Indianapolis Formula 1 Race - July 2nd 2006


On 7/2/2006 I realized one of my dreams...to watch a Formula 1 Race live.

A month ago when I decided to go to Indianapolis, I started looking for airline and hotel deals in the expedias and travelocities of the web world. Nothing was available for a reasonable price. Flight tickets to Indianapolis were jacked up by all airlines and that was not an option. Hotel rates were dramatically increased by most hotel in Indianapolis for the July 2nd weekend and called it "F1 Rates".
So I decided to look at other options. Staying in Minneapolis, I had the advantage or the relative advantage of driving down to Indianapolis. Also I had used my best bet in hotels - Best Western !!! I got a room at a place called New Castle 50 miles away from Indianapolis for $66 a night. Pretty affordable when hotels in Indy were quoting at $210.

Anyway on Saturday morning, I started on my 640 mile solo drive from Minnesota in a brand new Hyundai Azera. This car has a cool 6 CD MP3 player. This was enough to last me songs for 1400 miles. It also had heated seats, a feature quite useless in 90 degrees heat. Anyway, I started driving south east at 8:30 AM on my long trip covering 4 states. The best part about this trip was that the US midwest especially Wisconsin is very very green and is pleasing to the eyes. After crossing into Wisconsin from Minnesota it was time to enter Chicagoland. For the first time in my stay in the US, I entered a Tollway. Then I realized the meaning of freeway and how casually the term was being used. Illinois has a lot of tollways which are not great and for all that money you pay, there are no rest areas too.

The weekend traffic to Illinois was heavy and so I decided to take a belt route west of Chicago. That too was crowded. Saw harlem avenue. Kept driving until I reached Indiana. Now Indiana has freeways with 70 miles per hour speed limit.I was so relived to see that. Having stayed for most part of my US life in Idaho and Utah where 75 is norm, 60 and 65 was like slow for me.Anyway after 12 hours of driving and changing a time zone, I was in New Castle, Indiana at 9:30 PM ET. Checked into the hotel and saw the repeat telecast of Brazil getting busted by France. Slept early and planned to leave to Indianapolis by 8:30.

The race was at 1 PM but they had lined up some programs from 11:30. But I decided to leave at 8:30 as the traffic would be horrible and parking would be an issue. Luckily I had bought a parking permit along with the ticket. I reached Indianapolis at 9:30 and there were cops on every intersection leading to the Speedway. The whole area was dotted with 2 colors...Ferrari Red and Renault blue. After Parking in the designated parking area,I started walking and I could get a glimpse of the crowd and the enthusiasm.


There were some pre-race events like some Porshe cup race etc. After that all the 22 drivers were paraded in vintage cars including a Ferrari vintage. At 12:45 the US national anthem was played and suddenly 4 F-16s flew past the speedway in a triangular pattern. What a bonus, I got to see F-16's too at no extra cost.

At 1, the race started like clockwork and Felipe Massa overtook the "God" at the first turn. The sound of the F1 engines was unbelievable and I got goosebumps.I realized why they were people selling ear plugs. There was an Indian guy next to me who was so excited that he called his mom in Chennai and put his phone on speaker and said "Amma, F1 engine sound kellumma..."...



While all this was happening, 7 cars were involved in multiple accidents right in front of us. This brought the safety cars onto the track and began the recovery and salvage operations. See the video on how effective and fast the guys are in salvaging the cars.



After the safety cars were withdrawn, the race restarted in full force with Ferrari 1 and 2 followed by Renaults. The power of the Ferrari in Indy was evident as the gap between Micheal and Fisichella kept increasing every lap. After Massa's pit stop, Micheal took on the top spot and he maintained it throughout the race. He was simply unbeatable on that track. The gap between the two Ferraris increased with every lap. This video gives us an idea how fast these cars can be.



This was the first time, that I was using a handy cam and that shows. But nevertheless I am happy that some of the magic moments were captured for ever by me. The picture quality of the video is not my fault. It was pretty good before I uploaded it to YouTube.

The crowd was excellent and was purely multinational. Lots of europeans...I saw many Indians too. The weather was excellent and it was burning hot. Beers were selling at 6 bucks and water at 3. Business and sport made their perfect unisen on that Sunday afternoon.



For me, it was an experience of a lifetime, when I saw Micheal Schumacher race first to the checkered flag. Till the morning of the 2nd, I had a slight guilt feeling that I spent so much money on this. But when I heard the engines roar and the scarlet red cars win and the crazy and colorful crowd, that feeling just vanished. It was money well spent and such experiences last a lifetime.