Sunday, May 11, 2014

It's a Race Track! It's a Golf Course! It's ...


... the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!
Indy got the month of May off to a fresh start 
on Saturday with the inaugural Indianapolis Grand Prix, 
an eighty lap race for Indy cars utilizing 
the IMS 2.4-mile road course.
While there may initially have been some concern
about how this new addition to the IndyCar schedule
might be accepted by fans, doubters were left 
in the dust by the large turnout of people who came
to wander the grounds and to watch the IndyCar
race, as well as several other support races.


A young fan watches as eventual winner, Simon Pagenaud
leads the field through Turns 7 and 8.


He was joined by thousands of other spectators who, 
snacks and sunscreen in tow, brought their
friends and families to the track for a day of sunshine,
blue skies, and the heady aroma of braking tires.


With about ninety minutes to spare before the start 
of the day's feature race, I decided to explore 
a part of the track I'd not seen before. 
I walked north along a golf cart path, towards Turn 4 
of the Speedway's oval. The grandstands can be seen 
looming in the background. A lot of other folks
took advantage of the groves of trees,
retreating to their shade between races to rest
and cool off, many enjoying a picnic lunch.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was there once, long ago, when an actual golf tournament was taking place. Siegmund filmed and stopped the camera just before a hole in one was hit! But I think that the Formula 1 track that was put in for that episode in IMS history destroyed most of the tournament golf course.

Speedway said...

Looking at a map, 4 holes, 7 thru 10, are inside the track, with the remaining 14 holes outside the backstretch. Pete Dye designed the course and was laid out with the road course in mind. Someone who saw the plans over 30 years ago said it was obvious from the get-go that plans were afoot for future road course races. Sections of the old retaining walls were used to form sides of the lakes. The viewers' mounds all abut the greens as well as give views of the road course.

Halcyon said...

Fantastic reflection!

William Kendall said...

Beautiful shots... particularly that reflection.