As we do every year, we drove down from Bergen County, NJ the night
before the MBNA Platinum 400 in Dover, DE. The parking lots are open, and free of charge
to enter at night. There is plenty of parking at the track, and surrounding businesses,
although I can’t be sure if parking at these other businesses is authorized. We come
early to avoid some of the race day traffic, but honestly Dover has quite a nice evening
atmosphere.
Busses can be seen driving up and down the concession area street
trying to lure patrons into a free ride to and from the local bars. Souvenir and
concession trailers are lined up along the south of the track and are open late for
browsing. Restaurants and even a casino are all within easy walking distance of the track.
One thing I feel there was a lack of, were bathroom facilities.
There were even lines on Saturday night for the port-a-johns that were sparsely sprinkled
around the lots. On race day, I saw lines of up to 40 people long! I would recommend
gassing up your car before entering the lot, this way when you are sitting in traffic
trying to leave, you wont be worrying about how much gas you have! You will sit in traffic
on the way out of Dover, although it was a little better this year with the completion of
Route 1. The other primary road is Route 13. Both will be packed for several hours after a
race.
This track is one of the best places to watch a race that I have
been to. I rank it a close second to Richmond.. Short track excitement, and a little speed
too. I have sat in several locations around the track, and have never had a bad seat. This
year we sat in the North Grandstand between turn 1 and turn 2, section NN (now 207) row
11. Our seats had seat backs and were of average size. Although we did not see much pit
action from our location, we could easily see the entire track and the position pole, And
were close enough to the action that we got full of rubber!! We did have to climb over 70
steps to get to our seats, and noticed several people taking breaks at the half way point.
Concessions at the track were plentiful and varied. Again, there seemed to be a lack of
rest rooms
Overall, if you don’t mind a little traffic, "The
Monster" is a great track to see a race. Don’t forget your earplugs!
Scenes from the Track
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Submitted by
A.D.
Bergen County, NJ
update! June 3, 2001
We were in for a very long day
when we headed out from Park Ridge, New Jersey. This
was my first ever NASCAR Winston Cup race. We
left at about 4:30 a.m. and we were doing fine with the traffic until about 5 miles out of
the track. Traffic was horrible as we took
Route 1 and waited forever. We merged onto
Route 13 and a sign said that the parking lot was full inside the track (doubtful) but we
decided to park in the Delaware State University parking lot. It turned out to be a great choice because we were
right across the street from the track.
We went looking around at about
10:30 and it was real neat seeing all the souvenir trailers and what not. We went into our seats at about quarter after
twelve. My friend and me sat in section 201,
row 6(more or less right by the exit of turn 2). We
could easily see the entire track, and when the race started it was nice and noisy as
expected. It seemed as if there wasn’t a
bad seat in the entire track. Unfortunately
the “Hollywood Hotel” from the FOX Channel was obstructing our way from the flag
stand and most of the front stretch. All the
fans were very nice and it was really cool seeing all the different fans for all the
drivers.
If you're going for the day be
prepared to sit in a long line of traffic both in and out of the track. But, with all that aside the MBNA Platinum 400 was
the best sporting event I have ever been to.
--
Tom McCall
