VIPs - 1 Kids - 0...
I've always been a Madonna fan. It's not that any one aspect of the woman or her music is overwhelming, but the sum total is impressive. The adoption of the contrived British accent after moving to London is a bit much I'll admit, but it was a scene from her movie, Truth or Dare, that secured her standing with me. In on scene, after a show, she expresses her anger over the front rows being filled with industry people despite her request to the contrary. Now, I'm not naive, maybe it was all for the cameras. After all, there aren't many moments so tailor made to let the concert going masses know how much you care about them.
In any case, last Saturday, my Father and I took my son, now 4, to his first race. Not just any race, an NHRA drag race. As many races as I've attended personally, I've never been to see top fuel dragsters and funny cars, ever. So, we were all understandably excited. It was only 85 degrees in Sonoma that day and the traffic wasn't too bad. We figured that Calvin wouldn't last too long so we timed our arrival to see some Pro Stock and the Top Fuel qualifying. For those of you not intimately familiar, Top Fuel drag cars are more or less time bombs piloted by people with very quick reaction times and no sense of fear. Powered by a super charged, nitromethane burning V8 these marvels of mechanical engineering crank out an F-16-like 1500 horsepower and leap to over 300 mph in under 5 seconds. Amazing.
As you can imagine, the violence of such an action is Loud (that's a capital L). In my usual modus operandi, we had seats right at the start line, eye level with the cars as they came to the line. Despite the custom-made ear plugs, my son nearly jumped out of his skin when the first Funny Car left the line. Way too close. But, I remembered, not unlike Pac Bell Park, Infineon has a Family Section. I hoisted Cal onto my shoulders and after a stop to pick up some serious ear protection (a la ear muffs like those guys parking jets wear) we headed off on the long hike to the end of the strip. When we arrived, I was informed that the entire section had been purchased by PowerAde for VIPs and that we would not be allowed to sit there on that day. This move, in my view, was ridiculous in more ways than one. The good folks at Infineon should never have offered up the Family Section for sale. It kind of defeats the concept if at every event the section designated for small kids is up for exclusive sale to the highest bidder. Secondly, I do not look favorably upon a company who would wantonly commit such an act in the name of marketing and satisfying the wants of a special few. They, after all, do not likely pay the bills. People like me who are insane enough to run marathons pay the PowerAde bills.
We stood outside of the newly renamed PowerAde Corral to watch a few more rounds before heading home. Drag racing is much more interesting than I thought it would be, although next time I think we'll go to MotoGP at Laguna Seca. I won't be spending anymore of my hard earned racing coin at Infineon. Losers.
I've always been a Madonna fan. It's not that any one aspect of the woman or her music is overwhelming, but the sum total is impressive. The adoption of the contrived British accent after moving to London is a bit much I'll admit, but it was a scene from her movie, Truth or Dare, that secured her standing with me. In on scene, after a show, she expresses her anger over the front rows being filled with industry people despite her request to the contrary. Now, I'm not naive, maybe it was all for the cameras. After all, there aren't many moments so tailor made to let the concert going masses know how much you care about them.
In any case, last Saturday, my Father and I took my son, now 4, to his first race. Not just any race, an NHRA drag race. As many races as I've attended personally, I've never been to see top fuel dragsters and funny cars, ever. So, we were all understandably excited. It was only 85 degrees in Sonoma that day and the traffic wasn't too bad. We figured that Calvin wouldn't last too long so we timed our arrival to see some Pro Stock and the Top Fuel qualifying. For those of you not intimately familiar, Top Fuel drag cars are more or less time bombs piloted by people with very quick reaction times and no sense of fear. Powered by a super charged, nitromethane burning V8 these marvels of mechanical engineering crank out an F-16-like 1500 horsepower and leap to over 300 mph in under 5 seconds. Amazing.
As you can imagine, the violence of such an action is Loud (that's a capital L). In my usual modus operandi, we had seats right at the start line, eye level with the cars as they came to the line. Despite the custom-made ear plugs, my son nearly jumped out of his skin when the first Funny Car left the line. Way too close. But, I remembered, not unlike Pac Bell Park, Infineon has a Family Section. I hoisted Cal onto my shoulders and after a stop to pick up some serious ear protection (a la ear muffs like those guys parking jets wear) we headed off on the long hike to the end of the strip. When we arrived, I was informed that the entire section had been purchased by PowerAde for VIPs and that we would not be allowed to sit there on that day. This move, in my view, was ridiculous in more ways than one. The good folks at Infineon should never have offered up the Family Section for sale. It kind of defeats the concept if at every event the section designated for small kids is up for exclusive sale to the highest bidder. Secondly, I do not look favorably upon a company who would wantonly commit such an act in the name of marketing and satisfying the wants of a special few. They, after all, do not likely pay the bills. People like me who are insane enough to run marathons pay the PowerAde bills.
We stood outside of the newly renamed PowerAde Corral to watch a few more rounds before heading home. Drag racing is much more interesting than I thought it would be, although next time I think we'll go to MotoGP at Laguna Seca. I won't be spending anymore of my hard earned racing coin at Infineon. Losers.
posted by Jaybeau at
4:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home