Speedbowl14 Goes to Indy (and everywhere in between)

Speedbowl14

Speedbowl14

Ryan Preece and short tracks
Joined
May 18, 2014
Messages
3,763
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Location
SLC, Utah
Hi all,

A bit of context... I am a career skier. I am a ski instructor in Utah. I go all across the country skiing. I've done insane month long trips cross the country for skiing. Day trips waking up at 4am, driving 4 hours, skiing 7 hours, then driving 4 hours back. I love auto racing with nearly the same intensity.

Now, it's time for RACING to take the center stage it deserves after decades of me being a hardcore fan. Tomorrow, I leave Salt Lake City. I am skiing in Colorado for 3 days, then visiting Kansas Speedway for NASCAR. Then it's off to Indianapolis for the Month of May. And I'll be hitting up every short track in between. I believe I have 8-10 short track events planned over the course of the next month! This is absolutely a bucket list trip. I am doing most of May solo in Indy, in an Airbnb 1/4th mile from the track. The turn 2 grandstand is literally in the background of the picture of the Airbnb. Then I have some buddies coming in for the 500. We'll be at an Airbnb 3 miles from the track and plan to just walk it.

It's pretty damn crazy. I cannot hear Back Home in Indiana without feeling goosebumps. I've already told my buddies I will probably tear up when that plays in Indy and when the cars enter turn 1 for the first time. So stoked.

I love it. With skiing it's a bit different... 130+ ski days a year... odds are one vacation will not make/break any big memories. This is the other end of the spectrum. I'm not well-off by any means but I'm putting up the coin and doing this trip right. It is sooooo exciting! I will be posting updates!

@Daytripper can't remember if we've gone over this or not, I am ss20 on ski forums if you are the same daytripper on Alpinezone.
 


To me, this is what the Indianapolis 500 is. A car bouncing around, on the edge, danger lurking, a grueling challenge of endurance. Sure it's not the same today, but fewer things have changed at Indy than in most forms of motorsports. What a crazy clip!
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Get over to IRP while you're in town! Check the schedule for Salem too!
Click to expand...

Oh of course IRP Carb Night Classic is on the schedule! As well at the Little 500 at Anderson! And a smathering of local dirt and asphalt events, including what will be my first ever Figure 8 race attended at the Indy Speedrome! I have been to hundreds if not thousands of short track events across the country and for some reason, a proper Figure 8 never lined up. Ever. So I'm abnormally pumped for that!
 
Speedbowl14 said:
It's pretty damn crazy. I cannot hear Back Home in Indiana without feeling goosebumps. I've already told my buddies I will probably tear up when that plays in Indy and when the cars enter turn 1 for the first time.
Click to expand...
No one is ever prepared for their first Indianapolis 500. No matter how much you are told about it, you will still be overwhelmed by it all.
 
I made a very cool stop at the Kansas Racing Museum today. They opened in the late 90s and the place hasn't been touched since shortly after it seems. Oozing with coolness, quirkiness, and so low key it was awesome!
 
Lots of random stuff.... A lot of the museum featured a relatively unknown racer in ARCA and the Goody's Dash series.
 

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Go early. Stay late.

And there's a thousand local restaurants better than the Mug N Bun. Good root beer though.
 
So Kansas was AMAZING, obviously. I've already polluted the NASCAR thread with my reactions.

I've been in downtown St. Louis watching the Mets play the Cardinals 2 nights in a row. I haven't been able to see the Mets play in many years. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, there's the series finale tomorrow at noon, and a dirt track up in Illinois running that I want to see. Both could be dry or rained out... we will see. Then it's GP weekend!!!
 
Crazy, crazy times.

Thursday was lots of running around. I slept just outside Indianapolis. Did tons of errands in Speedway for my extended stay. The town REALLY goes all out! I love it! There were more decorations on the houses for the 500 than I see in my Utah neighborhood for Christmas! I bought a checker flag banner and the Airbnb owner gave me an IMS flag as appreciation for the extended stay- goanna put both those up today!

Friday I wandered the track all over. I had a full cooler, wagon, folding chair, and wanted to explore the ground. Nice people everywhere you look! I have not been to a road coarse in AGES so it was fun again to walk around and check things out from different vantage points. I also liked the 8am-7pm track schedule.... nice full day. It was a great thing to be at IMS, drinking beer, and enjoying the perfect weather of this weekend.

Yesterday was a long day. I got to the track at 7:30am. I had general admission flex which is a step up from regular GA which only gets you access to the property and the viewing mounds. For about $20 more, GA Flex lets you explore 3 or 4 sections of grandstands and sit wherever. I was in the J stand for the GP, right in turn 1. It was a fun race. Strategy based and not a lot of fists flying, but still a solid Indycar race. That night I went to the Indy Speedrome. A 1/5th mile FLAT track with a Figure 8 race as the main event. 26 Figure 8 cars and they did not disappoint! I cannot believe how tight they get at the X. It almost looks unreal. Very cool looking cars too with seemingly most modifications being allowed. The track had a nice, very local vibe. I have not seen that much smoking or that many beer cans littering the grounds after the race in a very long time.

I have heard great things about the IMS property. WOW. Roger takes care of this place so well. It is STUNNING not a single blade of grass missing. The area has had a lot of rain recently... over 7" in April. That's absurd. The track grounds have no mud and all the walkways and everything are very clean. There are employees EVERYWHERE... even on this, the GP weekend.

Today I finally relax. I think I will drink a beer on the porch and then settle in for IMSA and NASCAR. No track activity tomorrow, crossing my fingers for the High Limit series at Kokomo. 50%+ chance rain after 8pm. Tuesday looks almost certainly like a wash at IMS and Brownstown which was my next short track stop. Finally nice weather and cool temps for the big track Wednesday and Thursday! I am ready to see what 240mph looks like again*!


*I say again because my one and only Indycar race was one of the 500 milers at Pocono 2016 or 2017. It was pushed to Monday which I had off, I went to the track, paid $30 for my ticket, and saw a nice race. I was a big enough Indycar fan then to know that going to Pocono for a 500 mile Indycar race was a pretty big deal. Obviously at the time I didn't know they'd only run there a handful of times. Cool to be a part of that bittersweet history in the sport.
 
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