It's race
day in Indianapolis!!!!
When
we purchased the tickets, Chantal purchased a Parking Pass for the lot outside
the main gate. Although traffic was
heavy, it wasn't too bad with a few side-road short-cuts we arrived at the track
with little difficulty. (Leaving will
turn out to be a night-mare - but more of that later).
It's
9:30 am when we get to the gates, and the beer stands are open and pouring
freely...
Our
seats are halfway down the front stretch (don't forget this is a 2-1/2 mile
oval - the front stretch is 1-mile long. Thus after a half mile hike through
huge crowds (sold out attendance in the stands is 250,000 people, plus approximately 50,000 other persons - facility workers, infield attendees and various other
race related people) brings the crowd to roughly 300,000 people...
By
10:00 am we are in our seats - they are perfect - roughly 50 feet from the
start/finish line 'yard of bricks', and about equal distance to the famous Indy
Position Pole. Directly across from us
is the pit of Marco Andretti, and we are
six rows up from track-side. Standing up,
we can see all the way from turn four to turn one - roughly a half mile in each
direction.
It's
Miller time! We learned previously that we were able to bring in small coolers with our own beverages, so we did just that, and didn't have to pay the high prices of beer at the track.
The
race is billed as 'The Greatest Spectacle in Motor Racing' and it's hard to
disagree. Certainly other races have
more prestige, or more famous drivers - but Indy is an incredible show...
From
the Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again" in Indiana; to the traditional fly-over
& balloon release; the various singers for the America the Beautiful, God
Bless America, The Star Spangled Banner, (Martina McBride, Florence Henderson,
Leann Rimes); and, of course, to the call to 'Drivers start your engines'; just
the preliminary bits make it an amazing spectacle. Then the race begins, and let’s just say it
was amazing! The action, the excitement,
the roar of the crowds and the action packed finish have us both hooked.
We're coming back in two years for the 100th running!!!
Only
the next time we are doing two things differently...
1.
taking a shuttle - it took over an hour to just get out of the parking lot
(remember the 300,000 people???);
2.
taking our time leaving the track…
There's my car - the only pink one, with the only female driver - she came in 26th...
No comments:
Post a Comment