I can’t believe I did it. I went to the Drag strip. As a staunch environmentalist and a woman who does not condone “macho guy stuff”, I could not imagine enjoying the smell of revving engine fumes and burning rubber from tires. The weirdest thing is, I had a GREAT time! Well, part of it was the company. We went with Meredith and Peter and Heike to see Michelle race her Land Rover. As we arrived, Michelle was finishing one of her warm-up runs.

We had come from two hours of bird watching at Great Pond with SEA, where we saw sandpipers, osprey, plovers, herons, whimbrels, black-necked stilts, greater and lesser yellowlegs and white-cheeked pintail ducks, as well as many other species. Carol Cramer-Burke led a wonderful walk, along with Jennifer and her birding telescope. A guy from our local PBS channel, TV 12 was there filming for a series on “discovering St. Croix”. Cool!

We had stimulating conversations with Michael Sheats, Brian Daley and Jenn Martin, and John Farchette, an administrator with the East End Marine Park. Danny Draher, a musician who comes down during season, was there to learn about the amazing resources of the Great Pond area as well. (Pictures to follow, tomorrow, maybe) A good time was had by all.

Anyway, back to the drags. There was loud music blaring and pimped rides everywhere. We stood next to Michelle’s Rover and looked right inside the engine of a racing pick-up truck! It was cleaner than anything in my kitchen! That truck kicked some butt over the course of the night, too.

Michelle went to get ready for more practice rounds while Dave explained the finer points of drag racing and tried to convince Michael to race “the pumpkin” against her. Fortunately, my sober husband did not cave in to the pressure. He had just spent two weeks trying to get our orange Land Rover’s electrical issues resolved.

The announcer was a hoot! When we could understand his heavy crucian accent, he cracked us up! Early in the evening he told a joke. It went on for so long, that by the time he reached the punch line, nobody was listening, so nobody laughed. So he explained that that was the joke and went on to explain the punch line. It was hilarious! Not the joke, the situation…

We watched funny little cars and scooters and motorcycles zoom by loudly as we sat in the stands and nursed our $7.00 rum and cokes(!!) and gnawed on chicken and jonnie cakes. Michael was given Romeo’s video camera and told by Romeo himself, to not take pictures of the grass, like Dave did last time he had the camera, but to get Romeo’s practice rounds and real races before others (besides Michelle).

While we waited in between rounds, awards for last years’ winners were given out. The announcer introduced one of the spokespeople from Divi Casino who sponsors the races as one of their “biggest adversaries”. We almost fell off our seats! He obviously meant advocates, but chose the wrong word.

Toward the end of the awards, our Dave won 3rd place overall in the “Street Class” last season. He got a check for $100 and a certificate. Go Dave!! (and his wife, Miss Walswud, according to the announcer). His car, the “Prima Donna”, a Plymouth Roadrunner, called the “Dukes of Hazard” by the other guys at the track got broken last time Dave raced her.

So the announcer kept telling people to go, after the races, and support the Divi Carina Bay Casino. He said (and I’m not making this up) to “go out to the casino and play black jack and Russian roulette”. We were rolling on the ground!!!

Michelle won her first round against a shiny, sleek, black corvette! Go Michelle!! We waited while Michael filmed races with Romeo’s camera. Unfortunately, Romeo lost his first round, so Michael got to film more other guys. While we waited for Michelle to run her final race (there were only 4 cars in the “street class”, so after she kicked the black ‘vette’s butt, she went on to race against a mustang (or a camaro, or something). But we had to wait because it started raining. We had been chilly all evening. The wind was whipping, but now, it was down right c-o-l-d. Meredith saw a woman wearing a hooded parka with a fur-trimmed hood and wanted it. Finally, it was determined that the track had dried sufficiently. The guys continuously mopped it throughout the night. It reminded me of “curling”, that funny sport where they sweep the ice so the stone glides more smoothly. I wondered if they’d mop ahead of the racers…

A couple of motorcycles went and did not crash (thank god!), so Michelle got to go again. She did not win against her next opponent, however, but we applaud her spirit and sportmanship! I am amazed to say that I am looking forward to going again. It was too much fun!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Reviews, St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.