Indy Pole Day

I realized that I needed to post more photos of Indy to satisfy all you gear heads out there.

The day was very cloudy and extremely windy. Some people wore shorts and just a t shirt, others had on winter coats. We knew better and dressed warm, nothing worse than going to a race and sitting there uncomfortable because you are cold.

On to the photos!!

This is a photo of the Pagoda (scoring tower). The photo does not truly represent how tall it is.

The pink #99 of Alex LloydThe #3 car of Helio Castroneves
A photo of the tunnel that goes under the race track. It's really something when a race car goes over this portion of the track at 200 + mph and you are under there.The museum that includes the Indy 500 Hall of Fame
This is the medical evac helicopter. They use this helicopter to take injured drivers to the hospital if their injuries cannot be treated at the on site hospital.Here is the medical facilities. All drivers go here after a crash if they cannot drive their car away from the wreck. My understanding is that it is equipped with an MRI and X ray machines plus all the other bells and whistles. This is also the site of after crash interviews where the driver says, "Mom, I'm all right and it was just one of those things." Or "I guess so and so didn't see me and drove right over me."
Each team has their own supply of fuel. They all use the same fuel.This is the electric motor that starts the engine. The cars do not have an on board starter. If you watch the race you will see them pull this out if their car stalls on pit road. It fits into the car at the rear under the wing and between the rear tires.
The garage area of the #14 car.The garage area of one of the Target cars.
The non wing sprint car of R. They decided to go with simple graphics package because they ran out of time and didn't have the time to take the car and leave it for a week so the graphics guy could do the vinyl. They still need to add the contingency stickers.Here's R sitting pretty. When he is strapped in correctly he can't even lean that far forward. The driver and seat are one. To keep your arms from getting broken in a crash, your arms have Velcro straps attached that keep them from leaving the seat area even if your hands come off the steering wheel. Ken Schrader once said that he "assumes the sprint car crash mode even in his stock car" places his hands under his harness straps to keep his arms from flying around and getting broken. R decided to give up his pavement racing number of #81 and go back to his motorcycle racing number of #88. A friend of our said "R went from racing on 2 wheels, to four wheels, and now to 3 wheels." **non wing sprint cars lift the left front off the ground when they are into the throttle heavy. Now all he needs to do is start unicycle racing.