Part 26- My Fantastic Supreme 2009 Indy 500 Photo Diary Blog Type Thang: Pre-Race Ramblings

During the last couple of days, I went to IMS and watched the smaller Indy-type cars perform.

Although I’m not really into the Indy Light Pro Series, I enjoyed it because it was real and shiny and somewhat fast open wheeled machines on my beloved racing surface!

Who am I to complain?

It has been a good couple of days, because I had cold imported New Castle Ale from England, and a pit pass which fell into my lap because of cosmically cool Indy karma.

Anyhoo..Indy Lights are driven by disgruntled and enthusiastic youth of today who at some point in their careers want to be Indy racing legends.

They have a lot to learn, and they will readily admit that fact.

They like to go 4 wide into Turn 1 and dive bomb one another.

Here, we see James Hinchcliffe thoughtlessly throwing a tear-away visor shield thingy onto my sacred pit lane surface.

I had a stern sit-down with Jimmy and explained the nuances of real and shiny and fast Indy racing, and he promised to never be so recalcitrant and malingering again.

Next, I’d like to show you the nose cone of one Wade Cunningham.

He won the pole for the Freedom 100 race, and the actual race, but, still, the slacker image is not something I think he wants to perpetuate.

These Indy Lights toolboxes are other objects of interest I saw on pit lane.



These toolbox images support my assessment that the Indy Pro Series is in need of some violently applied discipline.

The hoses used at Indy are big.

Some hoses are bigger than others.

You know when you take out your hose and lay it on top of your tool box and it drapes over both ends that you have a pretty long hose.

I guess it’s just Mother Nature, or something, and no amount of over-the-counter or over-the-TV-commercial products will help change things in that department.

Here are a few more pictures of Indy Lites cars I took.

I also went to Carbonation Day.

It was fun to stroll the pits while the big cars ran for the last time before the all important 500 Memorial Sweepstakes Speed competition on Sunday.

The teams were all decked out in their fire suits and helmets, trying out race setups and practicing pit stops.

The activity was frenzied and frantic, and it made me smile.

Carbonation Day also means lots of drunken teenyboppers, with various oily and glistening body parts hanging out, converge on my racetrack to see evil rock music performed for their amusement.

This year’s musical host was the band known worldwide as 3WhorzDown, or something, and they performed for an enthusiastic happy crowd of some 40 million on part of the road course somewhere.

I bet they left behind all kinds of litter and bits of clothing and puddles of curdled hurl too.

Since I’m old and curmudgeonly, I did not attend the rock concert.

No.

I instead preferred to visit my good racin’ friends at places like Camp N Brew.

I spent quality time with them because real Indy racing is more about good friends and meeting cool people and drinking their cold draft beer than anything else.

So…that’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of days.

I’ll be back soon after the race to give you some more insight to the Greatest Spectacle In Racing.

Be safe, have a good race, and be cool.

Later.