Denver

August 13, 2006

Sebastian Bourdais

Robert Earl Keen



Wow! Sometimes we have managed to pack so much into a day that it seems like a week. Yesterday was just such a day. It started early when we awoke and had a hearty hotel breakfast before heading into downtown Denver to attend practice and qualifying for the Grand Prix of Denver.

The Grand Prix of Denver is a street race through the streets of the city around the Pepsi Center (home of NBA’s Denver Nuggets) and Six Flags. They race mainly on twisty road circuits rather than standard the oval tracks that the rival Indy Racing League or NASCAR generally utilizes. We were able to get Pit/ Paddock passes that allowed us access to the garage area where they work on the cars and gave us the chance to see and meet the drivers and to watch the teams work on the cars. The cool thing about this race series is that they realize that many people come more for the event than because they are actual race fans, so they have a variety of special events held in conjunction with the racing. They had a beach volleyball pit; X-games style motorcycle jumping, a huge Midway full of vendors and activities, a family fun center featuring rides and games and music featuring groups like G-Love & Special Sauce.



Thankfully it wasn’t too crowded back in the garage area and we were able to mingle and meet a variety of the drivers including Sebastian Bourdais, Paul Tracy, A.J. Allmendinger (pictured below) and others. We also got to see and photograph actor Paul Newman who owns one of the teams. We missed seeing, in person at least, actor Frankie Munoz of the show, “Malcolm in the Middle”. He is actually driving a race car in one of the minor league support races. We will return today to watch the actual races as yesterday we only stayed to watch practice and qualifying.

A.J. Allmendinger & Michael

Paul Newman

After a swim and brief rest at the hotel, we headed back downtown for the evening portion of our entertainment, the Robert Earl Keen show at the Fillmore. Once there we ate dinner at a truly seedy bar called the Rosyln Grill a couple of blocks from the venue. The food was decent and the ambiance was what made it so cool. Think of the seediest bar you have seen and go down a notch or two and you’ll have this place.



We thought the show was at 8 because that is what it said on the tickets, but Robert Earl did not come on until 10, giving us plenty of time to drink at the awesome venue. It also gave me time to bid on a trip backstage to meet Robert prior to the show as part of a benefit for the Denver Texas A& M alumni scholarship fund. Well, some kid is going to be a little farther along with his education cause I got to go backstage for a meet and greet prior to the show.

Robert Earl & Michael

The show itself was amazing, playing for more than 2 hours, Robert and his band lived up to their legendary live performance reputation. If this band comes anywhere near your town, do yourself a favor and go. If you want to know more or hear music samples, click on the link below.

Champ Car Website

Robert Earl Keen Homepage