I arrived in Richmond shortly after midnight last Wednesday. I was supposed to get up at seven to head over to the Richmond International Speedway to meet up with Danica Patrick. Unfortunately I was awoken at about 5:30 to the hotel's fire alarm. So I quickly grabbed all my belongings and headed out to the track early. I know nothing about racecar driving so I was shocked to see how big the speedway is. I was dropped off at the front gate of the track and then realized I needed to be on the other side. I was meeting Danica at her motor home which was parked by all of the other drivers. So I started walking to the actual track. By the time I reached her I had walked close to 2 miles (carrying photos). I forgot to mention that is was over 100 degrees at the speedway.
Anyway, Danica and her father had set up tables outside of their motorhome. I began setting up mini-helmets, replica cars and photos. The heat was brutal. After about ten minutes I was drenched. It was definitely a Ted Striker moment for me as you can see from the photos. The signing itself went great. Danica was really interesting. She explained a little bit about racing and the preparation that goes into it. There was an entire crew working at the track Thursday preparing the cars and the speedway for a Saturday night race. All the product came out awesome especially the mini-helmets (which she signs in silver on the visor). After boxing up the product I cooled off for a few minutes and then headed to the airport. As I was leaving I noticed the temperature posted at a nearby bank. It was 105 degrees. I couldn't wait to get back to New York where my air conditioned apartment and an exciting weekend of signings were awaiting me.