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So, as many of you know, I was at the Indy 500 last weekend. I bid and won on a ticket package at a charity auction. It included 2 tickets, some signed stuff from Danica and Buddy of Rahal-Letterman Racing, and hospitality passes at the RLR tent.
I really wasn't sure what to expect. Let me tell you, it was a blast. Got to the track around 9 AM. Had about a 1/2 mile walk to the gate, and then another mile or so to the seats. On the way to the seats, we decided to check out the RLR tent to see what it was about.
Buffet, drinks, some shade, a place to sit. OK, this is nice, we can kill some time here. Then I notice Bobby Rahal just walking around. Talks to some people, then heads to the pit area. Cool I thought.
Next is an announcement in the tent - "If you have pit passes, the tour leaves now" I don't have a pit pass, so oh well. Then another announcement a few minutes later - "If you don't have a pit pass, gather here now". So we go. Turns out, we get a tour of the trailer area, have an engineer show us Danica's backup car, and take us around the area. Very cool.
Back to the tent. Another announcement - "Meet an Greet in a few minutes." Sure enough, Rahal comes back out and talks for a few minutes, then introduces his co-owner, David Letterman. Then Danica Patrick, Buddy Rice and Jeff Simmons their three drivers, and finally Graham Rahal who won his race in a different series the week before. The whole time their talking, I'm at the 2nd table, about 15 feet away, tops.
So the festivities end, and we go over to the seats. Watch the race, head back to the tent to cool off, eat/drink some more and let the traffic break. Head back to my cousin's in Ohio for the night.
Let me say I was ill-prepared for this. They did the warm up laps ( at a caution speed of about 95 MPH). Then a pace lap to get them to speed, which between turns 1 and 2 (where my seats were), was about 160 MPH. LOUD AS SH!T! Then, "GREEN FLAG OUT, THE RACE HAS STARTED" and they come by at 220 - I'm nearly knocked off my ass where I was sitting taking some pics.
My seats were 10th row, about 40-50 feet from the barrier. I was able to sit for periods of time on the stairs, about 15 feet from the barrier. Very exhilarating, and difficult, as they go by so fast it's tough to see them. Here's a bunch of pics I thought were decent, or had something in them:
At the hospitality tent: Rahal and Letterman
Then Danica came out to say Hi!
The trailer area had the backup car
and we walked past the pits to see Michael's car being wheeled out:
The famous pagoda
Some of the cars that actually framed well. I was playing with the shutter speed, so some of the blur is intentional. The clear 'frozen' pics had a shutter speed of 1/2500th of a sec, while the most blurriest had a setting of 1/50th of a sec.
I moved up in the stands to get these next two shots.
The last one is of Sam Hornish chasing down Marco Andretti on the last lap.
did graham rahal race a yellow s2000? he has a yellow s2000 he races that they bought from the toyota dealership i work for. we traded it in and then rahal bought it
glad you had fun gary!!!! looks like a freakin blast!!!!
Looks like a blast. I have wanted to go to the Indy 500. Maybe in the future, my boys and I can go, once they are old enough. My wife is pregnant with twins, so It'll have to wait a few years at least.
Gary, I just flew back from Indy today, I was there on business but arrived on Tuesday after the race. A co-worker was at the race, He has been going for 25 yrs. He showed me the track and town yesterday. I noticed a lot of
Finally, some Indy pics
