyway, so it was a good idea not to leave at the end of the race with every one else. By just gone 7:00pm MrGrumpy arrived back home after a long day out.

Tomorrow will be a quiet day for MrGrumpy, he may clean the Mustang but has no plans to do much.