Formula One ~ Practice Photos Friday June 17, 2005 I got to Speedway around noon today. I tried to pull into the track from Georgetown Road, but that entrance required a parking pass today, so I entered off of 30th Street and parked in the 3rd turn infield. It was a nice day, some clouds, but sunny and around 70 degrees. As I walked toward the track, the first thing I came to was the infield viewing hill on Hulman Blvd. There was a decent crowd on all of the viewing hills today. The Infiniti Pro Series qualifying was going on. F1's second practice would start in about an hour. I decided I would sit in Penthouse E for that. I made my way over the bridge and through the woods, er, tunnel to the outfield. I climbed the stairs to the upper deck. As I walked to the far south of the track toward Stand E, I took the following photos: Infiniti Pro car I happened to look behind me across the road and spotted this field of Ferraris. Now how did I miss that when I drove by?! You don't see many cars shaped liked this Ferrari Another Infiniti Pro car in the pits You cannot actually see into the F1 garages this well from across the track unless you have binoculars The session is over and Marco Andretti won the pole. (He went on to win the race on Saturday.) Its amazing how empty the place is. Five years ago during F1 practice, this place was full. Once I reached stand E, I discovered they had it closed to spectators. I decided to backtrack and go sit in Stand H. From there you get to see the cars scream down the front straight, jump on the breaks and decelerate from 220 mph to about 50 in a hundred feet as they prepare for the 1st turn. I brought a flask of whisky with me and I needed a big icy Coke to mix it with. Every food stand I went to only had Coke in a plastic bottle and no cup or ice! What is this world coming to? So I passed Stand H and kept walking and looking for ice. Once I was at the far north of the track, I found a oriental chicken shiskebob place that had what I needed. Practice was about to start, so I decided to save the walk and sit in the NW Vista Deck. Boy, I sure forgot what a awesome view you have from up there. You can see more of the roadcourse from here than anywhere. But you are also far away from the course.

Scroll to the right to see entire panaramic photo!

I noticed that Stand H, where I had been heading, was full. I wondered why no camera man was in the camera booth above me. I turned around and this big guy had a big camera and he was up a lot higher than I was. He was swaying in the breeze, had no tie-down cables or even anyone to help him. Looking at this contraption, it was hard to believer that it would not fall over. I wouldn't be up there. I have so many pics to post from today that I am not going to post many of the F1 cars since that is mainly what I will post on race day. But here is Jacques Villeneuve, Michael Schumacher and Mark Webber. Although I was at the track by myself, I had no trouble finding conversation up in the deck. The old guy next to me lived close to Mid-Ohio and his son was a track worker for the U.S.G.P. He talked about how Bobby Rahal and screwed over his fans in Ohio. He said CART had abandoned Mid-Ohio because it is in the country and not a metropolitan area, the same reason they left Watkins Glen. He loved the Glen and had attended every F1 race there since 1961. (This guy would have been a cool dad!) Then we got into a big discussion about the open-wheel war with a fat Oriental guy who regurgitated the normal CART view of Tony George subterfuge. Been there, done that a few hundred times... I went back and got another coke and ice for $3. I bought a ribeye sandwich for $7. It was small. I decided it was time to hike over to the museum lot to see what fun things might be there. Mainly it was just a bunch of tents selling over-priced gear. A Formula Renault baseball cap, which didn't even have the proper "Mild Seven" logo on the front, was $42! Nothing of interest over here except for the Honda tent where they had a sample of every product they sell - lawn stuff, motorcycles, cars, outboard motors, jet skis, etc. I took these photos from over at Corner 10 Terrace. These are the Porsche Supercup cars. I moved around and over the bridge and waited for the Formula BMW USA cars. I talked to a IMS Photographer. He told me they have 42 photographers. They don't get paid and can't sell their photos. They can't get any closer to the racing than anyone else during the grand prix. I had went up and down stairs, and criss-crossed all four corners of the track today. I was tired and hungry and decided to go. As I was leaving, I realized it was exactly 5 o'clock. I did not want to fight rush hour traffic trying to get home on the interstate so I took 30th Street east to Meridian Street and then south. When I hit the center of downtown, it was partially blocked off. I decided to park and eat downtown. There were quite a few Ferraris driving around. I walked to Monument Circle, and found some Ferraris on display. Here's a Maserati Geesh, there was even a F-40 driving around! We normally don't see such super expensive cars around here. I ate at Houlihan's and upon leaving spotted this Lamborgini The grill on this big Rolls was massive! I was surprised to see a bunch of panhandlers on every corner of downtown. Its funny how we can have so many thousands of people who have made downtown Indy such a nice place, and then a few lazy bums can spoil it and give the entire city a black eye. I thought panhandling was illegal. I guess all the cops were at the Speedway. I also thought there was a minimum height requirement... Back to Photo Index.