Race fans get up close and personal with drivers

Dan Kulin

Monday, March 8, 2004 | 11:23 a.m.

On Sunday, Mario Sottile had everything a NASCAR fan could hope for: sunblock, a scanner and headphones, a camera, a hat promoting his favorite driver, Tony Stewart -- and, perhaps most precious of all, a pass to roam the infield garages.

The pass let Sottile stand inches away from the race cars as they were pushed around to be measured and inspected by NASCAR officials before the start of the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"I love NASCAR. I love stock car racing, it's a sickness," Sottile, 62, an insurance agent from Los Angeles, said. "I love the speed, the women ... I mean the scenery."

And being down in the infield garages at the speedway was quite an experience, he said.

"Maybe one-tenth of 1 percent of all people get down to the garages. We get to see up close what's going to go 190 to 200 miles per hour," he said.

For Jerry Anderson, only his telephoto lens would get him as close as Sottile.

Anderson leaned against the black metal fence separating him from the garage area, his camera aimed through the fence poles, over a Dumpster and poised to catch local driver Kurt Busch's car coming out of the garage.

Although he was on the outside looking in to the garages, Anderson was one of the thousands who turned the middle of the infield into a small city of motor homes and campers.

Anderson, 60, a counselor at Boulder City High School, eschewed the comforts of home since Thursday, staying on the infield, where he was removed from the worries of fighting traffic to and from the race.

"We're here for everything," Anderson said. "We're here early and we can stay late."

Javier Trevizo, 39, of Oceanside, Calif., said being on the infield "is almost like you're in the race."

Trevizo and his family were parked at the entrance to pit row, a great place, he said, to see all the cars.

Sure to not miss any of the action, many fans had their scanners and headphones, plus televisions.

The scanners let the fans listen in on the the drivers and crews as they talk to each other during the race.

The television, Sandy Luiz said, was for watching replays of whatever excitement happens or is missed.

Luiz, 61, of Lido, Calif., was among three generations of the Luiz/Kettelman family at the race. The youngest, 6-month-old Graydin Kettelman, had another one of the necessities for many race fans -- ear plugs.

The roar of the Thunderbirds flying low over the speedway was loud, but easily outdone by the screaming race-car engines circling the track.

The noise was too much for some.

About an hour after the start of the race, Chris Gamble, 33, of Henderson, and Aron Pym, 25, of Las Vegas, were back in the parking sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck.

"It was awesome, it just wasn't for me," Gamble said. "It was just a little too crowded and noisy. I wasn't prepared for all the noise."

But for those inside, while some complained about the traffic getting to the track, and others wished there were more portable toilets, for many the combination of sunny, warm weather and a NASCAR race was exactly what they wanted.

"It's the whole spectacle of it," Sara Lansford, 32, of Newport Beach, Calif., said. "The speed, the bumping, every bit of it."

John Kraft, 32, of Council, Idaho, said: "Lots of rubbing, racing, crashes, rivalries, the full nine yards."