Carb Day 2022

 

May 29, 2022

Carb Day 2022

Carb Day has always been a big deal to me, it is the final practice prior to the Indy 500 and with this being my 50^th year of attending the race, carb day was especially important. It has always been a day of reunion with many friends who gather for the event each year and this year, I had invited a dozen of my friends to join me in the suite on carb day at the speedway.

The festivities actually began the previous evening as Kathy, James, Matt and Debbie left the Last Row Party and headed into Broad Ripple where a group of our out-of-town friends were already meeting at Hop Cat beer bar. They had already arrived en masse, when we got there and we took over a complete section of the bar with about 25 friends on hand. 

The group included a majority of the Davis family clan who arrived from various locales including Evansville, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio. This year, for the first time, a number of second-generation members who are somehow now old enough to drink in bars were on hand as well and it was a joyous, multigenerational gathering. Most of those on hand would not be attending carb day at the track, so this gave me an opportunity to catch up and thankfully my guests from out of town were patient and accommodating.

It was a fun night cap and was only just the beginning of the carb day frivolity. The next morning, we were up early and headed out to the track where I wanted to make sure that my guests, Matt, Deb and James were able to explore the track, tour the garage and pits and basically get the lay of the land before things at carb day got too crazy as they always seem to.

We went through the garage area and the pits while the two hour Indy car practice was happening and then went over to the museum, so they could check that out and absorb a bit of Indy 500 history. They seemed to enjoy it all and throughout the day we would head up to the suite to enjoy food and libations with the throng that was gathering.

All of my friends eventually made it up to the suite, where they were able to check out pit passes of their own, so that they too could tour the pits and garage area and see the sights and sounds of carb day. It was so fun to hang out with so many of my friends at once, though I must admit it got a little overwhelming trying to see and spend time with all of them, but I know they had a good time and that is what is the important thing.

I know that Deb would have no doubt preferred to stay at the Speedway to watch the carb day concert which featured Morris Day and the Time, Rick Springfield and a supergroup of aging rock stars called the Kings of Chaos, but we were scheduled to head over to Brownsburg, Indiana to another race track, Lucas Oil Raceway or as it is known locally Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP).

I have acquired a small portion of ownership in a Midget racing team (Abacus Racing) and they were having their first race that I had been able to see during the Carb Night Classic. Our driver, the young and talented Maria Cofer was to be competing on the asphalt surface.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature intervened and we were not able to stick around for the actual race, as it took forever to dry the track and we had already had a very, very long day. We saw a few of the road to Indy races and were able to hang out in the pits and see Maria as well as in the team’s Suite above the track. It was a fun time, but we just were too exhausted to stay up all night watching racing, we also had a very busy weekend ahead.