WSET.com - ABC13A Day at the Track by Scott Wilson

There aren't many sports that I don't have at least a passing interest in. But racing is one of them. I have never gotten the appeal of seeing cars drive around a track hundreds of times. So it was an educational experience for me a couple of weeks ago when I went to Martinsville for our one hour special for race weekend. I went down on Saturday afternoon, enough time to catch most of the truck race. I was warned to bring earplugs, but of course I didn't listen. And my first impression was "Boy is this loud!" It is pretty hard to even hear yourself think. Thankfully the press box offered some refuge from the noise.

Admittedly, Saturday probably wasn't the day to get the full Martinsville experience. The stands were nowhere near full, and I'm sure the excitement level is a lot higher for the Sprint Cup race. What amazes me, though, is the dedication of those fans who show up in their RV and make a long stay of it. Some were out the previous Monday walking their dogs. I am too tied to technology to even think about camping out somewhere for a week.

Once the race was over, the real work began. Our special was at 7:00, and the race ended around 5:00, so there wasn't much time to get all the last minute stories done. I am spoiled by sitting all of my workdays in a newsroom that has access to a lot of equipment. It's a whole different story when you are out in the field. Five people are trying to share a small laptop and editing station to get their stories in. You never know if the internet access will hold out and even cell phone reception can be iffy. Then there are the things you can't prepare for – in this case, wind. It was so windy that day. That made for an extra challenge. But through it all, we managed to make it clean on the air.

So while I probably won't become a faithful NASCAR viewer any time soon, I still am glad that I was able to get a full appreciation for what goes on on race day.