[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Big Red's Inside Stand at RIR"] [/caption] The Big Red Crew had a record breaking weekend at the Chevy Rock and Roll 400 at Richmond Raceway.  And, it featured our first offering of gyros at the races. Everything started on Wednesday which was set up day.  We had our usual location inside at the base of the Commonwealth Tower where we've been for the past two races at RIR.  There we offered funnel cakes, corn dogs, and lamb, beef or chicken gyros.  Outside, on the vendor row food court, we offered funnel cakes and corn dogs. Thursday was stocking day and the health department inspection.  That meant I did a lot of lifting heavy objects (not my favorite past time.)  But, it had to get done. [caption id="attachment_326" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Outside Stand on Vendor Row at RIR"] [/caption] We opened Friday and had a disappointingly slow day.  But, things started rolling in the late afternoon around qualifying and for the Nationwide series race Friday night. Saturday, the outside booth was busy during the day and inside we got slammed starting about 4 PM.  We had huge lines all night despite our increased fire power allowing us to kick out 10 funnel cakes per minute. [caption id="attachment_327" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The Aroma Was Fabulous"] [/caption] In the end, we set records for our biggest day ever, our biggest weekend ever, and our biggest week ever.  The gyros did very well but nothing could compare with the volume of funnel cakes we put out. Next spring at the Richmond races, we'll probably make a couple of changes moving the gyros outside where during the day people are more interested in lunch type items.  That will give us more room inside and help produce more funnel cakes faster.  I like the proposed changes.  They make sense and I thank Todd and his crew from Americrown for coming up with the ideas. [caption id="attachment_328" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Kaitlyn on the Cash Register"] [/caption] While Peggy, Kaitlyn, Chuck, Ryan, Tyler, Gene, Herb and myself were toiling away in Richmond, Tank, Jean and crew were doing the Liberty home opening football game from Big Red.  It was great to be back at Liberty after a year hiatus and the game went well also.  It was a close game so fans were more interested in watching the game rather than getting their funnel cakes so it wasn't a record setting game, but another very solid outing for us there.  And those numbers certainly added to our new records at the end of the night. [caption id="attachment_329" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Gene, the Gyro Master"] [/caption] This week, Peggy and I will be at JMU for their home opener on Saturday.  It's the first week in a long time that I only have one event.  But, it should be a good one. Just a little teaser for my many readers  (both of you). Plans are well underway for the Funnel Cake Fandango, the national tour of Big Red in March.  It's looking like there may be stops in Cincinnati, Chicago, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft Worth and Austin, TX for the SXSW Conference.  Then stops in Houston, New Orleans and Nashville on the way home.  Something tells me there will be a lot more details about that coming soon.