ALMSChicks – Sebring: THINGS WE LEARNED AT SEBRING THE DAY BEFORE THE 12 HOURS

Beware of traffic in the Paddock between morning practice and the autograph session: And we do mean traffic. Racecars, golf carts, pedestrians, trash trucks, cars, vans, pit carts: you name it, it will be trying to get from Point A to Point B between the hours of 11 am and 12 pm. Our suggestion? Get to a side and stay there! It gets very crowded and frustrating for everyone!

Tiki Tea: A new discovery of ours this year. 20 oz of Sweet Tea for $1 – no way you can go wrong! We found two locations – one in the row of Paddock vendors and one on the Midway. If 20 oz isn’t enough, go for a quart or half gallon!

Patrick Dempsey really is as nice as people say he is: Everyone talks about how nice and down to earth one of Hollywood’s most famous actors is. We can confirm this! Without even meaning to, we stumbled across Dempsey Racing during the autograph session and Patrick was out. He was incredibly polite and friendly – if you ever have the opportunity to meet him, he’ll treat you like an old friend!

Sparkles: Sparkles stand out at Sebring. Shirts with sequins do not keep you under the proverbial radar.

The permanent Sebring Raceway staff is in incredible: Not every part of every trip goes according to plan. We ran into more than one snafu today, and we must say the staff we encountered were very helpful and friendly. If you run into a problem at the track, skip the rent-a-cop CSC folks and look for a Sebring Raceway employee. They’ll help you out!

Pit lane is packed: You’ve heard it mentioned – 66 cars on Sebring’s pit lane is TIGHT. It’s true – you can’t find more than a foot of open space between different teams’ equipment. We would like to apply the words “zoo” and “madhouse” – we’ll see how it goes tomorrow!

Audi drivers don’t seem understand how important they are: Let’s face it – European drivers and their team come with a stigma. The nine drivers we met today didn’t fit that mold at all. Friendly, engaging, funny – they were great. They’re very popular though (maybe due to their team), so you’ll have to get in their autograph line early or find them late in the afternoon. Where else can you have a conversation with a seven-time Le Mans winner?

Everyone else doesn’t seem to understand how unimportant we are: For two women who just happen to have a passion for ALMS racing, we never expected to be welcomed into the Series like we have been. We can’t stress enough how great everyone is – drivers, officials, team members – this Series truly cares about it’s fans!

@beauxbarfield & @scotelkins owe us ice cream: We’re cashing in tomorrow, guys.

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