ChumpCar Race at Road Atlanta

Kevin, Karis and I, along with Kevin's team, went to Road Atlanta (which is actually located in Braselton) for Flatout Racing's (that's their team name!) 2nd race with the ChumpCar series. I was debating going with them due to it being a 6 hour drive up there...no way Karis could handle being in the car that long! But one of the driver's brother offered to take us up to Atlanta in his plane! Kevin and I love flying so of course we took him up on the ride.  We flew from Gainesville to Atlanta in a little 6 seater prop plane. The ride was 1 1/2 hours (much better than 6!) and was the smoothest flight I'd ever been on.

 Getting ready to board!

 

Karis did well on her first flight! We nursed for takeoff and landing to try to help the ears but she still got a little fussy from it. During the ride she alternated sleeping and playing. 

 She refused to wear the earphones though!

Going through precheck before we leave!

Gorgeous view of the clouds and sky! We flew at about 8000-9000 feet, just above the clouds and still low enough to see stuff on the ground pretty well. 

 Hi Mom!!

 Pretty eyes :)

 Teaching us all about the plane.

It was awesome being able to look right out the front of the plane!

 The back of the plane

We stopped for lunch on the way to the hotel and track. Karis was exhausted and really needed a real nap, so I was happy when I was finally able to check in and get Karis to bed. The first day was just tech day at the track so there wasn't any racing going on, I stayed at hotel while they took care of business. While she slept I was able to get settled in a little bit.

The guys were at the track getting unloaded and teched in, Karis was sleeping, so I enjoyed some very rare down time..browsing pinterest while sipping on some hot tea!

Karis woke up and explored the hotel room while I got ready to go to the gym and the pool. The hotel had a nice indoor swimming pool that we just had to take advantage of!

 If you can't tell, she is sucking on one of the drawer knobs here. Hotel germs, yum.

In the elevator on the way down to the gym. She stayed put in the stroller while I worked out lol!

After swimming in the pool...she loved it!

 Right after we got post-gym -and-swim showers, the boys made it from the track to the hotel and we met in the lobby before going to dinner. They were in deep conversation talking about race strategy lol.

The next morning was the first race day. The boys met in the lobby at 5:45 am (yuck!) to get some breakfast and head to the track. The race started at 8. I slept in with Karis, then met Bryn in the gym to workout (again lol). We went to the race at about noon. Flatout Racing started with 8 penalty laps and were back in the rear of the field.  They raced awesome for the first race, made it all the way to 4th and were catching 3rd when their brakes failed! They had to stop racing and pit at about 5:50 pm, just ten minutes shy of the end of the race. Even with all that they finished 8th , outof 60+ cars! G o, team!

 Did I mention it was freezing outside? Never made it out of the 30's with winds at 15-20 mph. I pretty much wore Karis all weekend to help keep her and me warm!

 My favorite car, scooby dooby doo!

 Driving around the infield of the track. It was really pretty and we got some really great views from different turns of the race track.

kevin had contact with another car...again. The body is a little damaged and he broke the wheel...again. lol

Heading back to the hotel for the night for showers and dinner! Well actually, Kevin and a few others had to stay in the freezing cold to fix the brake line for the 2nd race.

Ready for bed!

Before heading to the track on day 2

 Pilot Clark getting things ready for the flight back...establishing his flight plan and communicating with the airports, how cool!

Getting the car ready for the race:

They weren't allowed to turn the cars on until race start so they warmed up the engine with the blow torch! Did I mention it did not get above freezing this day??!

 Caution on the track

 Karis enjoyed sitting in the window and watching the cars go by!

 

Her one-handed sippy cup drinking

Pit stop for fuel and driver change:

 

Heading back to the airport after  a long, fun and cold weekend. Flatout Racing finished 9th on the 2nd race. They started the 4 hour race with 4 penalty laps and there just wasn't enough time to catch up after that. 

We got to wait in the nice, private section of the airport while Clark got us all checked in and did the precheck on his plane! I felt out of place with all the wealthy businessmen waiting in the lobby, talking on their phones and messing with their Ipads. I was the obnoxious young girl interupting their little world: I had a fussy baby, I got excited over their free starbucks coffee, took a bunch of free mints and mouthwash from the bathroom , took pictures of everything, and of course made a bunch of noise trying to jam Sophie the Giraffe into the diaper bag (oops).

Overall it was a fun weekend and would have been even better with warmer weather! Next up for chumpcar: Daytona!!