In article , Jeff Franks
wrote:

I enjoy watching the races, and was even talked into going to a race at
Talledega a few years back. Although it was fun, the best part was sitting
on the car waiting for the traffic to clear....we watched most of the
drivers take off from the ajoining airport. Some niiiiicceee planes in
those fleets.

You missed a great opportunity!
Arriving and departing are kind of like AirVenture, only less
organization.

The heavy iron gets to sit on the paved ramps, the rest of us get to
park on the grass. (You can even camp if you are parked by the trees!)
We arrived "late", just in time to get parked and hitch a ride to the
south side stands, get seated and watch the start of the race. Straight
in approach from the north, no other traffic.

Departing, if you are quick, you can get to your airplane, crank, taxi
and depart before the line starts forming.

I had to pay for fuel, so by the time I got back to the plane the line
was already 1.5 miles long.

We elected to pull our Bonanza from the grass to the taxiway by the
runway (a good one half-mile, slightly uphill). We were at the south
end of the field, traffic was departing to the south, so we had the
full length of the taxiway to go. We pulled the airplane for the first
couple hundred feet, at which point the aircraft ahead began to start
up.

The temporary tower was stuffing heavy iron on IFR flight plans into
the line at intervals, allowing the VFR aircraft to depart quickly.

We got to the airplane following the race at 4:30 pm.
We were wheels off at 7:00 pm.
Another Bonanza ahead of us let his engine run the entire 2.5 hours we
were waiting on the ground.