The Need For Speed!

On June 26-27, the first Great Lakes Wine Fest was held at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan. Anne and I attended and it was much more that we had ever anticipated. Michigan has several wineries located across the state and they are producing some really great wines, or at least they are producing some wines that we like! We learned that the majority of Michigan wines are made from grapes grown in Southwestern Michigan but the wines are made at wineries scattered all around the state. Since this was the first Great Lakes Wine Fest we felt it could have been better organized and better advertized but the reception from those that attended was very enthusiastic. It looks like it will be a regular event and MIS was a terrific venue.

Tickets purchased prior to the event were $25 per person for one day or $45 for both days. Your admission included 10 tokens to be used to purchase tastings of wines of your choosing. Most wines were 1 token/1 tasting but some of the premium wines cost two tokens. We signed up for two wine pairing seminars where foods were prepared especially to go with selected wines. Both of these seminars were just excellent. Needless to say we purchased several wines including one that is absolutely excellent with good chocolate. Is there such a thing as bad chocolate?

Official Pace Cars were on hand to take wine enthusiasts for a quick several laps of the race track for only $10. We jumped on that opportunity and we were given the choice of riding in a Mustang or a Dodge. I chose to ride in the Mustang since my first car was a 1965 Mustang. These pace cars are not NASCAR race vehicles and therefore are only capable of about 140 mph! MIS has a two mile track and the end turns are banked at 18 degrees. We stopped at the top of turn one and were allowed to exit the vehicle to take pictures and see what it was like to try and stand on the track. We did get up to about 120 mph in the back stretch and went into a turn at about 100 mph. We were told that the NASCAR vehicles are doing up to 200 mph in the back stretch and may go into turns around 160 mph! Even the back stretch is banked at 5 degrees to help keep the cars off the wall! The cars do not want to turn at these speeds and it takes a firm hand on the wheel to turn them. There was absolutely no signs of skidding or sliding at our lap speeds, the cars just hugged the track. We loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat!

Another event was also using MIS while we were there. Progressive Insurance is sponsoring the X-Prize, $10 million in awards to be awarded in September 2010. "Our goal is to inspire a new generation of viable, safe, affordable and super efficient vehicles that people want to buy." The target efficiency is to exceed 100 miles per gallon and the on-track competitions are all held at MIS. Over 30 teams from 8 countries had entries in this competition