[caption id="attachment_264" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Inside Stand #1"] [/caption] A new milestone was accomplished this weekend for the Big Red Crew at the Indy Car Race from Richmond Raceway.  With the help of my friend Salim of Amira Enterprises, my main concession supply wholesaler, we had two set ups.  One was under the new tower where we were for the Nascar race in May, the other out on the compound in the food court. Salim also provided several of his employees who are quite proficient in cooking funnel cakes and proved invaluable to me on Saturday night. Friday was terribly slow at both locations with stand #2 leading in sales mainly from bottled drinks. The only really busy time was the hour during the autograph session held on the compound. [caption id="attachment_265" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Outside Stand #2"] [/caption] Saturday during the day, #2 stayed steady.  Jean, Peggy and I spent the day staring at each other and cleaning up from the storm that past through Richmond around midnight. At 6pm, all hell broke loose.  In the matter of five minutes or so, we had a huge line and it stayed that way until after the race about 11 pm.  As the outside booth slowed down, Salim sent one of his guys in to help and after the race started, Salim came in.   Salim and Caesar handled the fryers, Peggy and Jean manned the register and sugaring.  I mixed batter and kept the pitchers full.  When everything was going, we were turning out 6 funnel cakes per minute.  And still the line was incredible. [caption id="attachment_266" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="View from Stand #2 in the Early Morning before the Crowds"] [/caption] When all was said and done, we were very close to our sales from May.  That was quite an accomplishment since I was told to expect about 25% of sales from the Nascar race. The inside booth edged the outside booth by about $100 even though they sold three times the bottled drinks we did and a case more corndogs. Bottom line--another very good outing.  Hopefully, the future might see us doing some other tracks in this region of Americrown. Once again, I can't say enough about the Americrown folks.  They are really great to vendors like us even down to the guys that keep us supplied with ice and the crew that is constantly cleaning up and emptying trash.  And, of course, Todd and Danny from RIR's Americrown office, checked on us regularly and offered advice on how we can improve for our next race.  They are a wonderful resource for us as well.  One of the suggestions was a shuffling of equipment so that the inside stand should be able to produce 10 funnel cakes per minute.  There is also a good chance that we'll have two stands inside for the Nascar race in September. So, it's back to baseball after a couple days of bookeeping and cleaning equipment.  I'll be leaving the farm on Thursday for a home stand with the P Nats over the 4th weekend including a game on Saturday that is sold out.  Should be huge.  And, just maybe, we'll get a needed break in the weather.