I am not a big racing fan. I do enjoy going to the Indy 500 every year with one of my best friends, Jimmy Drescher. He is a big fan of racing. So once again, we head down I-65 toward Indianapolis. This is not an exciting drive, let's face it, Indiana is not an exciting state. This is a great time to catch up with each other and enjoy some good music. But wait just a corn growing minute...what do I see across the horizon for as far as the eye can see...which is pretty fucking far in this flat state.
It is hundreds of electricity generating wind turbines. I'm very impressed by this recent development. Hell, most of this state just got indoor plumbing and now they are attempting to generate power without using coal. I might have to rethink my opinion of this state. I looked this up online and found that farmers get between $4000-$8000 a year per turbine on their land. So another benefit for the local farmers. This was a good start to my day.
Jimmy wants to get some souvenirs so I sit on my cooler to eat my fried breaded pork sandwich. Sure it is barely 10am, so what, I only eat this sandwich once a year. Across from me is Danica Patrick's trailer, she never wins a race but might be the most famous driver here. I'll admit she's pretty cute for a race car driver. Big deal, there really isn't much competition in that category. I guess she got booed here during time trials for ripping her pit crew. She also got booed today when they announced her. I guess being cute doesn't impress race fans.
Here's a shot from our seats. We sit on the infield side of the track not far from the finish line. Once again we got Sarah Fisher's pit in front of us. We never have any good driver's pit in front of us.
It was getting very hot early in the day. It ended up being 95 degrees and 130 degrees on the track. It was the hottest temperatures of any race day in Indy history. By 1:30 pm I was asking the 10 guys in kilts sitting in front of us where I could buy one right now. Thank God I powdered myself with Anti-Monkey Butt powder this morning.
Since it is Memorial Day weekend, there is always a big military presence and tribute. These soldiers got a standing ovation from everybody in the stands.
The annual fly by was impressive but nothing has ever come close to the year the Harrier Jet stopped over the grandstand and rotated 360 degrees while hovering above us. We could feel the powerful jets blowing down on us. That was the greatest fly by in my 25 years at Indy.
Here's the parade lap at the start of the race. I have no idea why the loser wearing a mood ring in front of me stuck his hand in the air.
Here's Jimmy listening to the drivers talk to their pit crews. After looking at that face, I needed something else to look at....
....now this is much better, a hot red head wearing short shorts and cowboy boots.
Here's Sarah Fisher's pit crew in action. It is kind of cool to watch these guys in action up close.
One advantage of our seat location is walking along the pits to take pictures. I needed to get out of the sun for awhile today. It was very hot sitting on shiny metal bleachers in the sun. I could hear my fat sizzling so I took a walk to get some shade and a pretzel. I needed the salt.
It was almost a great finish but a late yellow flag let Dario Franchitti coast to a win. That was fine with me because he was one of my drivers. I won both bets against Jimmy this year. I also had Mario Moraes who finished the lowest of both our drivers. Jimmy felt shame losing to someone who had never heard of half the drivers today.
On the walk back to the car, we passed this kid (big day for kilts I guess) playing the bagpipes for the sun drenched crowd leaving the track. I am a big fan of street musicians so I'll end with this picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment