Friday 26th May – Carb day, Indianapolis

Waking early, I knew that taking some pain killers and trying to get more sleep was very important.  I felt rough.  But, as this may be our one and only chance to experience the Indy 500 race weekend, we could not let that stop us from enjoying Carb day, so called because it is the last opportunity for the teams to tune their cars during final practise in preparation for Sunday’s race. Carb being short for carburettor y’see.

We had a fry-up to help in our recovery and prevent us having to spend too much on food during the day.  However, a massive difference between here and the festival last weekend? We could take bags and coolers in to the venue, so long as they didn’t contain glass containers. Amazing.  We had bought a cooler just for this weekend and stocked it full of drinks and snacks. Another improvement to last weekend’s festivities was the fact that we were only stumbling distance from the entrance gates so there would be no additional commuting or parking costs:

Map showing our home for the weekend, Lot 1A in the south-west corner, conveniently close to the track!

There is no allocated seating on carb day, but only limited stands were open.  We made our way into the racetrack with the hoards and started to realise the scale of this event.  We found some seats opposite the pits in scorching sunshine just in time for last practise which began at 11am.  

The cars preparing to get ready for final practise

When the track was opened we got our first experience of the noise from the Indy cars.  It was significantly louder than when we watched the F1 cars last season at Silverstone. We were also in a prime position to get a view of the famous pagoda and the mythical yard of bricks. This track was built in 1909 when the surface consisted completely of bricks.  Over time the speedway has been modernised, but they retained a yard’s width of the original bricks in the track and IMS is still affectionately nicknamed ‘the brickyard’. The IMS is the World’s oldest continuously operated race course and the site of the largest one-day sports event anywhere.

The pagoda - you can see the yard of bricks directly in front of it

We were also as close to the pit position of Fernando Alonso and his bright orange, number 29, McLaren car as we could be (below).

Being an F1 fanatic, Simon was overjoyed when it was announced only a couple of months ago that Alonso would be missing the Monaco Grand prix this weekend in favour of taking part in the Indy 500 with McLaren. Even better, he had performed well in qualifying and managed to secure fifth place on the grid for Sunday.  We will be supporting Alonso for several reasons.  Not only because he is a world class driver (having been F1 world-champion twice) and represents Formula 1, but also because Simon’s brother-in-law works for McLaren and they are UK based. 

 

After Alonso, we will be gunning for the other British drivers in the field.  We were amazed to discover that there is a guy from Basildon, Essex (only 20 minutes from our old home, right) competing called Jay Howard and the only female in the race, Pippa Mann, is from Ipswich, Suffolk! 

 

We had a reasonable view, but only through the fence line and it was getting uncomfortable in the direct sunlight, so we made a move for the final part of practise to higher ground and shade. Practise went well for Alonso.  He achieved the fifth fastest speed in excess of 226mph. 

View of the crowds from our new position

The column shows the practise speeds achieved - up to 227 mph

The lights go green for the Indy lite race

With such a good view of the home straight, the pits and turn 1 we stayed exactly where we were for the next highlight of carb day – the Indy Lite Freedom 100 race.  The cars competing are slightly less powerful than the Indy 500 cars so the drivers in this field tend to be in the ‘up and coming’ category, the ones to watch for the future.  It was an entertaining race, with the odd spin off, so a good introduction to the IMS. 

The cars aren't supposed to end up on the grass...

The Indy Lite field at turn 1

Si with Scott Dixon

Then it was time to explore the rest of the venue and wander around the stalls.  Security in some areas was very relaxed, allowing us to go strolling into the garage area.  And bump into pole sitter – Scott Dixon! Only minutes later, Simon almost got run over by Mario Andretti, legendary four-times Indy 500 winner, Nascar winner and 1978 Formula 1 champion, driving a golf cart.  There were some areas that we couldn’t get into, so we made do with spying on some of the rich and famous from a balcony. 

Mario Andretti

Carb day concludes with a gig on the infield during the afternoon. The sun was still shining when we joined everyone else by the stage for the Barenaked Ladies followed by the Steve Miller Band.  We knew quite a few of the Ladies’ songs, having been directed to listen to some of their best tracks by a hardcore fan back home (another name check, Daren!). The atmosphere was good and the band were entertaining, making up lyrics completely off the cuff linking some of their songs, loosely, to Indy car!  

 

They played for an hour before we moved on to the Steve Miller band.  Not knowing as many songs (apart from the awful lyrics of Abracadabra), and starting to feel jaded from walking and standing for a large part of the day, we started to make a move back to the RV.  We did hang around to listen to the classic ‘The Joker’ but their performance just wasn’t as energised as their predecessors so we left before the end.

The Steve Miller Band

We got back to the RV about 630pm and chilled out for a bit in preparation of another party night on the camp ground.  There were some more massive thunderstorms and weather-warnings on the television about possible tornadoes. 

We went to be sociable, meeting some other race fans around the site who had travelled far and wide to be there for the weekend.  We met a bus-load of guys from Tennessee who make a pilgrimage to the event every year.  It is a booze and testosterone-filled weekend away from all of their wives.  Things must get a little crazy and I was feeling way too sober to keep up for long!  Once another deluge of rain finished, we headed back through the now completely waterlogged site for another massive fire before we called it a night at 1130pm so we can get up early for Legends Day tomorrow.