RICK @ the RACES ( TEXAS TRIP 29 April-4 May 2009)

This weeks RICK @ the RACES is a little different from my usual ones , following a four day trip to Texas to visit my daughter. It was to be a ‘quality time’ vacation and no plans were made to attend any races. That being said, we did end up at a handful of race tracks.

I flew out of the Ottawa Airport on Wednesday morning bound for Newark, New Jersey to get my connecting flight to Austin, Texas where my daughter Carla lives. Austin, the capital of Texas is a great city that has plenty going on. The public transport system is one of the best I’ve come across, with a 24 hour bus pass costing as little as $1-50. There are many lively bars, eateries and places to hear music.

My trip coincided with one of the most important events in USA horse racing, the Kentucky Derby. Carla enjoys the occasional flutter and wanted to place a bet. Unlike the UK, where you can walk in to a High Street betting office, over here things are different. You have too place your bets at an actual race course.

Even though they had no ‘live’ racing taking place the Retama Park Racecourse, near to San Antonio was open for business, with TV screens relaying events from Kentucky and other tracks. We took a ride down there in Carla’s Hyundai Elantra. Horse racing isn’t my thing and I’m not a betting man, but was happy to go along for a bit of fun. I hadn’t got a clue about ‘form’ or likely winners so used permutations of my old stock car numbers ’67’ and ‘567’ to place my ‘two buck’ wagers. In one race I hit the big time with a $20 win !

We didn’t stay too long at Retama Park, but before leaving we made our bets for the big race that was taking place later that day.

The next stop on our agenda was the old city of San Antonio where the historic Alamo was on my ‘must see’ list.

 

It was quite awesome, and was easy to picture in my mind Davy Crockett and the scenes from the movies.

Another of San Antonio’s attractions is the picturesque River Walk. Just a short walk from the Alamo, the river winds it’s way through the ‘olde world’ charm of the city.

As we wandered along the walkways that follow it,there were plenty of restaurants vying for our trade. We found one that served traditional English food , so sat ourselves down.

I ordered a Steak and Ale Pie with Chips (fries) , while Carla chose a vegetarian BLT. The food turned out to be excellent. What made it even better was the ‘no charge’ for the BLT due to a mix up with our order and a long delay. We weren’t worried about the delay anyway, as we were in no rush !

We then needed to find a sports bar that had the Kentucky Derby showing on TV and conveniently settled down in Pat O’Briens Irish pub.

With a name like that, I was expecting to see pictures of the # 6 Dirt Modified all over the walls. This must have been a different Pat O’Brien and not the top Canadian race driver ! We watched the big race on TV and neither of us were lucky with our picks, so made our exit.

On the drive down to San Antonio that morning , we noticed a Kart Racing track close to San Marcos with a big sign advertising Sprint Karts. We thought we’d drop by on the return journey to see if we could catch some action. On arrival, a closer inspection showed us that the place had closed down and was up for lease.

So with nothing doing, and the night still young, we thought we’d drop in to the Thunder Hill Speedway at Kyle which we happened to be passing on I 35 .

I visited this track two years ago on my first trip to Texas. We were out of luck again, as there was no racing going on this Saturday night. So, it was back to Austin, for a pizza and a bit of night life before returning to Carla’s place.

On Sunday I was up at the crack of dawn for the return flights to Canada, arriving in Ottawa at 3-00pm and home in Long Sault (Ont) shortly after.

OTHER STUFF

Last September during my trip to the UK for the BriSCA F1 World Final at Ipswich , I also attended the supporting events that weekend at Skegness and Brafield. At ‘Skeggy’, Robin Shawe, one of my old buddies had erected a big Canadian flag on his RV as a welcome gesture for me. The Maple Leaf was proudly blowing in the wind and was also spotted by Garry Radford another Canadian who was present. He came over and introduced himself and told me he’d traveled over from British Columbia. Like me , he was a former UK stock car driver that now called Canada his home.

We’ve kept in touch and I’ve since learned that the ex Spedeworth driver is now racing over here. His local track is the Agassiz Speedway in the Frazer Valley and races an Acura Integra in the Hornet Division.

Check Out www.agassizspeedway.com