Pre-race

May 30, 2011



Dan & Michael





The Millers

Pre-race

The Indianapolis 500 is known almost as much for its famous traditions as for the race itself. “Back Home Again In Indiana”, the command “Ladies and Gentleman Start Your Engines”, the playing of “Taps”, the release of the balloons and the flying start are just as memorable to most fans as anything that actually happens in the race. In the 39 years that I have been attending, I have developed a few of my own traditions leading up to the race.

Michael & Oriol Servia



Many of my friends, especially those who did not grow up in Indianapolis, wonder why I return year after year for a car race. It is really difficult to explain, the race and all its trappings is such a part of me that I have trouble expressing it. From my first trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with my grandfather in 1968, to the many years that my father brought me out to the track and eventually to the race itself; no matter what was going on with our lives, the race was always a part of it. Once I became a teenager, I was often skipping school to hang out at the track- enjoying the notorious “Snake Pit” and generally behaving badly- yet always attending the race as a fan.



No matter what was happening in my life, I have made the effort to come to the race. The past 20 years, I have had to travel back from my home in Key West, attending with girlfriends, friends, family and eventually with my wife Kathy. I have held the same seats high in turn 3 for years, settling on those after having experienced the race from just about every angle over the years.



One of the relatively recent traditions, yet one of my favorites is the annual Crawfish Boil hosted by my friends Rick & Becky. They import a couple of hundred pounds of Crawfish from New Orleans and host a day before the race party for their friends each year. They moved around the corner into a new, larger house and the boil moved with them. With beer on tap provided by my two favorite brewmasters, Ted of Brugge Brasserie and Kevin from the Broad Ripple Brew Pub, the crawfish boil has excellent libations and food.



Jerome & Kevin

Tim & Andy



After the boil, we held our annual race Calcutta, where drivers are auctioned off and the money placed in a pot that is divided up between the first 5 places and last place. I teamed with my nephew Jerome to bid on two rookie drivers James Hinchcliffe and James Hildebrand- inexpensive longshots that I felt had a shot at placing near the top.



Tim, John & Shannon

Keegan & Melanie

Race day itself dawned warm and sunny, there were huge traffic jams even early – though my secret back way allowed me to avoid most of it as I made my way to the parking area on the north end of the track. My friend Dan is a lap sponsor, meaning he gets special race day pit and garage passes and he invited me to join him this year- so I met him out in the garage area early to watch the final preparations for the start of the race. My nephews, Jerome, Pat & Chris would ride over to the track together and meet me in our seats before the race started.

Michael & Jason

Dan & Pippa Mann



Richard Petty

Being in the garage, pits and grid prior to the race is a special and amazing opportunity as drivers, teams, celebrities, officials, sponsors and the like congregate as the cars are brought out and placed on the starting grid.







Mario Andretti

Carb Day 2011

May 29, 2011







Carb Day 2011

The lead-up to the Indy 500 was even more packed than usual this year with all the additional things that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway had planned to honor the centennial celebration. I tried to take in as much as possible, beginning with the final practice session prior to the race, what has been known for years as Carb Day in spite of the fact that none of the cars running in the race have had carburetors for decades.





Carb Day is actually a number of events held at the speedway on the final Friday before the race. The final one hour practice for the Indy Cars, the Freedom 100 race for the Indy Lights cars, the pit stop completion, the infamous Miller Lite Carb Day Party in the infield and the huge Carb Day Concert are all held during the day. The crowds at carb day are huge, with almost as many showing up for the concert as for any of the racing activities. In fact there are almost two distinct crowds, those that arrive early to take in the racing related stuff and those who show up later for the concert.

Staind



Rookie Drivers; Hildebrand,Hinchcliffe, Kimball, Howard & Mann

We always arrive early and sometimes stay late, though I really have little tolerance these days for the drunken, hard rock crowd that arrives for the concert. It can be and generally is a crazy drunken scene. I thought I had avoided it this year, but after leaving mid afternoon, I had to return for the Last Row Party, and the concert was still raging so I snuck over and watched it from backstage.





The race stuff was great- the weather was cooperative and the practice and Indy Lights race went off without a hitch. The Indy Lights race was crazy as 15 of the 18 starters were rookies who had never raced at the Speedway. The race thus produced a number of crazy crashes as many of the rookies crashed out. Josef Newgarden survived the chaos to win the race, under caution of course. It was still pretty exciting.



Chase Austin

The festivities also included a few practice runs for the Hot Wheels attempt at making a world record jump in a four wheel vehicle, which was accomplished on race day. Watching the practices was pretty cool and I have included this video of the actual jump.







After taking the afternoon off, I was back at the Speedway for the Last Row Party that was held at the Brickyard Crossing clubhouse. Before heading in, I walked over and caught a portion of the concert, which featured Staind and Papa Roach. I watched from back stage and thus avoided the crazy scene other than to see a parade of drunken arrestees being taken away by the massive police presence.



Hunter-Reay, Mann & Beatriz

The last row party was fun as last row starters Ana Beatriz, Pippa Mann and Ryan Hunter-Reay received cash awards of 31, 32 and 33 cents from the Press Club of Indianapolis who sponsored the event.

Ana Beatriz

Perhaps the coolest pre-race activity was held on Saturday before the race as the Speedway hosted the Indy 500 Breakfast which featured Jack Arute interviewing the likes of Roger Penske, Johnny Rutherford and moving interviews with Sam Schmidt and Al Unser Jr. while the assembled crowd enjoyed breakfast.

Jack Arute

Al Unser, Jr.

Mike Hiss

Next was the world’s largest autograph session that featured the vast majority of drivers who had ever competed in the Indy 500. Hundreds of former drivers as well as the current starters were available for autographs and even cooler, they all posed for a huge group photo Seeing many of the drivers who I have watched compete over the past 39 years was pretty cool.

Mario Andretti, Arie Lyendyk & Dario Franchitti





Teo Fabi & Dan

The Greatest Spectacle in Racing…(and Fashion)

May 28, 2011

Kevin, Matt, Pat & Ted

Florence Henderson





The Greatest Spectacle in Racing…(and Fashion)

After a quick turnaround and a few days back in Key West, I was back in Indianapolis to take part in as many of the events and activities leading up to the Centennial celebration running of The Indianapolis 500. I was determined to attend all of the usual traditional Indy events like Carb Day as well as adding some events that I had not attended during any of the 38 Indy 500 races that I have attended.

Mario

Jay Howard



The variety and number of ancillary events that surround a typical Indy 500 is amazing, and with this year marking 100 years since the first race, there was an increased interest in every aspect of the race. It would be impossible to do all the events, so I concentrated on a few that I had never been to.

Takuma Sato

Lindy Thackson & Ian Beekhuis

The first was the Cara Charities Fashion Show which was held at the beautiful Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis on Thursday prior to the race. This charity event is celebrating its 30th anniversary, yet I had never had a lot of desire to go, even though I am a member and supporter of Cara (Championship Auto Racing Auxiliary). Cara was formed by a group of Drivers’ wives, including Betty Rutherford who remains active to this day. The group raises thousands of dollars annually for a host of children’s charities.

Michele & Mario Andretti

Mario



The event was chaired by legendary driver Mario Andretti, who was ironically also attending his first fashion show and emceed by Bob Jenkins. I invited my sister Michele, who works at Saks Fifth Avenue and has a much more refined sense of fashion than I do and who I thought would appreciate the fashion aspect. In addition to the plethora of beautiful young Brazilian models, I enjoyed seeing the drivers and their families as well as a few celebrities modeling clothes from mostly Brazilian designers. It was a lot of fun and Michele was thrilled to get a chance to meet one of the icons from her childhood, Carol Brady aka Florence Henderson, who was one of the participants.

Michele & Florence



James Hinchcliffe

Pat & Kevin

Tim, Ted & Matt

The Indy 500 is always about more than the race for me- it is about seeing tons of old friends and tradition and one of our traditions is to attend Carb Day- the last official practice before the race itself which is held at the track. This year, as always, I met a group of friends at the track to take in all the activities that make up carb day. This year my friend Tim flew back from California and my buddy Pat drove up from Southern Indiana to be there. They joined a host of local friends to enjoy the day.

Pat & Ana Beatriz







The weather was great and the carb day crowd was spectacular as fans packed into the Speedway to watch the practice, the Indy Lights race, pit stop competition and Rock concert that featured Papa Roach and Staind this year.

Ray Harroun - 95 year old son of 1911 Indy Winner





Eric, Tim & Tim

Cara Charities