Richmond International Raceway, Richmond VA, June 25 2005 2005 June 30
Saturday found us going to see the IRL race and Silver Crown race at Richmond. After waking up, we took a ride downtown in search of Internet access. Our budget rate motel didn’t provide any and last year I stopped at a coffee shop/Internet cafe called Café Gutenberg which had good coffee and free Internet. Sadly the Internet wasn’t working so after I finished my coffee we went to the Richmond Public Library and we got online without a hitch. After surfing the web, we went back to the motel and headed to the track.
After going to the fan fest we went back to the car to grab out coolers to bring into the race. When we just started heading back to the track, someone wearing a black Robby Gordon hat noticed my red Robby Gordon hat and started talking to me. Seems he (and I) were so excited to find another Robby Gordon fan that he offered us a few drinks (which we happily accepted).
Anyway, after a while we headed in to see the races. Neither the Silver Crown race or the IRL race was extremely exciting, but both were entertaining. To almost no one’s surprise, Dave Steele dominated the Silver Crown race. The IRL race was run by Helio Castroneves. The most exciting part of the IRL race was the beginning of the race, which saw Tony Kanann move up to about 10′th from last rather quickly. Danica Patrick* finished 10′th thanks to staying out of trouble and some good pit strategy.
On the ride home on Sunday we stopped at Hemmingway’s Restaurant just on the East side of the Chesapeake off of 301 (you can see it from the Bay Bridge as you cross it) for some excellent crab soup and crab cakes. While the prices weren’t inexpensive, they were reasonable and the food was excellent. I’d definitely stop in again if I was hungry while I was passing by.
My 2005 racing stats after the June 25′th race at Richmond:
Races: 22
Tracks: 13 (5 new)
States: 9 (0 new)
* The attractive female Indy Car driver who has been getting so much attention lately, who, by the way, has never won an automobile race.