May day in Speedway

As a born and bred Hoosier and a nearly lifelong fan of open wheel racing, the month of May is truly a time to behold.  And although raceday is a magical happening, sitting amongst a sea of 300,000 rabid fans and the sight of 33 cars storming down the front stretch 3-wide, an equally enjoyable time is the practice and qualification days.

For starters, it’s only five bucks; parking and all. And the freedom to roam and sit or stand nearly anywhere you please along with the laid back atmosphere make it a great time to take in the sights and sounds of the historic speedway. These sights often include the always-entertaining drunks in the infield and women offering, um…photo-ops…in the underground walkways. The track also offers a lot of great spots for an uncredentialed photographer to grab unobstructed images of the cars on track without the need for a long prime lens or extreme cropping. Definitely a plus.

My girlfriend and I headed north on a Friday in early May to catch a day of practice, fully expecting to get drenched and watch the jet dryers. Below are some images captured from various locations around the track.

The car of Marco Andretti passes by the team of Will Power while being towed through Gasoline Alley to the garage area. Shot from the walkway two stories above.

Sarah Fisher is towed through Gasoline Alley.

The next few images were shot at various places along the grandstands above the VIP suites that line pit road.

Dario Franchitti

Mike Conway

Danica Patrick

Helio Castroneves

Justin Wilson

Mike Conway dives into turn one under ominous skies.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 9:21 PM. It is filed under Blog, Featured, Sports and tagged with indianapolis, indycar, irl. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.