This trip started with an early morning flight out of the John Wayne Santa Ana Orange County airport.
That's Newport Harbor down below. It's home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
It wasn't long and the beautiful mountains of Utah came into view.
We passed over the Rocky Mountain Speedway in Salt Lake City. Notice the dragstrip to the left of both the oval and figure 8 track.
The Great Salt Lake is a unique attraction here.
Depending upon the angle of the sun, the view is always different.
It's mid-May and the mountains still have plenty of snow.
I'm planning to see the racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats this year.
The Salt Lake City airport is ringed in snow-covered mountains almost year-round.
I spend much of my time here when I'm in Salt Lake City. It's the commuter terminal of the SLC airport.
Salt Lake City was just a stopping off point. I was bound for this airport in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The airport's name is the "Will Rogers World Airport".
Tonight's racing venue would be the I-44 Speedway in Oklahoma City.
There was plenty of space to park.
Thank you!
I arrived early. They were just beginning to sell tickets.
The pit area was already full with all kinds of mini-sprints.
It was ten bucks for me.
There were some pristine racing machines in the pits tonight.
It would be a cool and windy evening. I would just be relaxing while there drivers took their "hot laps".
The I-44 Speedway is a great little bullring.
The track is banked and wide enough for multiple racing grooves.
It's Friday night, a work night. Fans would be arriving late.
By this time, it's just 30 minutes before the scheduled first race.
Where's the "low-cal" section of the menu?
Actually, a better question is where are the employees?
Luckily, they came to my rescue and produced a bowl of chili from the "chilidog" part of the menu. Yes, that's mustard!
The cars continued to practice.
It wasn't long before we were racing!!
Note how the yellow #52 has changed his racing line from the previous photo.
The cars raced both high and low in turns one and two.
During the daylight part of the program I chose this top row seating location.
After a while this looked like a daytime sprint car race in El Centro, California.
The sight lines on an oval like this are the very best.
No matter where the racing action is the fan can see everything easily.
Five abreast!
I was tuned into the track's radio channel so I was hearing everything the flagman was hearing.
Everything at the I-44 Speedway is in tiptop shape.
The racing during the daylight hours was very good. However, come feature time the dust was unbearable.
You take the high road and I'll take the low road.
Most classes had very good car counts.
There's something about the American flag and racecars.
I much prefer wingless open wheel racing to winged cars.
However, this driver used a wing to soften the blow of his flip.
This was about the extent of the crowd tonight. I fear the short track racing is changing from a spectator sport to a participant sport.
These young racers "walked the track" during intermission.
It's feature time.
It's difficult to get good pictures of fast moving racecars in low light conditions.
Nevertheless, I'm sure you "get the picture".
Following the races it was back to one of the shabbier hotels I've been in for some time.
