2017 IndyCar Grand Prix - Qualifying - Indianapolis Photo Journal

DAN'S PHOTO JOURNALS

INDYCAR GRAND PRIX - SATURDAY
May 13, 2017

I only got 5 hours sleep to ET's 12. It was a nice sunny day.
I made breakfast.
I got my Corvette out for the first time this year and we aired
up the tires. Our friend Greg stopped by. My friend Lynn
came over to take my dog to watch for the day.

ET and I dropped the top and drove through town again to
the speedway; parking in the east section of Main Gate
parking this time.

We went directly to our seats in Corner 7 Stand, getting there
at 3pm, 45-minutes before the race start.

Our seats were in the top far right of the stands. There was
just 1 seat open to my left. The fence was directly against
the back of my seat, which forces you sit up exactly straight,
which is not comfortable. I would stand as much as I could
the rest of the day.

Once again, we brought only beer. There was no food for
sale near our stand, so we did not eat. Sure would have
been nice to have some hot dog barkers walking in the
stands like at a baseball game.

It was hot - in the low 80s. The sun was toward our backs,
which was good. There was a nice breeze all day too.

The drivers were escorted one by one,
sporadically around the track in large white
pickup trucks. They were too far away to
recognize and the trucks did not feature their
names. Might not have done much for the fans
but it gave the drivers a chance to see the
crowd before they got occupied racing.

Normally for this race, we go to the front straight
to watch the start. There has always been a
crash there. But this time we just stayed in our
seats. Good thing.

I got my camcorder out to flim the flyover and
discovered the memory card was missing.
So, no video for me today.

The flyover was 4 jets that the armed forces
uses as training jets. The guy that sat next to
me, Brian, had worked at the airport and once
served aboard an aircraft carrier. He knew the
type of jets they were. They looked cool.

To my surprise, the race cars made it cleanly
through turn 1.

I was at the end of the back straight at turn 7.
As the field came through, Andretti, Kanaan and
Jones collided and spun off into the grass. They
were able to keep going though and no caution
flag was given.

This would be the only incident of the race and
the race was ran caution free. There was no
TV monitor in view. IMS could have placed a
small one on the fence to our left, which would
not have blocked anyone's view, and helped us
follow the race. I couldn't understand the
announcer through the speakers that were far
down in front either.

However, if you have 20/20 vision, the car
numbers for the top 8 drivers were lit up on the
top back of the Pagoda Control Tower. The
Lap # could also be descerned at the to of the
scoring pylon. This was all I had to follow the
race. It was enough for me to keep track of the
leaders anyway.

I was not surprised to see Will Power win it.
Dixon was in 2nd and closing on him, but could
not catch him before lap 85 and the end of the
race.

We stood around for a little while letting the
crowd thin out before we left. ET had wanted to
go out and walk on the track, but I did not. It
was 7pm.

We drove directly to Fountain Square, an
up-and-coming area south-east of downtown.
It was pretty crowded due to the Folk Festival
going on. The main streets were blocked off
to cars and parking was difficult.

We had burgers at a very crowded Kona's
Corner. Then we walked along the streets
enjoying the festival. There were many bands
scattered through out the town as well as tents
where people were selling arts and crafts.
It was a laid-back event with an interesting
friendly crowd. I recommend this event for
after the race next year.

Sebastien Pagenaud

Conor Daly

Josef Newgarden