Hall of Fame

Monday 25th May

Today was labor day in the US.

After two fantastic days at the races it was time for an activity closer to home, the NASCAR Hall of Fame was the one attraction that I still had on my list to see. Built in 2010 this magnificent unique building is situated right across the road from my hotel so the location couldn't be better.

There was a long queue for breakfast which turned into a farewell party as I bumped into my adopted family from Louisiana. They were flying back today and said how lovely it had been to meet me. She said she felt like I was her nephew. I was deeply touched!

Then as I tucked into my bacon and eggs Mary, the lady from Montana whom I had become reunited with on this trip, walked past me to go and check out, she was also flying home today.  I mentioned to her that I would be visiting the hall of fame museum, she had been and thoroughly recommend it. We wished each other well and she headed off.

I also said goodbye to a couple of other guys on the trip, wished them a safe journey home. They really were all a great friendly bunch of people.

Later that morning I wandered over to the hall of fame. The ticket came with my race weekend package.

As you walk in you have your picture taken against a green screen and they map that against a picture of a race track, you can the buy this of you choose at the end of your visit. A bit cheesy I know.

The first thing you do is watch a short film which gives you a great insight into the history of NASCAR. This sets you up perfectly for exploring the museum.

The impressive display of cars from the early days right up to the present day cars dominates the first level, the cars sit on various degrees of banking to give us an idea of just how steep the banking is on the various race tracks they run on.

The interactive part of it is great. You get given a 'hard card'  (looks a bit like a credit card) which you place on different touch screen activities around the museum where you answer trivia questions, learn how to set up a race car for race day, how a car passes tech inspection and much more, it is so informative.

About half way around there is a racing simulator where you can qualify for a race, in this instance it took place at Dover racetrack in Delaware. Your lap times are then stored in a database and this then puts you on the grid for a race in a proper race simulator, which you can then have a go at. Of course,  being a seasoned sim racer I just had to have a go.
Qualifying did not go well,  I expected more from myself, but we were sat in the most peculiar seating position for driving!

I could have had a go at the pit crew challenge but the queue for this was stupidly long. Instead, after viewing some more exhibits,  I headed for the iracing simulator where you climbed into a replica of a real nascar and raced 12 others on a PC simulation.
Whilst in the queue for this I heard 3 English voices chatting in front of me.
I asked one of them if they had come over for the race weekend, to which they said they had.  We got talking about nascar and racing back in the UK when one of them happened to mention his friend Paul, who was with him,  used to race pickups around Rockingham in the UK. Then I realised I knew  him and had watch him race regularly... Paul Poulter was his name!

When our time for the simulator arrived I was assigned the #2 miller lite ford of Brad Keselowski.... Ugh!
Needless to say I did extremely well finishing 2nd of 13.

In total I spent about 5hrs here.... And got a free lunch as I was. Told my ticket included a free sandwich, drink and packet of potato chips (crisps)

A truly fascinating place,  took it all in and really enjoyed it.

Registered my hard card as I left and was told I had the 5th best points score of the day,  not bad considering how busy it was. Lots of other race goers from the weekend also took the opportunity to visit today as well.

After taking the short 30 second walk across the road I chilled out in the hotel for a while before enjoying a nice meal in the hotel restaurant later in the evening.

Now to find something to do for tomorrow,  Charlotte is not known for being a tourist trap and the Uptown area is certainly limited in terms of attractions, but 2 days to go so we'll see what there is.