Friday, March 11, 2005 | 11:35 a.m.
Last year the closest Darrell Langford of Boulder, Mont., came to the annual UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 NASCAR race was watching it on TV.
Even though he received frequent updates via phone from a friend who was in Las Vegas attending the race, he was still stuck at home.
So when a friend this year offered to pack up a massive RV and drive 870 miles to attend the race, he jumped at the chance.
"This is the big one, and I'm really excited," he said while sitting on a lawn chair at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Thursday. He was sitting in the shade of a mobile home among the tightly packed rows of RVs and travel trailers in the infield parking lot.
Langford, a longtime fan of NASCAR racing but a self-described "virgin" when it comes to attending the events live, is just one of more than 155,000 racing enthusiasts expected to attend this weekend's race.
Last year 142,600 people attended the NASCAR race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and spent $85 million in non-gaming expenditures, said Marina Nicola, spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Julie Hendrickson, from Helena, Mont., said this is one of the family's "biggest vacations of the year."
Hendrickson, who drove to Las Vegas for the NASCAR race with her family and Langford's family, was camped next to her mobile home. The family had set up a cooler and small barbecue and was preparing for the weekend's excitement.
The group spent two days on the road and arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday. They plan to stay and watch the races during the weekend and return to Montana on Monday.
"This is just really, really fun," said Hendrickson, who had attended four previous NASCAR races at the speedway. "When you're from Montana, it's fun to come out here during the winter."
Others from Northern states were also relishing the 80-plus degree weather of Las Vegas.
Chris Griffin and six of his co-workers had driven from Roseburg, Ore., to attend the NASCAR race, and were camped out on the top of a converted trailer, baking under the hot sun.
Griffin, an employee of Sprinter Trucking, had never attended a NASCAR race but said he was enjoying himself.
One employee from Sprinter Trucking, Dennis Wambolt, was reclining in a folding chair and, with binoculars in hand, tracked the jets from Nellis Air Force Base flying overhead.
"Besides going to the beach or hunting, this is the only vacation we get," he said.
Another of the all-male group, Vern Snurdly, put it more bluntly.
"It's something the women don't like, so it's perfect," he said.
Ken Woods, the owner of Sprinter Trucking, had coordinated the trip for his co-workers. He said he spent a total of $2,300 on parking spots alone for the converted trailer and two RV spots at the infield lot and another $2,700 on fuel, food and drinks.
"This is the closest NASCAR race we could come to," he said.
Others from all over the country are converging on Las Vegas this weekend for the race, and many will be staying in various hotels on the Strip and beyond.
The Regional Transportation Commission will be running specialized CAT bus services for the NASCAR fans who aren't camping out at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with service running from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
The buses will pick up passengers at various Strip hotels, such as the MGM Grand or the Flamingo, said Sue Christiansen, spokeswoman for the RTC. The hourlong ride will cost $5 one way.
Last year the CAT buses took 76,000 passengers over a four-day period from the Strip to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 race, she said. Since that was a 23,000 passenger increase from 2003, she expects the CAT buses will bring even more fans this year to the race.
Ron Woodsford, from Sacramento, didn't need any bus service. He had been camped out at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway since Sunday and will remain in the trailer parking lot until Monday.
Woodsford and his son, Ronny Jr., had both planned for an entire year to come to this weekend's race, with Woodsford getting a week off from his job as a union tile setter and Ronny Jr. getting an excused week off from high school.
"He is going to have to do a little homework at night, though," Woodsford said.
The two, who described themselves as longtime fans of NASCAR racing, had put up a large banner for local racer Kurt Busch on the front of their RV.
When asked why they enjoyed the races so much, Ronny Jr. answered simply, "the speed."
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