It’s Friday, it’s rained most of the night and today we expect to see many campers in all varieties of vehicles arrive for the weekend of festivities.
After a great egg, bacon & hash brown breakfast prepared by J-P & myself, the gang decided to go for a walk down Georgetown Road towards the IMS museum. Much has changed in the 30 years that have passed since Dean & I first visited the Indy500 in 1992. Gone are the bikers, the Christian cross carriers and the masses of beer-can throwing goons of the early Nineties… Instead the atmosphere seems relaxed but ready for a party. Maybe we’re a day early.
The walk along Georgetown Road brings back many memories and it’s carburetion day so the cars are on track…. The noise outside as we’re walking past while the drivers are practicing make the hairs on my arms stand on end…. We’re back! It’s not just a race, it’s an experience that one never forgets and even years later the sights, smells and sounds take me back to that first visit. No wonder people come back year after year trying to relive the memories of their first visit.
We arrive at the main gate and follow the sidewalk around the track outside of Turn-1. BANG! The sound is unforgettable, a car has just hit the outside wall in Turn-1 just through the fence and under the grandstand from where we were walking. Colton Herta lost the rear of his car, contacted the wall at about 200 mph and the car flipped upside down with him in it. We walked further along the sidewalk to where we could see a large screen within the track and saw that the medics extract him from the wrecked car. He walked away waving at the fans. Amazing.
Arriving at the tunnel to the museum we purchased tickets into the track and then walked through the tunnel to the IMS museum.
The IMS museum has all of the winning Indy500 cars back to the first race in 1911. Not all are on display, but a great selection from the past 111 years is available to view at any given time. A few are shown below.
After touring the IMS museum, we headed over towards the grandstand to locate our seats that we will be in for the race on Sunday. As there are 235,000 seats at this track, it’s good to know where yours are before the morning of the race.
Arriving at our seats we found that the PitStop challenge was underway immediately in front of our section and so stayed to watch the event. Amazing to watch the teams perform a timed 4 wheel tyre change and fueling in just a few seconds.
Returning to the campground we arrived during yet another rain shower during which two more people joined us from Ottawa. Brian and Aiden who are both friends of Dean and Cathy and are visiting the Indy500 for the first time.
As the evening wore on, the party intensified as groups all around us relaxed and began the celebration of the US Memorial Day weekend. We are confident that the rain of the past few days will be replaced by sunshine for the weekend, so here’s the hoping for warmer and dryer weather!