Race cars!

Bike wreck!

Thursday morning, while driving home from the gym, I saw a guy on a bike get hit by a car.   I was pulling up to an intersection where the light was red and he was riding on the bike trail, approaching the intersection from the right. There was a lady in a Chevy sitting in the right lane with her right turn signal on, intently looking to the left for a gap in traffic so she could make a right on red.  She never looked to the right and when her “gap” in traffic opened up, the cyclist was just starting to enter the crosswalk.  

She hit the gas right as he rode in front of her in the crosswalk and she popped him pretty good, sending him over his handle bars and onto the road.  Ouch!  She stopped and immediately got out to see if he was OK.  I put my car in park and got out and saw that he was trying to stand up.  Phew, he’s not dead or seriously injured.   The guy was in his late 50’s early 60’s, evidently the theory of “older and wiser” doesn’t apply to him since he wasn’t wearing a helmet.   He gingerly stood up, declined any help from the driver, picked up his bike and continued to cross the intersection on foot.  She asked him again if he was OK and he said he was fine, waving her away.  I asked him "are you sure" as he walked by, he just kind of waved and nodded, seeming to be more embarrassed than anything. 

If it had been me, I would have been seriously pissed and yelled at the driver for five plus minutes, but hey, that’s just me.  After he made it across the street on foot, he slowly got back on his bike and started pedaling up the trail again.  I really hope he was OK, as I know from personal experience that the adrenaline rush from being knocked off your bike by a car blocks a lot of the initial pain.  Only to have the pain sets in a little while later…  While he had the right of way, I’m sure he’ll slow down next time he pedals into that intersection and make sure that the drivers SEE him before he crosses in front of them.

Indy bound!

On Friday morning, I rolled out of bed extra early (3:40 am to be exact) and headed towards Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a day full of race cars.  The NASCAR series was racing at Indy and they brought the Grand-am series as the “opening act.”  I really enjoy the variety of vehicles that run in the Grand-am series, so it was definitely worth burning a vacation day to go see them (the CFO didn't agree).  Grand-am races have Daytona prototype cars and production based GT race cars racing at the same time, so it gets real interesting when the dramatically faster prototypes catch up to the slower GT cars and have to dice their way through traffic.  From this spectator's point of view, there is no better racing and I don't understand why the series doesn't have a bigger following.

The CFO's favorite NASCAR driver, Carl Edwards

 

A typical Daytona Prototype car

 

A GT class Audi R8

 

I left home really early because I was hoping to get a pass to one of the day’s NASCAR autograph sessions and they were handing those out at 8:30 eastern (7:30 our time).  What the online information didn’t say was that they were only giving out 125 passes...   I was probably #200 in line, so I left empty handed. In talking with some people around the track later in the day, the people at the front of the line got there at 6:30 am when the gates opened.  There is no way that I could swing that, so now I know that I shouldn't even bother with trying to get there early next time. 

I spent the rest of the morning roaming around the track, watching the NASCAR cars go through tech inspection and watching the Grand-am series cars being prepped for the afternoon races.  NASCAR is uber strict about keeping fans out of the pits, while Grand-am is the exact opposite.  You can walk right up to the trailer/canopy where the crew is working on the car and take photos from a few feet away.  Sometimes they even say, “come on in and take some close ups, just watch out for the guys with the tools.”  How cool is that?  I know there are safety issues with having fans that close to the pits, but NASCAR should really take note because it makes the fan experience so much better when you can get that close.

Crew working on a Daytona Prototype car

 

Lots of teams running Porsche 911's in the GT class

 

Brakes on a Porsche Cayman, yes, I was this close to some of the race cars.

 

The NASCAR cars were running the traditional oval course that the Indy cars run, while the Grand-am series was running on the road course, which uses part of the oval and then winds through the infield.  There are lots of corners in the infield section so you have many options for viewing the race.  I walked all around the track, watching from many vantage points and searching for photo opportunities that wouldn’t force me to shoot photos through the safety fence.  Stupid safety fence, great for protecting spectators and for ruining photographs.  I was able to find a couple spots where I could get some clear shots and I managed to max out the memory card in my camera while taking photos. 

 

The Grand am cars diving into turn one

 

A view back to the famous Indy Pagoda Tower

 

 

I spent a good bit of time playing around with settings on the camera, as I am trying to find the best settings that get the car in focus but blur the background as I pan along with the car. I really want pictures that show a sense of speed in them…  however, it is much harder than I thought to get the settings and my panning speed synced up. I will have to keep practicing until I get it right because they look so much cooler when the background is streaked and the car is in focus.

Blurred background

 

I also spent some time roaming through the infield parking lot taking pictures of spectator's cars, there was definitely some cool cars in attendance.  Here are a few of the "dream cars" that I was drooling over:

Porsche GT3 RS

Lotus Exige

Dodge Viper GTS