# 100 Indy

It's been 26 years now since I was fortunate enough to attend the Indy 500 race. What a weekend that was.

I was the guest of the Cummins Engine company when I was working for Safeway. I had gone to the factory a few days early in the week to work on a project that I was doing. These folks knew how to make the Indy weekend first class.

The Saturday before the race, the Cummins group traveled to Churchhill Down. The Kentucky derby runs a couple weeks before the Indy. We watched the horse races at this historic track, made a few bets, drank some mint jullips, and had a fine lunch in one of the private suites overlooking the track.

Sunday. Race day! Up at 4 AM on off to the buses. On each seat there was a cooler with lunch to eat at the track, (2 sandwiches, some fruit, 2 beers, 2 softdrinks, and cookies). Also there was a earphone radio, digital stopwatch, some ear protection, a jacket, tee-shirt and ball cap for the day.

Off to the city of Indianapolis, our bus convoy of 5 buses had a street to stage on. We arrived and waited there about 20 minutes for our motorcycle police escort to the town of Speedway, where the track was built. There was a reserved lane for the police escorted busses passing the other lanes of cars and other buses working their way to the track.

We parked and went to our seats Our group was spread out all over, but I had a host Cummins family that I had seats with . We were high over the #2 turn. When you see the race, you'll see some seats higher than the main stands. That's were we were.

The pre-race action has bands, parade cars, and military groups that circled the track. Behind our stands was the golf course. Suddenly the sound of heavy helicopters were heard, and a fleet of 3 US Marine helos flared and landed on the course. Sure enough the vice president  Dan Quayle. He was from Indiana and came for the race. Other VIPs were landing with helicopters in a steady stream up at the far end of the course.

Finally the time to race arrived. Out of sight from our perch we heard the engines fire after the iconic 'Gentlemen Start your Engines; command. soon after the pace car lead the cars around the track. At each corner when the cars passed, the balloons were released make a real show. Also on the first parade lap, the safety crews line up on the track to give a thumbs up to the drivers as they pass.

Green flag. Wow, those cars are fast. You don't see the car as much as the color of the car as it passes. They start bunched up but soon you see a series of small races as cars vie for one more position on the track. When a lead changes, you can hear the crowd yell (there are over 300,000 people at the track), and sure enough the color of the lead car changed. Impossible to read numbers or sponsor logos, it was the color you saw.

Hard to imagine, on a 2.5 mile track is that the leader comes by your seat about every 45 seconds! Zoom Zoom. It was a day I still remember fondly. Even if you are not a car race fan, the experience of an Indy 500 race belongs on your bucket list.

Dad