After driving to Indianapolis on Saturday morning, we found an IMAX theater so we could watch The Dark Knight. It was an outstanding movie. Heath Ledger did an amazing job as The Joker.
We then briefly stopped by our hotel (The Jameson Inn) to check in. It was both nicer and more expensive than Motel 6.
We then headed out for O’Reilly Raceway Park (formerly Indianapolis Raceway Park). It’s a 3/5 mile short track a few miles outside of Indy. It was out in the middle of a bunch of cornfields with nothing else nearby. I’ve been watching races at this track on TV for years, and it surprised me how “old school” it was. The main grandstand was very small, and the rest of the stands were portable bleachers. The section of the stands that we were in didn’t even have access to a permanent restroom – only Port-a-Johns.
We decided to pay $11 extra to sit in the “all-you-can-eat” section of the stands. Given the normal price of racetrack food these days, it costs almost that much for a burger, chips, and drink at most tracks. So, we thought this sounded like a good deal. The all-you-can-eat tent was seperate from the main concession stands. The advantage to this was that there was no line to wait in. The disadvantage is that the food and drink selections were severely limited compared to regular concession stands, which we didn’t expect. Still, I had 2 cheeseburgers, 2 hotdogs, a bag of hot fries, a bottle of water, and 6 cokes, so I got my money’s worth. They were also encouraging people to take as much as they wanted after the race because they had a lot of leftovers, so we wound up with another backback full of cokes, and I had another cheeseburger.
The race was very good, even though Kyle Busch led 197 of 200 laps. Guess who led 2 of the other 3 laps – Morgan Shepherd! Yes, that’s all I have to say about the race. Leave it to me to write more about the food than the race.
The coolest part of the night was what happened after the race. As we were walking out of the spectator gate, we noticed some crewmen pushing a wrecked race car past us. I looked to my left and saw a truck with the car’s sponsor on it, so I assumed they were pushing the car to their souvenir stand to display it. We then realized it wasn’t a souvenir trailer – it was their car hauler! We then realized all of the car haulers were lined up right beside us.
It isn’t uncommon for the car haulers to be left outside the track at the smaller tracks, but they are usually inside a fenced-in area. This is the first time I’ve ever seen the car haulers parked in the same parking lot where the fans park, and just a few yards away from the first row of parked cars. So, we got to watch them load the cars as if we had a pit pass. One crewman came by trying to push David Reuitimann’s car by himself, and he yelled for a group of fans to help him push it. My friend Chris wound up helping them load the car into the trailer!
After that, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for Allstate 400 at the Brickyard!
the Dark knight is a really awesome movie! I’m jealous you got to see it in IMAX! Can you believe it’s STILL number 1 in theaters? How crazy is that!