Oilpressure

Better late than never – we are finally here, after visiting a local bakery that Susan insists on going to every year. Savages Bakery does have the best cinnamon rolls ever, so i guess it’s worth it. We’ve actually been on the grounds for over an hour, but as soon as we parked the car – we stopped off at Turn Three to watch the IndyCar practice. James Hinchcliffe topped the charts after Sébastien Bourdais led for most of the session. Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Will Power rounded out the top-five. It was an interesting session as several drivers seemed to have trouble staying on-track. As we were about to take our place over Turn Three, we heard tires screeching. We looked up just in time to see Helio Castroneves spin into the gravel trap right in front of us.

Will Power and Scott Dixon both had off-track excursions during the session. Power’s was especially spectacular as his spin created a column of tire smoke that momentarily covered that entire portion of the track.

The buzz for a Saturday morning practice was incredible. Attendance seems way up this year. The crowd that comes here is very knowledgeable. They’re not here just to have a good time. As we listened to the conversations around us, it was very apparent that they knew their stuff. This is probably not the same crowd that will be going to nearby Talladega next week.

I was fortunate to run into longtime reader and commenter Mike Silver, while overlooking Turn Three. We first met Mike at Fontana last fall. He lives in Indianapolis and attends eight races per year. This is already his second for this season. The Verizon IndyCar Series needs more fans like him.

I was delinquent in my posting yesterday, as we  got caught up in “track stuff’”. I’ll try to do a better job today. We’re going to go milling about. I have my camera with me today, so I’ll have some pictures. If you are on Twitter please follow me (@Oilpressureblog) and Susan (@chiapet58), as we both tweet from the track throughout the day. Check back soon.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on April 26, 2014 at 11:35 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.