Escape from reality - what happened when we sold our house to travel the World: Saturday 27th May

A 730am alarm went off so that we could make it into the IMS grounds at 830am. Compared to yesterday there seemed to be hardly anyone around, but that was because everyone was already queuing in the plaza for the ‘meet the drivers’ signing session due to begin at 9am. The drivers were grouped into their qualifying rows, so we joined the second row queue which included Alonso, however the line was already ‘closed’ as it was passed the point where everyone waiting was guaranteed to meet him.

Running concurrently to the signings, they were taking some of the historic Indy cars for a spin around the track. We could hear them from where we were queuing so I sent Simon to go and take a look and get some photographs whilst I held our position in the slow-moving queue.

The below video shows the 1974 winning car (nearest) being driven by the 1974 winning driver Johnny Rutherford!

Still can't see any drivers....

No 26 is Takuma Sato, the navy blue cap behind him is Alonso

As we neared the plaza we could see where all 33 drivers were lined up signing for the fans. Si went forward to get some pics.

Now we could see them we were getting so close! Surely they would hang around for just a little longer to meet the fans queuing? The trouble was they had another public meeting to get to for 1030am so, as soon as they had met those lucky people who had been guaranteed the chance they were carted off (literally, in golf carts!). Alonso had a brief interview in the plaza (below) and I managed to grab a signed photograph of JR Hildebrand (6^th place in the grid) being handed out to those waiting. So not an entirely wasted hour! Should’ve got up 30 minutes earlier….

The drivers’ public meeting was being held in front of the pit straight so we went and found seats with as good a view as possible through the wire mesh.

Fernando Alonso

Male standing in the centre with sunglasses on his head is Montoya

The 33 drivers were seated on a raised platform (above), there were awards handed out mostly relating to last year’s results and each driver was introduced and given a 2017 race ring. There are some legendary drivers in the field worthy of a quick mention – last year’s winner, Alexander Rossi (3^rd on the grid), Juan Pablo Montoya (ex-F1 race winner, row 6 on the grid), Buddy Lazier (row 10 and winner off the 1996 Indy 500) to name a few.

We discovered that today’s tickets got us entry to areas of the garages that we couldn’t see yesterday, so we went to get as close to the race cars as possible:

The closest we got to Alonso's car

Our next stop was the IMS Museum and Hall of Fame. The building contains the majority of the previous Indy 500 winners, some of which we had seen having a spin around the track earlier, as well as a special exhibition dedicated to AJ Foyt. Foyt is generally held to be the greatest American racing driver of all time, nicknamed ‘Super Tex’ as he comes from Houston, Texas. He raced in numerous genres of motor sport and holds the career wins record with 159 victories. He is the only driver to win the Indy 500 (4 times), the Daytona 500, the 24 hours of Daytona and the 24 hours of Le Mans. You get the picture, he is a BIG DEAL in racing! We took hundreds of photos in the museum, so I will do my best to filter it down to the highlights….

These are the four cars that AJ Foyt won the Indy 500 between 1961 (nearest) to 1977

Oldsmobile Aerotech streamliner - on August 27th 1984 AJ Foyt turned a lap at a test track inTexas in this car at an average speed of 257.133mph to set a new world record for an enclose course

The 2016 Indy 500 winning car driven by rookie Alexander Rossi - can he do it again this year?

The winner of the very first Indy 500 race in 1911 - the Marmon 'wasp'. The driver, Ray Harroun, was criticised during practise for being a potential hazard with no mechanic riding with him. In response he rigged up, above the cowling, what is believed to have been the very first rearview mirror ever used on an automobile.

It was heading well into the afternoon by the time we emerged from the museum. There was another concert this afternoon but the line-up was country music stars we hadn’t even heard of, so it was a good opportunity to head back to the RV to chill out for the afternoon. But only for a few hours, before our neighbours returned from the concert and it was camp site party time again! Things got wild, maybe these photos say all I need to about the evening?!