Apparently, ladies and gentlemen, this is the Indianapolis 500. Over 500,000 people make their way to the brickyard or speedway (depending on your choice of name for it) for the greatest open wheeled sporting event in the world.
Four bends. All left. No run off. A guy called Andretti in a racing outfit made to make him look like Indiana Jones, for the movie is sponsoring his car. One random British guy and his first really big encounter with some proper, raw US sporting culture.
It was a day of discovery. Tail gating is a lot of fun. Taking a case of beer into a sporting event is risky in ninety degree heat. Having friends drive a few kegs into the infield at 6am and start drinking is even more so.
My girlfriend's brother and I had some lengthy discussions about his love of F1 and want for the race to come back to Indy (current theory - Bernie is throwing a huff and the Canadian GP is financially unsustainable without a second race in North America, but the Indy people have some work to do in making it better promoted.) Indy cars are great workhorses - the size of the field and the spread of the cars results in a near continuous onslaught of noise - you can actually hear that certain cars are underpowered.
We were on turn two, with great views that meant we could see pretty much everything bar the start finish straight behind gasoline alley. My strangest discovery was one of US film. You know when they have those big events in old movies, and the sound of the song is all treble, a little mid, no bass? That is realistic. That was the sound we got for all the pre-race songs. I was slightly knocked back that what I thought was an effort to make something sound a bit vintage was actually true.
The facility they have there is pretty extraordinary, and the number of people turning up to the race mind-blowing. It was a little bit sad for me that the lead didn't change about much, as the Target guys cars were clearly dominant in set-up. A few wall bashes here and there, someone stalling, crashing on the pace car, recovering and then crashing again led to a relative bonhomie of misogynistic driving jokes (it was a woman, and three times in one race is pretty bad). Danica's charge down the pitlane to try and beat seven shades out of the guy that took her out of the race was brilliant - especially as the commentators initially claimed it was her fault.
On TV I can understand it may be a little frustrating, but when there the speed they take those turns, their proximity to the wall and the way they catapult by is incredible. You can really track where moves are about to come from with a reasonable view, and then see the tyre-track line develop. One small error and the pace car is out (some dude in a Chrysler convertible, who proves how damn fast the cars normally go as he nails it at half their normal speed).
I am now a race junkie. Bring on the 500 next year. Bring on someone offering to take me to an F1 race. I didn't believe live racing would be so fun, crazy and exciting. Though I may not be a buyer on the bulldozer racing event that is Nascar.
And that doesn't even mention the madness of the infield when we went to explore. You cannot see a thing from in there unless you head to the mounds (which are plentiful), but the party is crazy. My current status is strong at flip-cup, rapidly improving at Corn-Hole (Baggo).
Four bends. All left. No run off. A guy called Andretti in a racing outfit made to make him look like Indiana Jones, for the movie is sponsoring his car. One random British guy and his first really big encounter with some proper, raw US sporting culture.
It was a day of discovery. Tail gating is a lot of fun. Taking a case of beer into a sporting event is risky in ninety degree heat. Having friends drive a few kegs into the infield at 6am and start drinking is even more so.
My girlfriend's brother and I had some lengthy discussions about his love of F1 and want for the race to come back to Indy (current theory - Bernie is throwing a huff and the Canadian GP is financially unsustainable without a second race in North America, but the Indy people have some work to do in making it better promoted.) Indy cars are great workhorses - the size of the field and the spread of the cars results in a near continuous onslaught of noise - you can actually hear that certain cars are underpowered.
We were on turn two, with great views that meant we could see pretty much everything bar the start finish straight behind gasoline alley. My strangest discovery was one of US film. You know when they have those big events in old movies, and the sound of the song is all treble, a little mid, no bass? That is realistic. That was the sound we got for all the pre-race songs. I was slightly knocked back that what I thought was an effort to make something sound a bit vintage was actually true.
The facility they have there is pretty extraordinary, and the number of people turning up to the race mind-blowing. It was a little bit sad for me that the lead didn't change about much, as the Target guys cars were clearly dominant in set-up. A few wall bashes here and there, someone stalling, crashing on the pace car, recovering and then crashing again led to a relative bonhomie of misogynistic driving jokes (it was a woman, and three times in one race is pretty bad). Danica's charge down the pitlane to try and beat seven shades out of the guy that took her out of the race was brilliant - especially as the commentators initially claimed it was her fault.
On TV I can understand it may be a little frustrating, but when there the speed they take those turns, their proximity to the wall and the way they catapult by is incredible. You can really track where moves are about to come from with a reasonable view, and then see the tyre-track line develop. One small error and the pace car is out (some dude in a Chrysler convertible, who proves how damn fast the cars normally go as he nails it at half their normal speed).
I am now a race junkie. Bring on the 500 next year. Bring on someone offering to take me to an F1 race. I didn't believe live racing would be so fun, crazy and exciting. Though I may not be a buyer on the bulldozer racing event that is Nascar.
And that doesn't even mention the madness of the infield when we went to explore. You cannot see a thing from in there unless you head to the mounds (which are plentiful), but the party is crazy. My current status is strong at flip-cup, rapidly improving at Corn-Hole (Baggo).
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