Pole Day at the Brickyard...

The smell of racing fuel, the roar of finely tuned engines- and the thrill of seeing million dollar+ race cars fly around one of the most historically relevant race tracks on the planet at speeds over 220mph - not a bad afternoon.

Last weekend I had the good fortune to be in Indianapolis for what is known locally as "Pole Day" - not to disappoint all the Polish-American MINI Mechanics out there- but the Pole they are referring to is not a "Pole" but rather "The Pole" - as in "Pole Position" "Pole Sitter" etc..

Pole Day is they first day of qualifications for the Indy 500. This day is unique to the qualification days that follow because the car with the fastest qualifying time on this day earns the coveted "pole position" or number one spot on the starting grid for the Indy 500. Aside from bragging rights- the pole sitter is the only qualifier whose position cannot be "bumped" by a faster car on "bump day" (the last day of qualifications)- in addition to a locked starting position- the winner of the pole also gets $100 grand. Pretty good for a days work.

Though I have been to a few races in my time- including F1 and some league races at Road America- I was not fully prepared for what Pole Day had to offer. As you can imagine in Indianapolis racing is a religion and flows through the blood of the locals. Speaking of locals, one of the perks of my marriage is that the new in-laws (aside from being great people) are race fans. The double super bonus perk is that one of my new brother-in-laws is an I-PD Detective and my Father in-law has connections at the track- what this adds up to is a spectator experience roughly equivalent to having back-stage passes to a rolling stones concert. Not only did we get to park in the police parking lot and get into the event for free- but we had access to the garage area for the race teams and seats in the infield behind the pits. A race fan couldn't ask for a better setup.

Once at the track- I stuck close to my guides who made a B-line for the garage area. After flashing our passes at security- we were able to watch Helio Castroneves car being engine tested. It was pretty amazing to look inside these garage bays- actually the word "garage" seems a bit common for these surgically clean, super high tech race laboratories. All I could think was- "I want one"

Here's a pic of Castroneves' car being engine tested. We were about 8 feet away. The mufflers you see are actually slip-ons (notice the handles at the top) to spare the crews ears during testing.



Here are some other pics from the garage area:





From where we were seated in the infield- we had a birds-eye-view of the pits and could also see the tech inspection area where the cars got measured and weighed before being allowed to take their qualifier laps. The pits were not as active as on race day- but it was still cool to watch the cars pull in for tweaks and then peel out back onto the track. Some drivers of note that we were able to see were Sarah Fischer and Helio Castroneves. Each seemed gracious and spent time with some fans that were down by the fence behind pit lane.

Though there were some really fast cars running that day- Only a few were in real competition for the pole seat- the time to beat that day was upwards of 221 to earn a spot in the first row of the starting grid. Turns out that Buddy Rice won the pole with an average qualifying speed of 222.024mph - I think he may have also had the fasted lap of the day- 223+ if I remember correctly. It was surprising to me how noticeable the difference is between a car traveling at 215 or 219 and one going upwards of 221- you can really see and hear the difference as they go by.

Not everyone had such good luck- there were 3 crashes and one spin out for the day. Luckily nobody got hurt- but what a bummer it must be to wreck your car before such a big race. I was told though- that as long as the chassis is reparable the team can rebuild the car with all new parts and still use it to race- or they could enter another car- Some drivers actually qualify multiple cars just to be on the safe side.

I decided that I like going to the track for practice and qualifiers because it is much less chaotic than actual race day- less crowded, easier to focus on what's going on- fewer cars and teams to keep track of. You can really get a great feel for the inner workings of the sport. It also helped that I was escorted by 3 veteran race fans who knew the ins and outs of the track and the event better than most.

Here are some other pics I got while there- the weather was overcast and cold- so they may look a little gray-









Oh yeah- did I mention Big Foot was there?



Recent MINI News:

It's a long story but I found myself bidding on a set of H.I.D. Halogen bulbs for my MINI the other day and wound up winning them for 18 bucks. So next week' entry should be a write up of the install and performance- that is if I can find the time this weekend to tackle it. (I know- about time I got back to doing that sort of thing.)

As always - thanks for reading- and stay tuned...