Accord Speedway

So so much fun. Went as a family and had an unexpectedly funny, memorable experience.
Parking lot is 80% pick up trucks, complete with anti-​Obama bumper stickers and the whole vibe is proper small town USA ($ 3 chill dogs and who even knows what a ‘clam boat’ is?). We sat with everyone else on proper dusty bleachers and watched a progression of louder, bigger cars aggressively hurl themselves into the corners.
Real fans mingled with the local drivers. Families, red necks, young, old. Fascinating as well as fun.
The kids loved it but so did we.

A dirty and uncomfortable track in an otherwise lovely bucolic setting. Unremarkable racing. Same guys doing the same thing week after week. Lots of Purina hats, crosses, and women with missing teeth in tight pants. Although not possible, It feels like the birthplace of incest.

Pack the kids in pick up truck (or in my case the Prius, but it’s a mean Prius that thinks its a pickup ;) and head over to the Accord Speedway for some good old fashioned redneck fun for the whole family.
Just west of New Paltz and the Gunks lies the quaint little town of Accord. A sleepy town of farms, working folk, and weekenders. But from April through the fall every Friday is race night at the Accord Speedway, a dirt track just out of town, in the shadow of the Catskills.
I am not a motor sports fan. I’ve been to an F1 race and got into the moment but in general I just don’t get it. You too may have seen Nascar or F1 on TV. You may have even been to one of them. But until you see, hear, smell and taste the action in person nothing compares. Now strip away the million dollar budgets and the asphalt and you have Accord.
Cars of various sizes, shapes and powers speed around the dirt loop kicking up a tornado off dust that coats you, the stands, and your car in the parking lot. The roar of the engines, taste of dust, and smell of exhaust and concession stand fried food and sweets intermixed is intoxicating.
I went on a whim, figuring I had to experience it at least once. I’m glad I did. It was a hoot. I’m not sure I could do it every weekend. Nor could I sit through several hours of it just because the dust is overwhelming. But once, twice, with some friends on a Friday with nothing else to do? Absolutely! I challenge you to not find yourself rooting for some car you know nothing about, I did.