2006 Indy 500 Journal

Sunday May 7th 2006 - OPENING DAY
& Rookie Orientation
I arrived at the track about 1 p.m. so I missed opening ceremonies (eg. Andrettis
taking a parade lap and interview with all three in the Plaza.)

I came in off of Georgetown. They parked me right in the middle of the 3rd turn by
the hill. There were families picnicking along the 3rd turn hill.
Panaramic Photo from Turn 3 Infield

I caught the tram to the Tower Plaza.

Events in the Plaza:

* Many people hanging out listening to some Indy 500 Rookies of the Year
relating antidotes and answering questions.

* There was a line forming to get autographs of these 3 racers including this
dude who is like a super fan who I see every year with some wild thing for them to
put autographs on.

* Another line seemed equally popular over in one of the F1 Garages - they were
giving away a pin and a photo.

Anyway, I passed it all by and went to the garages.

It looked like someone on Foyt's team already hit the wall. Um, let me guess -
Larry? I'll have to check later and let you know.

Vision Racing showing off their stainless-steel
multi-media tool box. Cool, but where's the X-box
360?

I caught this peek in the garage of Townsend Bell. His sponsor is Rock
& Republic. Cool.

Why it is Thiago Medeiros being interviewed by a tall girl.
Medeiros appears rather tall for a race car driver!

Have you been wondering what a "Car Melo" is?

A chocolate candy?

Actually a guy named Carmelo Anthony is the sponsor. Carmelo plays
forward for the NBA's Denver Nuggets. He was a freshman on Syracuse
when they won the NCAA title.

Arie Luyendyk, Jr. came out for a few laps.

When I ran out of whisky, I walked around the Plaza picking up swag and
then I went to the museum gift shop and bought some souvenirs. I do not
understand why they did not have the fountain running.

There were a lot of different Corvettes lined up on Hulman Blvd today.

The truck above has evidently been taking its owner to races for many years
if all the stickers are any indication.

Later, I found a photo of that old
truck from 1962.

It stated that Super Fan Larry
Bisceglia drove from California
to Indianapolis and as of 1962
he had been first in line for 14
year in a row. I have taken that
photo and placed it to the left.

In the upper photo, you can see
the orange circle by the outside
mirror indicating he made it 19
times.

I'd guess he's around 60-70 in
this 42 year old photo, so its
fairly certain he's dead now.

I headed back to turn 3 at 4:30. I dragged my cooler and chair from my car
to the top of the hill.

I expected to be there till 6, but they stopped things at 5. Maybe its due to the
fact that Indiana just switched over to Daylight Savings Time.

Here are some new signs around the speedway.

POSTSCRIPT - Corvette-owner Michael Brawley told me that in the morning,
all the Corvettes did a parade lap, and he sent me the following photos:

I went and sat above the F1 garages at the far south end of the track.

This was the only car I saw for like an hour.