The seats
Our seats – in Stand E – would be incredible for the Indianapolis 500.
For the Grand Prix they are … OK. First, there was no passing in this section -
with the exception of a backmarker giving way to a faster car. Second, from
this spot it’s really hard to tell the running order. A new, large video board
was installed across from our spot, but I couldn’t read the positions. Same
deal with the new and improved pylon – too far away for me to read. Of course,
all of this didn’t matter much anyway given how Will Power dominated the race.
The crowd
What crowd? Here are shots just before the race to our left and to our
right. Plenty of room to move around – bring a friend or two next time. Heck,
bring a busload or two. The upper penthouses seemed full, which is good from a
revenue standpoint. How many people were in the infield is hard to gauge, but
obviously no one’s in Turn 1 or Turn 4 (oval configuration) anymore.
The Indianapolis Star estimated the crowd at 40,000, which seems
generous, quite frankly. Let’s say there are 220,000 permanent seats at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That means about every 1 in 5 seats would be
filled if you put the folks from the infield into the stands. This seems
unlikely.
A smaller audience does have its benefits, though. First, parking (and
leaving) was a snap. We parked at Main Gate, a gravel lot south of the track. I
was concerned about the goofy roundabout that replaced the whole 16th
Street/Crawfordsville Road/Georgetown Road confluence, but with no traffic, no
problem. Getting out was easy, though I have to wonder exactly what the police
were doing other than using their vehicles to block westbound 16th
Street – no traffic direction to speak of.
Inside the track, it was easy to get to the restroom, get food and
generally get around. Plus the crowd was well-behaved and attentive. It
reminded me a lot of the races I went to at Gateway many years ago.
The museum
One of the places we wandered to, of course, was the museum. The
featured display is a collection of Dan Gurney’s Eagles, which are some of my
favorites – especially Bobby Unser’s pole-winning Olsonite Eagle from 1972.
Much to my delight, also included is the Pepsi Challenger of Mike
Mosley from 1981. This car was loud (stock-block Chevrolet engine) and fast
(started on the middle of the front row).
A first
I’ve been going to the track for more than 40 years, but Saturday
brought a new experience - some Lance Armstrong wannabe actually brought his
bike into the stands. At first, he was going to take it up to the penthouse.
(Yes, really.) The yellow shirt for our section politely, yet firmly, informed
him he couldn’t do that. So he went down a few rows and sat down. With his
bike. Mr. Yellow Shirt again asked him to leave, which he did. Now, it’s great
to ride a bike over to the track and all, but bringing it in the stands seems
like all kinds of dumb. Besides, it’s not as if there aren’t plenty of steel
structures to chain a bike to.
The food
Here’s a surprise/disappointment: During breakfast hours, the
concession stands were serving breakfast food. No corn dogs. Which, by the way,
I could not find ANYWHERE. (Memo to Doug
Boles: It’s bad enough you can’t get sno-cones anymore. Please don’t let
corn dogs go away. Thank you.)
If you’re at a race track, it’s perfectly OK to have a corn dog at 8
a.m. Instead, a big pretzel had to suffice.
Later, I had a tenderloin, but made the mistake of (again) getting one
of the $9 fancy ones that has bacon, jalapenos, onions and something else that
doesn’t belong on a tenderloin.
Look, a tenderloin is a tenderloin – you’re not going to be able to put
lipstick on that pig, so to speak. Just pound it down to 1/8th of an
inch, bread it, deep fry it, serve it on a bun that’s too small even for a
White Castle’s and we’ll be just fine. Why is this so difficult? If you’re
having trouble with this concept, please contact Mr. Happy Burger of
Logansport, Indiana, and let him take over this part of the operation. The
tenderloins there are world class.
The voice
Here I am with Paul Page, for many years the Voice of the 500 – first
on radio, then on TV. Now he leads the radio broadcasts of the Verizon IndyCar
Series. I remember when Page was on WIBC as well as his various Indianapolis
500 shows on Channel 13 – “33 on the Line,” “The Roar is Over,” and so forth.
Good to see him.
The race
First-lap kerfuffles take the excitement out of the crowd, er, fans.
This is two years in a row that the drivers were unable to get through the
first turn, let alone the first lap.
Please stop crashing into each other. And, sorry, Juan Pablo Montoya,
don’t blame the track configuration. You are professional race car drivers.
This is why I paid $62 for a ticket and $5 for a bottle of Coke – to see
professional race car drivers drive, uh, professionally.
Power’s day looked supremely easy – the only bobble I noted was when he
cut through the grass a bit coming out of the turn and heading down the
straightaway. Scott Dixon showed why he is, in my opinion, the best driver in
the series by fighting back to finish 10th after getting punted by
Helio Castroneves on the first lap.
Maybe Castroneves was just in the spirit of the race – the Colts’
punter, Pat McAfee, drove the pace car for this event. (Really? The punter for
the Colts was the best you could do?)
The verdict
I’m willing to give this race another try. In fact, I have no choice.
As Sean points out, we have to go next year because Will Power will be on the
ticket. I might scoot a little more northward to get a better view of the cars
and scoring information, but overall I like E stand and hope the event picks up
momentum.
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