Indianapolis Motor Speedway 500 Race 2009

The entrance into the raceway on 16 th Street.

The famous pagoda at the starting line, with all the race officials. The area closest behind that high fence is for photographers. Notice the 2 rows of protective berms.
This infield road was straight in front of us. The tow trucks, ambulance and street sweeper were all parked there

With the zoom, we can see the other end of the same infield road. We could see the cars going by just under the sign along the white wall. I suspect that other side is 1 mile away. We were between turn 1 & 2 so that end is between 3 & 4 th turns.

The 4 pace cars coming around turn 1.

The pace cars on the pit road with the cars on the track. 1 more lap until green flag!!

During a yellow, all the cars are coming out of the pits and not on the track yet.

US!!

My cousin Ed and wife Terri from Florida.

Gene's daughter Kathy and Ray from Maryland.

Helio Castroneves in front.

They are racing. Fastest qualifying speed was 222. They were averaging 150 - 175 during the race.

2 cars tangled. The other one slid on it side from before turn one, past us to almost turn 2. This is #2 car Raphael Matos.

This poor guy fractured 2 vertebrae and will be out all season. #14 Vitor Meira

Helio just took the checkered flag. He got a check for $3, 000,000+.

End results!!

Pre Indy 500 Race Activities 5/24/09

In Feb. 2009 some very dear friends told us they have been going to the Indy 500 race for the last 17 years and were not planning on going in 2009. We said we would take all 6 tickets and $80.00 each didn't seem as much as we thought they would be, for one of the worlds most famous sporting events.

The pre race parade of celebrities in Corvette Pace cars. This is sportscaster Dick Vitale.

And this is Mario Lopez, having someplace better to be looking than saying hello to the crowd!!! Guess all the cameras were not focused on him.

These soldiers unfurled this very huge flag for the singing of the Star Spangled Banner.

Many ,many trucks went by that had military from all branches of the services who just returned from war. Huge big cheers for all of them. Even the crews from the tow trucks were on the track saluting them.

The Tuskegee Airmen flew 2 vintage B24 Mitchell Bombers in the fly over.

The balloon release of red, white and blue balloons.

The track is 2 1/2 miles around so it is impossible to see the whole track. Actually I think we saw about only 1/4 th of it. So they have all these big screens around the whole complex.

Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again in Indiana".

And what everyone was waiting for - "Ladies & Gentlemen Start Your Engines"!!!!

Outside the Indy 500 Speedway Raceway 5/24/09

Who knew? The Indianapolis 500 Raceway is in Speedway, Indiana!

Nice way to travel in a lot of traffic.


If a ticket holder calls a week before the race they can get a police escort to their parking lot. One lane was open for all the escorts.

What is a sporting event without some tailgating food. It was an International grill. Italian sausage, Polish sausage; Chorizo and Brats.

Chaos on the street before the race. Our seats were in the 1st set of bleachers.

This is at the entrance of our parking lot which is directly across from the gate we went in. Good thing we scoped it all out a few days before and made the reservations in the lot. Cost $50.00 but was soooooo worth it.

White Castle Hamburgers

Having grown up on Long Island, New York we knew 'fast food' before the phrase was invented. White Castle has been around since the 20's, I think. In the 50's they were 10 cents each and you could buy them by the bagful.

The come in these little boxes. When we would visit NY from NM we always had to have White Castles at least 1 time while we were there. Dad would buy 20 at a time and we all tried to stack the boxes into towers, sorta like the game Jenga.

The meat patty has 5 holes in it so it will cook faster. the cook one side on the grill. On the other side of the grill is the chopped onions. When it is time to flip the burgers, they go onto the chopped onions. Both parts of the bun are put on top and covered and steamed for a few minutes.

These are cheeseburgers and because of the steaming the bun was hard to take the top off for the photo.

They are only 3 - 4 bites. Nowadays copycat versions are called sliders. True White Castle lovers will not even try the frozen ones, that are now available all over the country.

It is one of those local things that you have to have them where they are made. Sorta like New York Bagels - nothing like them anywhere. It is said it is the water!! Who knows maybe it is just the attitude they are made with. Ahh New York Bagels - that will be this time next year!!!

On the Road to the Indy 500 /May 2009

Some very dear friends have had season tickets to the Indy 500 race over Memorial Day weekend, for the last 17 years. They decided last year they were not going to go this year. Since this event is on both of our lists of things to do before we die (now called a bucket list), we jumped at the chance.



The trip on Hwy 24 out of Colorado Springs, always has lots of antelope to see. This time there were only 32 spread out over 70 miles. They are normally not so close to the fence, but Gene was able to stop the RV, so I could take the photo. They just stood there looking at me. I said hi, how are you all today and they kept staring. So I said well bye, we need to get going. As if they understood me, they all turned at once and walked away. We laughed for the longest time.

It was a beautiful clear day with the bluest of skies. There were so many contrails from all the planes flying west. It is a wonder their paths never crossed – altho’ it looked like it was going to happen several times.

The 2nd day as we approached Vesper, KS we saw a huge solar windmill farm. There had to be hundreds. These babies are tall too. Notice in the 2nd photo how small the telephone poles are.

Since there is so much farmland it only follows to have grain silos. This complex is in Topeka, KS.

IL allows triple trailers and this is a UPS truck.

On every cross country trip we have taken this has always happened. We, for some reason take a little longer either getting gas or getting going again from eating lunch. Had we not been delayed we would have been in the middle of this accident. As it was we were just in the backed up traffic.

The CB truckers said the state truck driver cut off the Hostess semi and got broadsided. One driver had to be cut out of the truck, but we never found out the condition of either of them. The semi hit so hard that the engine broke out of its compartment.

Somebody has a sense of humor when they constructed these water towers next to each other.
As we approached from the west they appeared to overlap and really made us laugh.

As we got off the interstate in IL to refuel there were a herd of buffalo in a field, that we would never have seen if we hadn’t needed gas.

I keep missing the 3 crosses we see every so often. This one was so big it was easy to pull out the camera take a picture. It is huge - look at the semi on the road next to it.

No pictures but as we crossed the Missouri River on I70 the banks were overflowing. The flood went for about ½ mile east until it came to a high berm. The TV said the farmers are begging the government not to release any more water into the river because of all the flooding

Thank goodness we got here safe and sound and went to scope out the area around the Speedway. Did you know that the Indy 500 is held in the city of Speedway, IN

And this bar is directly across from the gate in the picture above. Pretty neat to see all those huge blow up bottles and can on top of the building.

I suspect there will be several people who will try to consume the equivalent of what would be in those bottles. LOL