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The "Rare Milers" are a group of about 300 people, around the country, who like to take railroad back roads, so to speak.
About 40 of them (cost = $200/ea for the NASCAR Express) will be harnessing a Capital Corridor train to take from Sacramento to Sonoma. The good ole boys will be attending a NASCAR event and will travel over UP track that, normally, does not have passenger trains:
At lot of possibilities, I think, for different locales across the country.
What's next? How about renting a Corridor train to travel along the old Sierra RR, to Angels Camp, for the Jumping Frog contest.
Richard
chrisg Member # 2488
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I will aboard that train to write a story about the train trip and NASCAR race my first such event.
Chris
yukon11 Member # 2997
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Thats great, Chris! I am kind of surprised they could work out the NASCAR trip using the Capital Corridor and UP track. Let us know your impression.
Richard
chrisg Member # 2488
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I will let you know through my story!
Chris
chrisg Member # 2488
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I am in Sacramento ready for the trip tomorrow. Good trip up on San Joaquin 701 this morning.
Go to my 2011-present trip page click on it and it is the top story.
Enjoy,
Chris
Vincent206 Member # 15447
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yellow flag...green flag...yellow flag...green flag...yellow flag
Nascar's kind of like taking an Amtrak trip!
cubzo Member # 4700
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Thanks for the report Chris. Nascar and road course tracks are a bad marriage.
smitty195 Member # 5102
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quote:Originally posted by Vincent206: yellow flag...green flag...yellow flag...green flag...yellow flag
Nascar's kind of like taking an Amtrak trip!
Trust me---us Nascar fans are tired of it. There are many reasons why the racing has gotten so bad, and we are all hoping that they will figure a way out of this mess. In a nutshell, these are the problems:
-the cars are way too predictable -the cars (no matter the "brand") are identical and are cookie-cutter toys -the cars are highly regulated with extremely heavy oversight
Now these last two I would normally catch a lot of flack for on a racing forum, and I very well may here also, but I think it's all part of it:
-the cars are too safe -the tracks are too safe
Safety is a GREAT thing, and I'm all for it. But the tracks they go to now (except the two road courses) are soooooooo safe and the safety equipment that they were is soooooo good and these drivers are at the top of their field and really know what they're doing----but it makes for a boring race!
The economy is down, which means sponsorship is down---and in Nascar, sponsorship is EVERYTHING. So now we have drivers who would normally "race for the win" by going bumper to bumper with a competitor who will now not do that for fear of damaging his race car (a fully equipped race car is $300 to $500K).
So I dunno.......I just know that Nascar CAN be exciting, but lately it's just been watching cars drive single-file in circles. And I'm glad Truex got that win at Sonoma. (PS: Is the "Infineon" name gone from Sonoma now?)
chrisg Member # 2488
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it was a good race and a fantastic train ride. My first NASCAR Race.
chris
yukon11 Member # 2997
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Sounds like a really nice event, Chris.
I would love to eventually see some sort of light-rail passenger train from Suisun/Fairfield to Schellville, along the old Calironia Northern RR line, and then light rail, from there, along the Northwestern Pacific line.
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