Feb 032011
I headed out this morning to try and find a good place to watch the Parker 425 Desert Race. There is a main spectator area in town where they start and where the Parker Python is. The Parker Python is a more or less man made area with some jumps and tight turns is a small area setup for spectator viewing. Sort of like an indoor stadium truck track that the contestants come in, run through and then back out to the desert. I am looking more for the real desert experence.
I headed to a road just outside Parker named Shea Rd. The course runs along side this road for a few miles and there is suppose to be spectator viewing from that area. I found the course runs within a few feet of the road. Since it was practice trucks and buggies were flying down it at I would guess 80MPH while vehicles drove on the road less then 10 feet away. I have some pics uploaded to my album and you can see the pavement next to the course. I also made a short video that you can view below.
This looks like it will be a good area to view the race and I understand during the race Shea Rd. will be closed to traffic so the closest you'd be to the race action is maybe 40 ft. away. This also means I'll have to get up around 5AM so I can get to the area before it is closed off and won't be able to leave until the race is over. Could be a long day Saturday.
I stayed for a couple hours and watched then headed back into town as they had a lot of race vehicles on display. booths, food and music. I took a few more pictures, had a couple tacos and drank the free Speed Energy Drink they were handing out. Speed Energy Drink is a new beverage being put out by Robby Gordon. Not much diffeent then the others on the market other then it has a lot more B vitamins in it.
Over all, a pretty interesting day. See the video below.