"What happens at BIR, stays at BIR"

I was sent to Brainerd International Raceway today to interview campers who were up this week for the 2006 Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, which begins Thursday. As a local who often has been annoyed to have to drive around all the busy traffic at the track as I headed home from Brainerd, I never saw the allure in watching the drag races.

But after talking with several campers who absolutely live for this event, I realized how much fun it can be. A group of 50 campers from Wisconsin create an unbelievable party campsite each year, a great way for racing fans to hang out with their favorite NHRA drivers and their pit crews. The campsite has two outdoor pool tables, a massive sound system with a dozen speakers, couches, love seats — you name it, they've got it.

While at BIR, I interviewed not a bunch of gearheads like I thought I would, but truly nice people. One guy spent two hours this morning helping to fix another camper's golf cart, a person he didn't know until today. Shoot, I had three people offer me cans of ice-cold beer, which would have been great in the 80-plus degree weather but a not-so-great thing to do when you're working. This kind of stuff never happens to me at city council meetings.

I was telling this to a BIR staffer, who said I should have taken them up on the offer.

"What happens at BIR, stays at BIR," he assured me in a hushed tone.

It was too funny.

Check out my story on BIR camping at the Brainerd Dispatch Web site Wednesday.