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Indianapolis 500 Opening Day
May 14, 2011
Wow!  What an INCREDIBLE day at the Speedway!

The weather service had predicted a 90% chance of rain
for Saturday, opening day at the track.  So I didn't make
any plans to go.  I awoke at 10:30 a.m. to a bright sunny
DRY day.  As I drank my coffee, I prayed that it would
stay that way.  There was to be an unprecedented car
show - 250 concourse quality automobiles all built before
1961.  I sure didn't want to miss that!

I headed out at noon from the south side of Indy.  I took
I-465.  There was some construction by the airport, then
the new highway opened up for awhile before more
construction cones appeared around Crawfordsville Rd.   
The speed limit in the construction zones is 45 mph.  It
was very hard to go slow as I was so excited about getting
to the track and there was not much traffic.  I did see a
police car pull over someone - this police car was an
unmarked Mustang!  SNEAKY sneaky!

I turned off on 38th Street and found it was all under
construction too.  However I was able to turn right on Moller
Rd as I had planned.  I took that to 30th St and then left
down to the north entrance of the track.  It cost $10 to get
in today.  The infield was still open so I parked in there.  All
I took was my camera and smokes.  No hat, no sunglasses,
no cooler.
The first thing I noticed was the huge orange
Hotwheels ramp they are building for the world-
record jump they are planning to make on race
day.  It is in the 4th turn infield.  This was where
I was expecting the car show to be.  I would end
up walking toward the Pagoda Control Tower
where the brunt of the car show was being held.

I was blown away by all the fantastic cars.  I took
430 Photos and I did not take a picture of every
car!  I am going to put all these car show pictures
on a different page:

CAR SHOW PICTURES

I spent most of my time looking at the cars on
display.   I got to see one of my favorite cars
of all time - the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C Touring
Spider.  Wow! wow! wow!  I never thought I'd
get to see one in person.

The cars were lined up all the way down
behind the F1 garages too.  

I signed up for the Indianapolis Star and got
a free race hat.

I made my way finally up to the 3rd floor of
the stands near Turn 1 where I watched a few
cars practice.  There was a great crowd today
for opening day.

I made my way back to the Plaza, bought a
corndog for $3 and a 16oz Miller Lite for $5.

I walked back out to Hulman drive to try and
catch a shuttle back to my car.  There I saw a
collection of Vipers parked in the grass.  OH
MY GOD!  There was my old Viper parked
there!  I ran over and took some photos of it.  
It was like seeing a long lost love!  Sigh...

Once back to my car, I put the top down and
head toward the south entrance.  As I got on
the east side of the museum, I spotted tents
with race cars parked under them!  I parked in
the museum parking lot and went to take a look
and take more photos.  These cars were all
Indy 500 winners!

As I finished, it started to rain. I put the top back
up and drove on out encountering no traffic.  
The rain soon stopped.  

Today was perfect.  I hope you were able to go.

I would like to send out a great big THANK YOU
to all the collectors who preserve these
automotive wonders and allow all of us to see
them!
The new 2012 INDYCAR was on display
There were several of these guys
working for those who did not want
to wait for the shuttle to get back
out to their car in the 3rd turn infield.
The 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C Touring Spider.

One of the best looking cars ever made imo.
The 500 princesses toured the garages.
Don't forget to look at the hundreds of car show photos I took!

CAR SHOW PHOTOS
DAN'S PHOTO JOURNALS
Dan's Race Journals
I sold my Viper last year and saw it
today.
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