Oilpressure

By Susan Phillips

I guess I don’t share the popular opinion of the hard-core IndyCar fan—I didn’t feel the same revulsion that many people felt about the Cup cars defiling the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I don’t look at the Speedway as a race, I don’t breathe in the smell of Ethanol fumes and feel the blood racing in my veins.

For me, IMS is about the people we see there, the friendships we’ve made, and of course, the drivers. I have enjoyed seeing friends who have followed my progress the past year and prayed for me. Sorry I keep going back to the cancer thing. Something about getting a terminal illness defines you while it has you in its grip and you are facing possible mortality. We all face mortality every day we get older, but we don’t think about it so much. So forgive me as I transition from being a cancer victim to a cancer survivor.

I have said before that I have been really fortunate to be taken along by George to the inner workings of the IndyCar Series. He has truly earned any credentials he gets as he tirelessly writes content three times a week—even in the off-season. I guess my role is more of a supporter as I write content somewhat infrequently, but things like planning dinners around George’s writing schedule, and bouncing ideas off each other when it is hard to come up with a topic (especially in the off season). I can count on the fact that if George says he is going to be writing when he gets off work, that he will surely be doing it and I should work the evening plans around his schedule. We are still catching up the episodes of MasterChef because there have been races three weeks in a row and much to write about and we do like to watch the TV broadcast of the race before another race happens.

My roundabout point here is to say that I really did enjoy the low-key weekend that was the Big Machine Spiked Coolers Grand Prix last weekend. I do have a hard time keeping my brain on point these days. The weekend was the way I like race weekends—not unbearably hot, everyone seems to be in a good mood (because they are at a track), and there is just enough electricity in the air that it is an undercurrent everywhere. I didn’t really care that IndyCars were “second fiddle” this past weekend.  I enjoyed myself immensely.

I purposefully decided to take my camera around to vantage points where any fan could take the photos with a good enough camera and lens. The only caveats I have here is that the photos of the drivers that were made after driver introductions were taken in the pit area, but I would have easily gotten better pictures (and probably autographs) had I taken photos where most fans stand before a race–and the pictures of the driver’s significant others were taken from the pits. I took the photos of Will Power’s victory from the Tower Terrace stands below the Media Center, which are seats that are open to the public. So if you like seeing the drivers up close and personal (it was a long walk from the pits to the garage area for the drivers), consider attending this race. I enjoyed it!

This entry was posted on August 18, 2021 at 4:00 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.