Round and round

I’m not into motorsports of any sort. I blame that time in high school when my friends and I were doing our own late night time trials on my friend Jon’s younger sister’s moped. Complete a loop from his house – down the street, up a hill, another straightaway, then back down the hill.

I was clearly on track for the fastest lap — at least in my head — until I wiped out in turn 4, going down the hill. I still have a scar on my knee from it. Jon’s sister’s moped was none the worse for wear though. Which was a good thing, since she wasn’t home and had no idea that her brother and his friends had commandeered it.

But this past weekend, I had the chance to go to the Indy 500. I’d been to “Carburetion Day” before, but never the actual 500. It was a bucket list thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. Especially the pageantry leading up to the race. They had Indy legends like AJ Foyt, Al Unser Jr., and my personal fave, Mario Andretti, taking a lap around the track, only this time in the back of pickups, not behind the wheel. Then they brought out classic Indy cars from all eras of the race. The National Anthem and “Back Home Again in Indiana.” Navy flyovers. The Purdue marching band. Caitlin Clark as the honorary grand marshal. Brendan Fraser as the honorary starter. “Racers, start your engines.”

I was there with 3 other “rookies” so we did our best to take it all in. The pure chaos of the infield, and especially the “Snake Pit.” Imagine the largest football tailgate party you’ve ever attended, then take that times a thousand. You can bring in your own coolers – where else can you do that?

350,000 people – the largest single-day sporting event in the world. What are the chances that a former co-worker would be seated in the same section?

Actually, in addition to Rob (above), another former co-worker of ours also was in our section, a few rows in front of us, with her dad, husband, and two kids.

It’s not lost on the tree hugger in me that hundreds of thousands of cars were stuck in traffic while waiting to get into the track so they could see 33 drivers waste a lot more gas… when the Strait of Hormuz is closed and gas is $5 a gallon. The concept seems anachronistic. Maybe 10 years from now the race will feature battery pack changes instead of refueling. A boy can dream, can’t he?

And yes, it’s “four left turns” as Indy/NASCAR disparagers like to point out. But there were 70 lead changes (a record) and it also was the closest finish in Indy 500 history. Not bad for a bucket list bonus.

I can honestly say I have zero desire to see a race at any other track. But I’d go back to Indy for sure.