Tiny cars. High stakes.

Those four words alone are what motivated me to go to the Waiting Room on Tuesday. to see the Tiny Car Racing Club championship races, which concluded a nail-biting tournament that had spanned the previous five weeks.

Essentially, tiny car racing is a social sport. However, when you see a man giving his wife a pep talk/back massage before her race and when you see 20-something-year-old men performing numerous test runs to warm up, you start to wonder: is this

for real?

Oh, it’s for real. The Tiny Car Racing Club has existed for the last three years but has recently seen a dip in the number of participants due to the unseasonably warm weather.  Let’s be honest, would you make it a point to go to the Tiny Car Races in a dark concert venue if it was beautiful outside?

The set up was minimal: just a straight, lonely Hot Wheels track sitting in the middle of the concert venue on the ground in front of a stage. What was cool about the track was the technology enabling spectators to see who won.

As soon as a little light flashes green, competitors step down on a pedal and watch their chosen tiny cars zip down the track and through two gates. Each gate has a red light that only turns on when a car has gone through it. The principle is pretty much identical to the Slip ’N Slides that the coolest kids had in elementary school with the gates at the end. The first gate to light up red is the winner.

There are diehard followers of the annual tournament with nicknames like “Mr. Red,” and I’ve been told that there’s actually quite a bit of reaction time/athleticism involved in timing your pedal-push. Not everyone can be a tiny car-racing champion; it takes skill.

The Tiny Car Racing Club races are scheduled for 6 p.m. but actually start at 7 p.m. due to a social hour/pot luck that precedes the main event.

While my friend and I were treated to homemade chili, jambalaya, gourmet cupcakes, a raffle and a long conversation with the event coordinators, we couldn’t help but notice how welcoming everyone was. For some reason I had imagined a more exclusive club-like atmosphere.

What I’m saying is, when you think there’s nothing to do in Omaha, and there’s crappy weather outside, look a little harder. There are possibilities everywhere. The activity might be weird and pointless, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.