I'm back, sorry for the long delay.
Day 3 dawned like the others except with a massive hangover. When we got to the track, John had a bloody mary, I went straight for Fosters girls.
The morning would be the final F1 practice before qualy, then after qualy, the lower classes would begin racing.
Final F1 practice was not bad, though in the previous practice sessions there was more cars as I think five teams were alotted a 3rd car. There was very little sandbagging, all the teams were out in a rush. And it was exciting to watch F1 cars and I was in heaven, the hangover taken care of by more beer.
In 2005, F1 did the single car qualifying, which helped if you were taking pictures of the cars since you could focus on just one car. It was great, little did I know F1 would tweak qualifying the next year so it would be much more exciting. I think Jarno got the pole, kind of hard to remember.
Following the qualifying, the Porsche Michelin Supercup series ran. There was lots of cars and some good carnage in turn 1. We had to follow it on the jumbotron. As they decelerated off of Hullman Blvd into the turn 10 complex, it proved to be very treacherous as numerous cars spun out. There was a car sponsored by Dell, that dropped further and further back as the race continued. Our grandstand began a sarcastic cheer for him every time he went by. He must have been so far back he thought he was in front. He was eventually lapped, but we had a good time "cheering" for him. Some other races ran, the Firestone Indy Lights and Formula BMW series and they were great.
Like a mosquito buzzing in your ear, there was a little recurring mention of tire problems. It was covered in the news in Indianapolis, but it did not fortell what would come on Sunday.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
2005 USGP Day 2
We were up early again and it was pleasantly cool as we headed to the speedway. We tried a slightly different route and found a Starbucks, which was nice. At the speedway, it was early, but for a reason. On friday and saturday of the F1 weekend, Indy is all general admission seating, so it's good to get there early. Our seats were in the corner 10 complex (the real tight "S" before the cars return to the speedway proper. We got to our desolate stands and moved right up to the top and camped out waiting for on-track action, besides the safety car and medical. On the Jumbotrons, they replayed the interviews from the previous day, that you couldn't hear from the rock music blaring from the speakers, but it was all good. I have very strict moral principles and decided I'd wait until 0900 for my first beer. IMS was selling the Fosters oil cans and if you bought a coozie (the little foam insulator for your beer) they'd put a handful of ice at the bottom to keep the beer a little cooler, very nice touch. In case you're interested, it was well before 0900.
At 900, the Indy Pro Series rolled out for practice. They sounded like NASCAR and were about as agile, but it was something to look at on track. They rolled around for 45 min. and allowed me time to get another beer before FP1.
One thing I like about F1 is how precise they are, right down to the opening of practice. At 1000, from across the track, you could hear them as they took to the track, it was of course a Minardi followed by a Jordan. I didn't care, I was now watching a Fomula 1 car live! The track announcer's were two guys, one guy witha British accent and an American. The American said something I'll never forget. As the first car went through the gears toward turn 1, he said, "I don't care who you are, if that sound doesn't put a smile on your face, there's something wrong with you". How true.
It was late into the practice before Ferrari showed up. Watching that car live, while not a Ferrari fan, was meaningful to me as this was a world-wide icon of elite motorsports. I had my camera with telephoto lens getting what ended up to be fairly decent shots of the cars as they rounded the tight corners. As the hour of practice came near a close, the track was full of cars. One thing that I miss from the loss of traction control is the sound of the cars as they accelerated away. It sounded like two engines with in the car. The Jordan-Toyota's had this weird hum as the accelerated as well as the rough engine sound of the traction control. The only thing that happened of note near us was that David Coulthard went wide onto the grass trying to make the turn off Hulman Blvd.
After practice, there was a 20 min break, then the Porsche GT cup was out practicing, sometime after that the Formula BMW USA series went out. We ate and drank in shifts so that our perfect seats stayed ours. Near the Museum (behind our grandstands) were all the team merchandise trailers as well as alot of the food and beer stands. In a large grassy area, a bunch of Brazilian fans spread out a huge Brazilian flag and commenced to have a big party there. The energy of the place was awesome.
To this point, I hadn't decided on a favorite driver. I'm always pulling for the Minardi team, you know, "Come on, just get a point". I wondered around the merchandise trailers and for some reason stopped at the Williams trailer and decided, "Yeah, Nick Heidfeld. That's my guy". I returned to my seat and John saw my hat, "Okay is this for real now?". I didn't really know....I was just making a stand.
During the afternoon practice Ralf Schumacher had a hard impact with the turn 13 wall, which looked similar to his crash the year before in a Williams. Little did I know, this would start the weekend in a downward spiral. I forget which practice session but Ricardo Zonta spun off the track in the 3rd Toyota, which was also to be a tire failure. The only real action took place off track. A guy in our grandstands dumped his cooler of melted ice without looking below. Before long an irate, wet man came stomping up the grandstand stairs. I immediatley looked around to make sure I did not have a cooler, so I could not be blamed. Words were exchanged and the security personnel escorted the man away....no real harm, no real foul.
Funny thing about an F1 weekend, it always leaves you wanting more. The pit-walkabout the previous day was great, but only hearing the cars rev, was incomplete. Friday was only practice for F1 and practice and qualy for the lower classes. In 2005, there was the single lap qualy so there would be no actual F1 competition until Sunday. John and I left the speedway and could only fill our emptyness with beer.
At 900, the Indy Pro Series rolled out for practice. They sounded like NASCAR and were about as agile, but it was something to look at on track. They rolled around for 45 min. and allowed me time to get another beer before FP1.
One thing I like about F1 is how precise they are, right down to the opening of practice. At 1000, from across the track, you could hear them as they took to the track, it was of course a Minardi followed by a Jordan. I didn't care, I was now watching a Fomula 1 car live! The track announcer's were two guys, one guy witha British accent and an American. The American said something I'll never forget. As the first car went through the gears toward turn 1, he said, "I don't care who you are, if that sound doesn't put a smile on your face, there's something wrong with you". How true.
It was late into the practice before Ferrari showed up. Watching that car live, while not a Ferrari fan, was meaningful to me as this was a world-wide icon of elite motorsports. I had my camera with telephoto lens getting what ended up to be fairly decent shots of the cars as they rounded the tight corners. As the hour of practice came near a close, the track was full of cars. One thing that I miss from the loss of traction control is the sound of the cars as they accelerated away. It sounded like two engines with in the car. The Jordan-Toyota's had this weird hum as the accelerated as well as the rough engine sound of the traction control. The only thing that happened of note near us was that David Coulthard went wide onto the grass trying to make the turn off Hulman Blvd.
After practice, there was a 20 min break, then the Porsche GT cup was out practicing, sometime after that the Formula BMW USA series went out. We ate and drank in shifts so that our perfect seats stayed ours. Near the Museum (behind our grandstands) were all the team merchandise trailers as well as alot of the food and beer stands. In a large grassy area, a bunch of Brazilian fans spread out a huge Brazilian flag and commenced to have a big party there. The energy of the place was awesome.
To this point, I hadn't decided on a favorite driver. I'm always pulling for the Minardi team, you know, "Come on, just get a point". I wondered around the merchandise trailers and for some reason stopped at the Williams trailer and decided, "Yeah, Nick Heidfeld. That's my guy". I returned to my seat and John saw my hat, "Okay is this for real now?". I didn't really know....I was just making a stand.
During the afternoon practice Ralf Schumacher had a hard impact with the turn 13 wall, which looked similar to his crash the year before in a Williams. Little did I know, this would start the weekend in a downward spiral. I forget which practice session but Ricardo Zonta spun off the track in the 3rd Toyota, which was also to be a tire failure. The only real action took place off track. A guy in our grandstands dumped his cooler of melted ice without looking below. Before long an irate, wet man came stomping up the grandstand stairs. I immediatley looked around to make sure I did not have a cooler, so I could not be blamed. Words were exchanged and the security personnel escorted the man away....no real harm, no real foul.
Funny thing about an F1 weekend, it always leaves you wanting more. The pit-walkabout the previous day was great, but only hearing the cars rev, was incomplete. Friday was only practice for F1 and practice and qualy for the lower classes. In 2005, there was the single lap qualy so there would be no actual F1 competition until Sunday. John and I left the speedway and could only fill our emptyness with beer.
2005 USGP
Hello all.
Hanging on the live dohickey with Sidepodcast.com from time to time the 2005 USGP has been mentioned and I thought I would expound on my experience.
I was working at a Fire Dept in SW Fla and one of the other guys there was an F1 fan, and if you're an F1 fan in the US, you know how hard it is to be able to talk F1 with someone else. We would discuss F1, while others rolled their eyes at us. But one day I suggested that we go to the USGP, I mean, why not? He mentioned that he has a nephew that lives in Indy, so we could stay cheap, spending the bulk of the money on beer. The decision was made and time crawled until it was time to fly out to Indy.
We arrived on Wednesday 15 June, got the rental car and drove to John's nephews house that was about 35 miles from the speedway. The next morning we got up to tempatures in the mid 50's F. When I left Florida, it was hot and humid, even at 0600 so this was a very welcome change. The trip to the speedway was very fast, as traffic was light and it was pretty direct. We got there about the time the gates opened and walked through the tunnel to the infeild. Now, I am a huge Indy 500 fan and recognize the history of the track, as well as the presence of the greatest racing series in the world...Formula One. As I walked out of the tunnel and could see the pagoda, I remember distinctly getting choked up. I was at hallowed ground.
The first thing we ran into was one of Michael Schumacher's cars, I think it was a 2003 possibly 2004. It was beautiful, I mean I just wanted to hug the car. As I stood there marveling at it, I wanted my eyes to drink it all in. Around the Plaza (the infeild area just behind the pagoda), were vintage Indy cars and a Fosters F1 car. The grid girls were standing around the cars having their pictures taken...some seemed uncomfortable, not just because they must have been freezing. I began talking with one and we had a nice conversation. At the end, she said, "Thanks for talking to me, I really felt self conscious standing her half naked." A lesson learned. We moved on to another vintage Indy 500 car and the grid girl stationed there stepped forward and told us, "This is a 1926 IRL car that ran in the 500." John and I looked at each other knowing that the IRL hadn't been in existance for more than 10 years, so I guess everything was retroactively tagged "IRL".
In the Plaza, there would be interviews of many of the drivers by the Speed TV Formula One broadcast crew. First up was Michael Schumacher. He gave a good interview and it always struck me as a neat thing when you see someone as famous as him for the first time. "Oh, so that's him". I did correctly predict his answer when he was asked, who in sport do you admire the most. Answer: Lance Armstrong. He also related a funny story. Apparently he has a ranch in Montana that he visited following the GPC (Grand Prix of Canada). He and his family drove to a lookout area that was very beautiful and just took in nature with other people. A bear ambled into the area and he started shouting to a car full of people to be careful there is a bear about. He said they stared at him, mouths open. Come to find out, they were Germans that spoke no english, being cautioned about a bear from their country's most famous sports guy.
A little while later, the pit walkabout began. I'm sure that all F1 venues have the same thing, but I was giddy about seeing an F1 car and it's mechanics up close. As we filtered in, we passed the safety car and the medical car and then made it into the huge crowds in front of the Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault garages. It was tough to see anything at those three garages, so I moved further down the pit lane as the crowds thinned out. The best veiwing area was of course, the Minardi garage. After a while, they started the engine and began revving it. It was like a rock concert. When they would shut down the car, people would scream and clap. Further up the pit lane, I found a great spot in front of the McLaren garage. There was a crewman that was pulling the "Kimi" off of the sidepods in order to replace it with "West". The guy got the K off and started to crumble it up when that drew a huge reaction from the gathered fans. The guy was taken off guard by the reaction and handed the K to a very pretty girl, who stuck it to her chest. I saw her numerous times the rest of the day, the K moved from her chest to her arms and back to the chest. A perfect excuse to not look a woman in the eyes.
After the pit walkabout was closed down, we went to the Indianapolis Speedway Museum. If you are ever near Indy, go to the museum. It was great and there were some older F1 cars as well as nearly every Indy 500 winner, even the first 500 winner. There was an old Barrichello Steward car and one of Michaels old Benettons. By the way, Christine asked for who's our favorite liveried car? Ding, ding, ding the Benetton's. We headed back to Fishers, Indiana (John's nephews home) in the late afternoon.
Hanging on the live dohickey with Sidepodcast.com from time to time the 2005 USGP has been mentioned and I thought I would expound on my experience.
I was working at a Fire Dept in SW Fla and one of the other guys there was an F1 fan, and if you're an F1 fan in the US, you know how hard it is to be able to talk F1 with someone else. We would discuss F1, while others rolled their eyes at us. But one day I suggested that we go to the USGP, I mean, why not? He mentioned that he has a nephew that lives in Indy, so we could stay cheap, spending the bulk of the money on beer. The decision was made and time crawled until it was time to fly out to Indy.
We arrived on Wednesday 15 June, got the rental car and drove to John's nephews house that was about 35 miles from the speedway. The next morning we got up to tempatures in the mid 50's F. When I left Florida, it was hot and humid, even at 0600 so this was a very welcome change. The trip to the speedway was very fast, as traffic was light and it was pretty direct. We got there about the time the gates opened and walked through the tunnel to the infeild. Now, I am a huge Indy 500 fan and recognize the history of the track, as well as the presence of the greatest racing series in the world...Formula One. As I walked out of the tunnel and could see the pagoda, I remember distinctly getting choked up. I was at hallowed ground.
The first thing we ran into was one of Michael Schumacher's cars, I think it was a 2003 possibly 2004. It was beautiful, I mean I just wanted to hug the car. As I stood there marveling at it, I wanted my eyes to drink it all in. Around the Plaza (the infeild area just behind the pagoda), were vintage Indy cars and a Fosters F1 car. The grid girls were standing around the cars having their pictures taken...some seemed uncomfortable, not just because they must have been freezing. I began talking with one and we had a nice conversation. At the end, she said, "Thanks for talking to me, I really felt self conscious standing her half naked." A lesson learned. We moved on to another vintage Indy 500 car and the grid girl stationed there stepped forward and told us, "This is a 1926 IRL car that ran in the 500." John and I looked at each other knowing that the IRL hadn't been in existance for more than 10 years, so I guess everything was retroactively tagged "IRL".
In the Plaza, there would be interviews of many of the drivers by the Speed TV Formula One broadcast crew. First up was Michael Schumacher. He gave a good interview and it always struck me as a neat thing when you see someone as famous as him for the first time. "Oh, so that's him". I did correctly predict his answer when he was asked, who in sport do you admire the most. Answer: Lance Armstrong. He also related a funny story. Apparently he has a ranch in Montana that he visited following the GPC (Grand Prix of Canada). He and his family drove to a lookout area that was very beautiful and just took in nature with other people. A bear ambled into the area and he started shouting to a car full of people to be careful there is a bear about. He said they stared at him, mouths open. Come to find out, they were Germans that spoke no english, being cautioned about a bear from their country's most famous sports guy.
A little while later, the pit walkabout began. I'm sure that all F1 venues have the same thing, but I was giddy about seeing an F1 car and it's mechanics up close. As we filtered in, we passed the safety car and the medical car and then made it into the huge crowds in front of the Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault garages. It was tough to see anything at those three garages, so I moved further down the pit lane as the crowds thinned out. The best veiwing area was of course, the Minardi garage. After a while, they started the engine and began revving it. It was like a rock concert. When they would shut down the car, people would scream and clap. Further up the pit lane, I found a great spot in front of the McLaren garage. There was a crewman that was pulling the "Kimi" off of the sidepods in order to replace it with "West". The guy got the K off and started to crumble it up when that drew a huge reaction from the gathered fans. The guy was taken off guard by the reaction and handed the K to a very pretty girl, who stuck it to her chest. I saw her numerous times the rest of the day, the K moved from her chest to her arms and back to the chest. A perfect excuse to not look a woman in the eyes.
After the pit walkabout was closed down, we went to the Indianapolis Speedway Museum. If you are ever near Indy, go to the museum. It was great and there were some older F1 cars as well as nearly every Indy 500 winner, even the first 500 winner. There was an old Barrichello Steward car and one of Michaels old Benettons. By the way, Christine asked for who's our favorite liveried car? Ding, ding, ding the Benetton's. We headed back to Fishers, Indiana (John's nephews home) in the late afternoon.
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