Zoom Zoom

The husband and I, along with two of our close friends, went down to Long Beach Thursday afternoon, to see the practice rounds of the Long Beach Grand Prix. We hooked it up, real city-style, by grabbing the Red line Metro from the Park and then switching at 7th & Metro to the above-ground Blue line to LB.

I've never been that into cars, but with a boss who's way into Formula 1 and my ride in a Lamborghini Superleggera last weekend, I've started to acquire a finer appreciation for fast cars and those things they do. (Um, mainly go fast, and um, look cool doing it...) I had to work all weekend, so I knew there was no way I could make it to see any of the races. (Besides, tickets are $42, which is a little steep for my part-time working self.) But Thursday's events were free, so we got to see two practice rounds, and the Shark Lagoon at the Aquarium of the Pacific.



I seriously did not know how excited I would get until we got there. As we were walking up to where the track was, you could hear the cars before you could see them, or even the track for that matter. F made fun of me when I went skipping ahead, anxious to get my first look at one of the open-wheel cars. We stood on the bridge by the exposition center for awhile, as one by one, the cars would fly by. We couldn't figure why there were two people per car at first, but we finally tracked down a guy who looked like he knew what was happening, and asked him. Apparently, you could take one spin around the track in an open wheel car with a professional driver for the low, low price of $1200. If I had an extra $1200 lying around, maybe I'd do it too, but who has that kind of cash?! Hell, if I'm paying $1200, I want to drive the thing!


(The car in the front is the Ford GT40, apparently the best, American-made sports car out there.)

Which, actually, I've looked into: I'm torn between the Skip Barber High Performance Driving School or the Bob Bondurant High Performance Driving School. Maybe I'll gift a class to myself for my 40th birthday? I'll need the next ten years to save up!

Expect to hear more from me on racing in the future, since my boss has decided to turn me into a Formula 1 fan if it's the last thing he does. It shouldn't be hard- I'm already jonesing to hear the high-powered engines again! (Although I may bring ear plugs this time, and save the last few decibels of my hearing.)

In other news, I dented the Rabbit as I was pulling out of my parking space the other morning... maybe I should hold off on the go-fast cars?

-k