posted
Here is a story of an upcoming sculpture to be built at the Dover International Speedway.
quote: In 2008, Miles the Monster will become the largest attraction at a NASCAR track and will be one of the tallest fiberglass structures in the world. The Monster Monument will stand 46-feet-tall amongst race fans in the newly created Victory Plaza at Dover International Speedway. Nearly five stories tall, the structure depicts the monster bursting out of the concrete ground, carrying with him a full-scale stock car in his right hand that will hover high over race fans below.
posted
Wouldn't that be a GREAT project!!! My kind of job!
-grampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8739 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have had the pleasure of working with Dwight and the crew of ACI Composites about a half a dozen times or so over past few years (back in the Stoner Graphix days). Some of the items that take birth within the shop and then pass out their doors are somewhat amazing; be it in size, detail, or both. No doubt this will be another.
-------------------- Bob Gilliland InKnowVative Communications Harrisburg PA, USA
"The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself." Benjamin Franklin Posts: 642 | From: Harrisburg, PA, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Dale Feicke: Guess NASCLONE is having to go to whatever lengths to coax people into coming back to their "races". It won't work.
Cool structure, but I have to agree with Dale here. Nascar has been appealing to the masses for a long time. The masses are a fickle bunch and they are getting burnt out. In doing all this they have run off most of the old hard core fans. I haven't been to a race in many years and haven't watched it on TV in three years. They are in for some tough times.
The sad thing, most of these "fans" don't have a clue as to who Bobby Allison is and probably don't know the half of what Richard Petty has accomplished.
-------------------- George Perkins Millington,TN. goatwell@bigriver.net
"I started out with nothing and still have most of it left"
posted
I've always found participating a constant source of irritation to my ears, talk about sitting inside of a large speaker!!!! When one can't hold a conversation w/person sitting next to you w/o yelling, it's too loud...and much better veiwed from comfort of living room where the advantage of replays comes to bear....and the $75 entrance fee (one day price) is still in the pocket, and that's not even addressing the pricing of everything else, where else can one buy a dollar hot dog for over $6 bucks? Got to have one of them!!!!! Oh ya....did I mention the $30 hats? or the $80 jackets? Not to mention the $25 t-shirts, massed produced by some of the best(?) designers around, printed on the highest quality fabric available(not).....and for another $100, you can gain access to your favorite driver, if getting within 40 feet is your definition of close up.......naw, Nascar has done alot, alot to drive away alot of serious fans....now they're going for the outrageous, so be it, they lost me years ago....I prefer more bang for my buck........give me drag racing or stadium racing or off road or mud bogs or boat racing or tractor pulls (not to be confused w/monster trucks, another waste) or...........you get my drift.
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
When they started to take all the individuality out of NASCAR, adopted those ridiculous restrictor plate races, and now the clone-mobiles everyone has to run...it's over.
Used to be, everybody would root for their favorite car...Ford, Chevy, Dodge, whatever. It was the Great American Passtime. Now not only is there no favorite car, but a favorite car DECAL, half the damn cars aren't even American!
Now don't give me that lame excuse that they're made here so blah, blah. Guess what? BMW's, Mercedes, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and a few others are made here too...but I don't see them on the track. Course it's probably only a matter of time.
And the "drivers"? Well, that's all they are. Most of them are a bunch of pretty boys who learned to race playing video games, and don't know a carburetor from a tire. Real racing was when the drivers knew what was wrong with their car and how to fix it.
I hope NASCLONE is happy now, being so professional and uppity now. And I also hope they continue to be rewarded with declining crowds at the races. As for me, I'm goin' with Frank to the strip!
-------------------- Dale Feicke Grafix 714 East St. Mendenhall, MS 39114
"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." Posts: 2963 | From: Mendenhall, MS | Registered: Apr 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Thanks for the woodie George, come on Dale, let's go gather up George and go get dirty......
-------------------- Frank Magoo, Magoo's-Las Vegas; fmagoo@netzero.com "the only easy day was yesterday" Posts: 2365 | From: Las Vegas, Nv. | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I myself started going to dirt track races back in Wisconsin and Minnesota in the early 70's. My cousin was one of the top late model drivers in the Midwest. When I was 12 years old I was helping to rebuild and install 428 fords and 427 chevy race engines and work on his late models. It was an incredible time for me as a young kid. Unfortunately his life was cut short in a highway accident shortly into his career. Ironically he never got hurt on the race track!
I lost interest in the sport for a long time after that, mainly because I had nobody to cheer for. And partly because the cars no longer looked like cars! When my cousin raced, they used Camaros, Mustangs, Corvettes, and Barracuda's. You could tell what you were looking at. Now they all look the same with different stickers.
In the last few years I have found a Nascar driver to cheer for and my interest has been renewed a bit. My daughter is also a race fan and we have attended a couple of races together. She wants to go to the Talladega spring race this year which lands on her birthday. I enjoy the sheer speed of the Nascar races. The sounds and sights are a phenomenon like nothing else. And where else can you listen to your favorite driver (or athlete) or all of them over a radio headset?
I have to agree that I'm not too impressed with where the series is headed. The cars are turning into IROC types, where they are all identical. It's moving so far away from its roots that it's hard to recognize it as Stock Car racing anymore! It seems to be the trendy thing to do lately but it is still popular and always packed. Who knows for how long?
If you do go out to a race track, there is an amazing amount of sign work and advertising on and around the site. Not just on the track. People decorate their cars and RV's. The race cars are starting to use a lot of full body wraps throughout the season. And there are tons of signs and banners and wall lettering every where! I'm sure more and more of this stuff is either done by larger company's or by the teams themselves, but it does generate a ton of money......that's what it seems to be all about these days...show me the money!
posted
George, if that's the old track, I've been to it occasionally... I used to crew for a guy who went up and raced modifieds there a few times. Haven't been to that new Columbus track.
Since this post has gotten pretty far off topic, I'll start another crap-storm by publicly stating that I think Tony Stewart is one of the few drivers left in Nascar that has some of that grit like the old-timers...
/Flame on //Go #20
-------------------- Jon Jantz Snappysign.com jjantz21@gmail.com http://www.allcw.com Posts: 3395 | From: Atmore, AL | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
All right George!!! Dirt has always been the place to find the good racing!! If they made a series out of the charity event that the NASCAR drivers ran last year at Eldora, that would be something not to miss. If it's on asphalt though, nothing can hold a candles to these...
posted
You know, Jon, this might not be as far off topic as you think. I believe this statue is appropriate. It represents NASCLONE, the big monster (possibly modelled after Brian France), crushing the sport of late-model racing as we know it.
And I agree with you about Tony Stewart. But he's only one of several, noteably Kenny Schrader and Rusty Wallace, who own their own tracks....dirt tracks. NASCAR is only a cash cow to these guys, a means to an end. They can make a gazillion dollars here and go do what they really want. I've heard Tony on several occasions refer to the NASCAR cars as taxicabs and schoolbusses. It won't be much longer; he'll be retiring and going back to Eldora Speedway, in eastern Indiana, where his heart is, and doing what he loves.
I grew up in the Midwest, and it has always been the hotbed of dirt track racing. Many of the top drivers in sevral venues have come from this area. I've lived in Florida for several years, where they race on asphalt, and I just could never really get into it. Those modifieds are definitely cool looking, but there's not much real excitement. There's just something spectacular about 800 horsepower in a thousand pound vehicle coming sideways out of a turn, three wide, with the front wheels two feet off the ground. Now that's gettin'with it!!
And Dale, if you ever want to hear something that you REALLY will never forget, go to an NHRA national event, where they run TOP FUEL funny cars or dragsters. Every atom of your being will be throbbing when they fire off these babies. They must use some type of filter on TV to block the noise; but believe me, there's no other sound like it in all of motorsports.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
be interesting to see how its put together.
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
No doubt this will be another.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic