Race Parties

May 30, 2010

Jerome

Laura, Kristi, Jody & Amanda



Race Parties

The Indianapolis 500 is so much more than just a single day event, Indianapolis comes alive during the month of May and there are so many ancillary events that are held in conjunction with the race that it is impossible not to find any number of things to do. The Saturday prior to the race packs events in, taking advantage of all the people in town for the race. The sheer scale and variety of events from the 500 Festival Parade, to the many private parties, to just about every bar in town hosting some sort of Indy 500 event to the actual public driver’s meeting at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, I had all sorts of options.

Robin Roberts

John Andretti



I am sort of a traditionalist though and I had some events pre-selected to attend, so mostly only my morning was free. I opted to head out to the track to take in the Indy Downforce meeting and the driver’s meeting. They had Randy Bernard, new CEO of the Indy Racing League, Three time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford and Indy Lights Driver Pippa Mann as the speakers. Pippa Mann was there in spite of still being sore from her accident in the previous day’s race, which was pretty cool and says a lot about the type of person she is.

Pippa Mann

Sarah Fisher

The evening had me back at one of my personal favorite Indy 500 traditions, the annual Crawfish Boil hosted by my friends Rick & Becky. Attended by a nice crowd of friends, the party brings together a wonderful group of families and friends for another beautiful evening of munching on the hundreds of pounds of Crawfish flown in from New Orleans, in spite of the Oil Spill which threatened to impact the availability of Crawfish and derail the party, but which thankfully did not.







My nephew Jerome, is relocating back to Indianapolis and is interested in possibly becoming a Brew Master, so I invited him to the boil as three of the preeminent beer brewers in Indiana just happen to attend (and supply their tasty beer), Ted from the Broad Ripple Brew Pub, Omar from the Alcatraz Brewing Company and Ted from Brugge. It is one of the added bonuses of attending the party.

Ted & Kevin prep the beer.





The only bad thing is that at the same time, another big reunion of friends is happening only a few blocks away at the Monkey’s Tale bar in Broad Ripple, the “Indy In May Reunion” is organized by my friend Rosie and a huge group of friends gather to reconnect. People who grew up in the Broad Ripple area return in what looks like an older version of the old Dawson Lake “Summer Nights” parties from the 80s.

Stuart, Stephanie & Therin

Jody, Scotty & Amanda





It makes it difficult for me to have to rush back and forth between parties in an attempt to see as many people as possible, but it sure is great to get to see so many old friends. The night wraps up with the big Calcutta back at the Crawfish Boil, where I teamed up with my friend Kevin to bid on drivers, we ended up with Will Power of team Penske, which seemed like a great pick at the time. Our evening concluded with a small group of us heading over to the Alley Cat lounge for a night cap, just like old times.