Singing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway
On Wednesday, April 9th, our Mom, Aunt Mama, Jackie and I all went out to the Speedway for our sound check. It was a great experience and everything went very smoothly and everyone was so helpful and we had tons of fun!Then on Sunday, April 13, 2008, was the big performance!
At around 9:30 am, we drove out to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway! Which, by the way, is awesome! At about 9:45, we arrived, we felt so special because we were told to park with the “Media” up close to the track. Then, we met up with Jeff Motley, the Senior Director of Public Relations for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, just to make sure we knew where he wanted us and when.
This is funny, after we got there, we were standing randomly by the track, and the many photographers came up to us, asking if we were the National Anthem singers, and we excitedly said, “yes! We are!” The next thing we knew, flashes were going off, and everyone was yelling directions to look this way! And look that way, so they could take our pictures, it was a shooting frenzy, but exciting!
We’ve never had that happen before and all the excitement was making us anxious, but in a good way. We realized that we were about to sing at a very large venue for a very large crowd, and it felt like that’s where we belonged!
About fifteen minutes before we sang, we ran into Mr. Powell, Executive VP and General Manager of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and when he was talking to us, he said, “well girls, are you excited to sing in front of 15,000 people and on National TV?!” I stepped back and took a big deep breath. To be honest, we hadn’t thought about how many people would be watching this on TV, let alone another 15,000 or so in the stands!!!!!
Mollie, Mr. Powell, and Jackie
At around 10:45, people led us across the track, near the pit, and onto a blue strip that our shoes stuck to. We don’t know what it was we were sticking to, but maybe it was a good thing, because the winds had gusts up to 50 mph that morning! someone who knows about cars would probably know why. Anyway, we stood there for a while and calmed down, but we still had an edge of excitement as photographers continued to take our picture.
It was almost time to sing!
We were introduced, as The Singer Twins, and the Nellis Air-force Color Guard said, “Present Arms.” We paused out of respect for the flag and the Color Guard for a moment, and Jackie and I simultaneously began singing the National Anthem. It was so much fun!!
After we finished, we handed over our microphones to the announcers, and immediately plugged our ears, it’s amazing how loud 130 decibels can be! Who would’ve thunk that one little dragster could make SO much noise!
We were led back across the track and taken to our seats so we could enjoy our very first day at the race track! What a blast! The NHRANationals were a lot of fun and we’re now huge fans of drag racing!
Mollie and Jackie, and Missy Powell, wife of LVMS General Manager, and Jackie having a blast in the box!
Mollie, Jackie, and Jeff, this is the man who went out of his way to be helpful, thanks Jeff, we really appreciate everything you do for us!
As a matter of fact, while we were watching the races, all of a sudden, a beautiful car was brought onto the track to prepare for the race. In the background we heard the announcer speaking about JDRF, and as all of us looked closer at the car, we realized it was Cody “Flash” Perkins and his JDRF car!! The story of the car is so interesting because he covered his car with JDRF to help raise awareness for Juvenile Diabetes. We didn’t happen to meet this special hero, but maybe someday we’ll have a chance to thank him in person! You go Cody!!! :)
Singing at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was amazing, it’s something we’ll definitely always remember. We had so much fun!
And we took this picture of this truck because it belongs to a good friend who happens to be one of the co-owners of one of the hottest Country bars in Las Vegas called Stoney’s! :]
Thank you to everybody at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway! :]