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.

Sun Room Exterior Renovation Underway

Last week we started the renovation of the exterior of the sun room. We work one day and it rains and we work 2 days and then it rains. It's frustrating because it is either raining or the wind is blowing so hard it is difficult to use the heat gun.I've been taking photos every day but the change is not that noticeable. At this point we are busy just fixing and correcting problems such as rotted wood and stripping thick layers of paint off the trim. We believe this sun room was not original because you can see exterior cedar shingles between the addition and the original house. We were surprised that they did not remove the shingles before building the addition.R did a little concrete repair to the cement sill. A small chunk had broken off so he replaced the remaining piece and filled in the remainder with concrete. Prior to the repair he removed nearly all the paint and then used the sander to feather the few remaining pieces of paint.

The next step is trimming out the windows so that they blend with the rest of the house. Hopefully this will look better than what was there...which was nothing but a tiny piece of trim molding.

The renovation was put on hold last weekend when we took a short road trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Pole Day. We had garage passes and really saw some very interesting things, probably only interesting to gear heads but interesting none the less. I really liked the Radio Flyer wagon in Dario Franchetti's pits....before you ask.....no I did not see Ashley Judd. I did see Dario.....as a matter of fact I was about 3 feet from him. Very tall. Back to the wagon...isn't it cute??? You would be the hit of the flea market pulling this filled with antique goodies. The crew member we talked to said they paid 3k for it.After we watched Helio Casteneves (2 time 500 champ and Dancing w/the Stars champ) win the pole with over a 224 mph attempt we drove down the street to The Union Jack Pub for prime rib. Cool sports bar with antique stained glass windows used as partitions and antique lighting hanging from the ceiling. The bar also had some great racing art work. R said they had a yellow sprint car behind glass by the women's bathroom. Don't ask.....I have no idea why he was hanging out by the women's bathroom.

I'm on the edge...of the driveway

When we first purchased the house we couldn't understand why anyone would make a driveway so narrow. Well they didn't. It was just overgrown on the edges. In addition to that, it was covered in leaves, pine needles, and dirt. I think over the last couple of years I have reclaimed approximately 2 feet on each side. It's a lot easier to edge with the shovel after it has rained. And that is what I did today instead of stripping.

Since this is the month of May and any good race fan knows what that means, I'll fill you in on our driveway plans.

"What do you mean, it's the month of May and what does that have to do with being a race fan and your driveway??"

All during the month of May race teams prepare the the Indy 500. They practice, they have Carb Day (short for carburetor, which they don't have anymore), they Qualify, and they have Bump Day (last day of qualifying and you hope you did well enough not to be on the bubble).

Being gear heads and race fans we can't have just a regular driveway....can we???? Noooooooooooooo we can't. Just like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Gear Acres will have a Yard of Bricks just inside the gates. Yard of bricks????? Originally the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was paved entirely in bricks, hence it's nickname the "Brickyard". The only bricks left intact is a 36 inch wide strip of bricks across the width of the track at the start/finish line, hence a "yard of bricks". You've probably seen photos of the winner of the Brickyard 400 kissing the bricks after winning the race.

We will probably use concrete pavers for our "yard of bricks". I think I'll try and purchase just one REAL brick from the speedway. Now just how cool will that be????