Day 5, Race Day!

We slept in today, skipping the warm up sessions and getting to the track around 10:30am. Our hospitality room was buzzing, nearly doubling the number of people than the day before. We ate an early lunch to be ready for the Noon kickoff of the races with the 125cc riders. There were a lot of wrecks, indicative of how tough the hot track conditions were.

Luckily no one was injured during this race.

The Moto2 riders were next, and we were rooting for Spaniard Tony Elias (#24) and Americans Roger Hayden (#34), Nicky’s younger brother, and Kenny Noyes (#9).


Within minutes, there were eight riders involved in a crash, which caused a red flag and a restart. There was great excitement around the track as everyone waited to see what would happen. Tony ended up winning the race, and later told press that he had been ill with a fever all week. It’s amazing that not being in 100% condition he was able to pull off the win.

Approaching 2:45pm, the air temperature was 93 degrees with the track temp at 133 degrees! The riders were cooking on the grid. Before the start, we sang the national anthem and had a flyover from a C130 from the Kentucky Air National Guard.

Rob’s large camera lens allowed for this close photo, it actually was not as close as it appears!

The race was underway at 3pm. After a few laps, Ben Spies could not hold off Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, but we cheered for Ben during each lap as he securely held second place.

The race lasted 29 laps, exciting as always, but so much better to watch in person than on TV. Dani held on to win, with Ben in second beating out Jorge Lorenze (championship leader). The crowd was so happy for him and this was his best finish as a rookie MotoGP rider.

The racers came around for a victory lap, with Nicky being kind enough to wave specifically to Michele in the stands.

Our race weekend was better than we could have expected, with great weather, exceptional hospitality at the track and good times spent with our friend, Mike. We were saddened to hear that earlier that morning, one of the Morigawa riders, a 13-year old boy, had been struck on the track and killed. It breaks our heart for his family and friends, and puts in perspective the dangerous nature of a sport that we love.

Tomorrow we bid Indianapolis goodbye until next year, and head back home with a 6am departure.

Day 4, Practice and Qualifying Day

We arrived at the track at 7am this morning, very early, but we knew the day would be jam-packed with activities. We checked into the Corner 9 Hospitality facility and got breakfast. After breakfast we took advantage of our paddock passes, walking literally “behind the scenes” where all the action is.

We were even allowed behind the fencing where the public can not go, right next to the riders’ campers. Rob shouted a hello to Hiroshi Aoyama, who amazingly was back riding this weekend after cracking his spine just nine weeks ago.

We also saw Colin Edwards with his cool t-shirt gun shooting shirts over to fans.
We then watched the second Free Practice for all 3 classes: 125cc, Moto2, and MotoGP. The view from our seat location was excellent, unobstructed by any fencing since we were almost in the top row.

After lunch we watched qualifying for MotoGP. It was a 60-minute session, as usual with the last 15 minutes being the most exciting as the riders push the limits for the fastest times. Star Valentino Rossi wrecked out nearly in front of us. He hung out for five minutes watching the rest of qualifying until he could catch a ride back to the garage. We had a great location to see the riders that crashed out getting rides back to the paddock.

For the first time in his rookie MotoGP career, American Ben Spies qualified first and will start tomorrow’s 2010 Red Bull Indianapolis GP from pole position. The entire track was alive with excitement, even people who don’t follow MotoGP knew that something special had happened.

Our favorite, Nicky Hayden, will be starting from third position, placing two of the three Americans on the front row!

After qualifying, we sped over to the Brickyard Crossing to line up for the Lap of Champions as part of the PBTF’s Ride for Kids event. We got there just as everyone was gearing up, with former champion Kevin Schwantz leading the pack.

Our lap around the track was truly the highlight of the day, if not potentially the entire trip. We entered near turn 5, feeling that we were truly experiencing a once in a lifetime moment, with the track crew waving colorful flags for us in celebration. We were amazed at how tight some of the turns are, going only 20 mph when the racers typically go three times that! We were able to feel every bump and ridge in the track. On a few turns, Rob leaned the Goldwing into the corners.

On the last turn before the front straight, Rob smugly remarked, “Hmph! That’s the turn Dani Pedrosa pitched it away last year—it wasn’t that hard!” Coming down the front stretch in front of the grandstands, we were all smiles envious of what the riders experience in a real race, albeit 150 mph slower! We got amazing video footage of the entire event, which took us only 6 minutes.
Rob said if he could shave off 4 minutes 20 seconds, he’d be on pole position! To put the speed in perspective, the MotoGP riders would have lapped us three times at that rate! We wish we could have gone around another time, but we’ll have to wait for next year.

After dinner, we made our way over to the Indiana State Fair Grounds to watch flat track action at the Indy Mile. The racing at the Indy Mile was awesome. Both single and twin cylinder motorcycles roar around this one mile dirt track reaching speeds over 100mph.

As a special bonus, Nicky Hayden was the grand marshall of the event. He came out and actually raced around the track five or so times. What a blast! The attendance at the track was packed, and it was special to see how much the locals love this sport. We didn’t get back until 1am, so tired from the day that Michele said she was too tired to blink!

As the photo curiosity of the day, Michele saw this "odd" building across the street from our restaurant.

Day 3, First Day at the Track

Immediately upon arriving at the track this morning at 8am (which was very chilly in the 50s), we knew we had made the right decision to upgrade our race weekend ticket package. Our parking area was exactly beside the track, our stands and our hospitality building. We found our hospitality area, the Corner 9 Club, and were treated to a great breakfast.


The first agenda item of the day was the pit walk, which allowed us to view the rider garage area. Rumor had it that the riders sometimes came by to sign autographs. Michele parked herself in front of Nicky’s garage and got great pictures of his bike, but alas, no Nicky to be found!

Michele did get some pictures of Colin throwing t-shirts into the crowd though.

On our way out of the pit area, Michele had the eagle eye and saw Marco Simoncelli from Italy, Randy DePuniet from France, and Pol Espargaro from Spain.

After the pit walk, we watched the rider’s auction for awhile. Italian superstar Valentino Rossi was funny as ever. When asked if he was hoping for the Americans to get on the podium this weekend, he said “Yes, but behind me!”. Several of his auctioned items went for thousands of dollars.

Before lunch, we visited a few vendor areas, and Michele also couldn’t resist this photo of this lug of a guy with the most girly Chihuahua dog!

We also got to see the latest attempts of turning a Goldwing into an actual car.

We enjoyed lunch in our air conditioned hospitality area, appreciating a well-catered meal. After lunch, Rob secured his spot at turn 5, the only area on the track with a break in the fencing to allow for amazing photo opportunities during practice sessions as the riders screamed past, barely staying on their bikes around the turns.

After practice sessions, we got our paddock passes and walked behind the garage area. Michele soon realized that the 90 minutes she spent this morning in the pit lanes was for schmucks, as within a 10 minute span she had immediate access to Ben Spies, Colin Edwards, and Jorge Lorenzo.

We were pretty beat by 4pm, and Michele waited back in the hospitality building while Rob and Mike watched Colin give a typical good-humored interview. Our last stop of the day was back at the Ducati tent, with Nicky onsite but Michele being about 3 minutes too late to meet him before he finished signing posters.

We left the track around 6:30pm, a bit sunburnt but euphoric from our fun day. We picked up Mike’s mom, Connie, and went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. She is a lovely lady and patiently tolerated our nonstop chatter about motorcycles during dinner.

Tomorrow is filled with practice and qualifying sessions for all classes of riding. We also have the Ride for Kids Lap of Champions ride at 5pm on the track itself with former 500cc World Champion, Kevin Schwantz (#34). We are excited!

Day 2, Indy GP kickoff

August 26th, 2010
Day 2

We got a lazy start to the day with a late breakfast at Bob Evans at 10am. After breakfast, we made our way to Monument Circle in the heart of Indianapolis. At 11:30, the kickoff to the race weekend began with interviews of several American motorcycle racers in MotoGP (both past and present). Ben Spies, Roger Hayden, Kenny Noyes, and Kevin Schwantz were all in attendance.

Roger Hayden will be riding the American Honda Moto2 bike. Not only will he be riding with Kevin Schwantz’s number plate (#34) but he’s riding with a very important sponsor, Ride for Kids.

We also saw Stewart Aitken-Cade (an old high school friend). Turns out he’s now the Chief Steward of USGPRU (a series which is running this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway). We’ll try and catch up with Stewart tomorrow in the paddock.
With the kickoff events complete, we took a walk down Meridian Street to see about picking up a few camera related items. Indianapolis has again this year put up street signs with the names of current and past motorcycle racers. Here are a few we saw.

Next, we headed over to the track and walked through the Hall of Fame museum at the speedway. They had some very cool bikes including Kevin Schwantz’s 500cc GP bike and some old Indian motorcycles.

Tomorrow the racing begins. We’ll be at the track when the gates open at 8am!

Day 1, Ride to Indy

August 25, Wednesday
Day 1

Our first day on the road to the Red Bull Indianapolis GP started early with the wake up alarm sounding at 4:45am. We had already packed on Sunday, so our morning wasn’t rushed. At 6am our friend, Mike, pulled into the driveway, and immediately started taking apart his bike!

He was getting electrical interference in his headset (a click, click, click sound). We suspect that the newly added ground loop isolator (which is supposed to reduce electrical interference) was creating the noise. Mike admitted that he should have not broken his rule about fiddling with the bike the day before a trip. Several allen wrenches and various other tools later, the ground loop isolator was removed, the noise was fixed, and we were ready to hit the road. It was now 6:30am.

Our forecast for the day was cool and mostly cloudy. We headed north on US15 into Maryland, picking up I70 west, and then on to I68 west into West Virginia.

After the first 155 miles near Romney, WV, we stopped for a fuel break and leg-stretcher. With Mike’s huge backpack on his seat, someone apparently mistook it for a Goldwing and left a Dairy Queen flyer on his seat!


As we crossed over the mountains in western Maryland and West Virginia, we encountered interesting cloud and fog formations through the mountains.



The lowest temperature we saw was 63F. Michele had long ago added fleece and turned up her heated jacket to 100%.

Once in Pennsylvania, the skies began to clear and the temps warmed up. We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel just a few miles into Ohio, a few minutes west of Wheeling, WV. We had a relaxing lunch for about an hour.

Mike made the mistake of letting Michele surf the web with his new iPad. She immediately went to the MotoGP website and began looking up all the info and pics she could about her favorite rider, Nicky Hayden (2006 World Champion no less). Mike and Rob both think she was trying to formulate her stalking strategy (says Rob). In truth, she is his biggest fan and has a very normal appreciation (says Michele).

After lunch, it wasn’t long before we were nearing Columbus. It was around 2pm and traffic was starting to pick up.

Unfortunately, Mike’s new camera decided it had had enough and flew off his helmet after only 400 miles. Fortunately, it would be the day’s only casualty. The rest of the ride through Ohio was uneventful. In fact, as Ohio is exceptionally flat and the roads unendingly straight, we sought out curiosities to keep ourselves entertained, such as this truck carrying half of another truck.

By 6:30pm we were in Indianapolis!


Mike headed over to visit his family, and we went to dinner. With 581 miles in a leisurely 12 hours, we settled in the hotel just a few short miles from where this weekend’s festivities will take place. The time literally flew by today, helped by limited traffic issues and 70mph speed limits.

Tomorrow we’ll head downtown for the weekend kickoff events where Michele will be on her ever vigilant lookout for a Nicky Hayden sighting and trying to get herself on TV.