Video from the event:

Photo slideshow of the events of the day, including the motorbike racing, the car show and the automobile racing. Enjoy!

I arrived at the 19th Annual Vintage Racing Celebration at New Hampshire Motor Speedway not knowing what to expect. I had been to the racetrack once before but it's an entirely different experience to sit on the infield, quite literally on the racetrack itself, as motorbikes (with sidecars) and vintage automobiles went whizzing by. Not nearly as loud as a NASCAR race. Practically silent by comparison, but loud enough to capture your attention. The decibel level was more in a range that made earplugs virtually unnecessary. And since I've already damaged my hearing at a number of rock concerts in my younger days (last year), I threw caution to the wind and deemed earplugs and the optional helmet I was offered sort of beside the point. Especially if one of those little cars (and I do mean little) were to come scrambling in my direction. What would earplugs matter anyway if I were in a head-to-toe cast, right?

Seeing these race car drivers zoom around the road course that was set up at the track was akin to watching pilots from the barnstorming days with their goggles in place, scarves blowing in the wind and an open cockpit. Same idea, really. The motorbikes with sidecars were fun. Their passengers, though perhaps a little crazy, were close to the ground and not even strapped in (at least it seemed, from my vantage point). It made me wonder how they didn't fly off around those neat little corners. At least they were wearing helmets.

After the motorbikes took to the track, I wandered over to the garage to speak with some of the drivers of the vintage automobiles. We're not talking about Ford Mustangs, Thunderbirds and Corvettes here (although they were featured at the car show on the other side of the track). We're talking about Midgets, Sprint Cars, Champs, and Roadsters. For those of you unfamiliar with these vehicles, Midgets are most commonly raced in Australia, and they are small light cars with a lot of horsepower for their diminutive size. Sprint cars are small too and both types of race cars are known for their high power-to-weight ratio. They normally race at speeds of around 100 MPH. Like I said, this is not NASCAR. Yet for this chick, who isn't totally enamored with racing, it was fun watching these cute little cars speed around the road course today. Only one thing would have made it complete. And that would be the scarves blowing in the wind.