Racing for a Night of Fun at the Knoxville Raceway

T and I were lucky enough to win tickets to the Knoxville Raceway Sprint Car Nationals recently as a part of Travel Iowa‘s #HackMyHoliday contest this past winter! Thanks to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum we were gifted with 2 Clubhouse level tickets to the races Wednesday through Saturday!  Honestly, we had no idea what this all involved, but T was especially excited as he’s always wanted to see the Sprint Car races.

Planning our Visit

Bob from the Hall of Fame & Museum emailed me early on to communicate with me and welcome me to the event (and when I say early, I mean in January).  He gave me a run-down of how things went and graciously answered any and all questions I had…even though I’m sure he thought I was clueless at some point (which, I clearly was)!  He helped point us in the direction of lodging and gave us a timeline for the events of the nights we would be attending!  Unfortunately, due to lack of vacation days at work, we were unable to attend Wednesday & Thursday night, but we headed down on Friday (and had intentions of attending Saturday night, but I didn’t feel well, so we just hung in the camper)!

The Day of the Race

Bob had told me that if we got to the race track by 7, we should be good because action on the track would start about 7:30ish.  Well, this just wasn’t early enough for T, so we were to Knoxville by about 4:30.  Upon pulling into town, we were amazed!  It was BIG!  Not the town, but the celebration so to speak surrounding the races.  It looked like NASCAR was in town!  The amount of people strolling the streets and the stands set up selling food & t shirts blew me away!  We knew it was big, but nothing to this extent!  (I’ll admit that I was so wrapped up in taking it all in that I completely forgot to take pictures.)

We strolled through the variety of vendors to find something to eat and settled on supporting the Beef Producers from the area.  It was deliciously grilled and we like supporting farmers!  Then, we headed to the grandstand to find our seats.  We approached the older gentlemen who were taking tickets.  I handed our tickets to him and he looked at me funny and said, “these are for the other side of the track!” I was dumbfounded as he directed us to the Hall of

Fame and Museum.

Hall of Fame & Museum

When we got their we were politely directed to the 2nd floor where we were greeted and helped to find our seats (Indoor & air conditioned, I’ll add). Then, we spent time perusing the museum area.  There they have endless pictures and quite a few sprint cars from famous racers from over the years.  It’s quite amazing to see how the cars, fire suits , and helmets have evolved over the years.  There are a lot of pictures and other memorabilia in the museum as well.  We were lucky enough that admission to the museum was included with our tickets.  They also have a rather extensive gift shop that we perused.  We eventually got to meet up with Bob who showed us around and told us stories.  He also shared a bit more with us about the sport as we were new to it.

The Races

The racing was…well, dirt track racing.  I don’t hate racing, but this style isn’t really my thing.  It was very neat to see the differences between this style of racing and NASCAR.  We also were

lucky enough to get the privilege to watch part of the race on the balcony of a clubhouse (again, thanks to Bob).   We experienced what it’s really like to be at a dirt track (think REALLY loud and REALLY dirty)!  The dust and dirt that flies is quite amazing.  I know we brought part of the track home with us in our hair, on our cooler, and

Conclusion

T really enjoyed the racing and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t return sometime with M!  The experience that we got, thanks to Bob, was amazing.  His generosity was overflowing and it truly was an experience of a lifetime and for that we can’t thank him, the Sprint Car Hall of Fame & Museum, and Travel Iowa!  If you enjoy racing at all I highly suggest a trip to Knoxville Raceway to catch one of these races!!

An editorial note!  My pictures are terrible and I apologize for that!  For once, I was more focused on taking in the experience around me and spending un-distracted time with T!