Oilpressure

Welcome to a still-darkened and quite chilly Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was 49° driving in this morning, and the most recent forecast is now calling for a high of 64° this afternoon. I think the green flag temp is to be around 61°. It won’t come close to the coolest in history, but it will probably be on the cool side for most of the race. The fans might be slightly uncomfortable, but the race cars should love the conditions. Best of all, there is little chance for the rainstorm that hit on Race Morning last year.

To my wife’s annual dismay, we awoke at 3:30 am and left our hotel a little after 5:00 am. As early as that sounds, there was still a line to get into Lot 2 at 5:30. That’s where we go to ultimately get to the media lot. It was tough finding a parking spot. It always amazes me how so many people are at the track so early on Race Day. My goal is to always be inside the gates before the Opening Bomb goes off. There is no greater feeling of relief when we are able park the car, where we are supposed to.

A special thanks to Rick Johnson, multiple winner of the Trivia Contest. He had read that Susan had misplaced her media credentials for the month. IMS provided her a replacement to get her into the media center, but the pit, grid and garage passes are sold out. Rick saw that, and had an extra one just like the one she misplaced. I met him at the admin building and we made the transfer. She is now good for Sunday as always. Thanks, Rick! You saved our weekend.

It is always so peaceful milling around as the sun begins to pop over the eastern horizon. At that time, Pagoda Plaza is still empty and food vendors are getting prepared for the day. Lots of catering employees are pushing carts of food to unknown destinations. By 7:00 am, the gates will have been open for an hour, and a buzz will already be building. By 8:00 am the place will really be filling up and the term “madhouse” will begin to enter people’s mind. There is nothing like Race Morning. It’s crazy, but exhilarating all at once – but I’m glad to only deal with it once a year.

My oldest brother and his son arrived Friday evening. They joined me and Susan at Dawson’s Friday night, along with Paul Dalbey and his son. My middle brother, his son-in-law and the son-in-law’s father flew in yesterday morning. After a late breakfast at Charlie Brown’s we all met up at The IMS Museum. It was my first visit to the newly renovated museum. It lived up to all the hype I’ve heard for the last couple of months. It was truly outstanding. It was hard to believe we were in the same building.

Now that we are here and settled, we are going to go wander while we can and then go grab our traditional breakfast of Eggs Benefit at Honda. I will be back for a brief wrap-up after the race, then I will have a possibly delayed Random Thoughts post on Monday. Enjoy the race, everyone!

George Phillips

This entry was posted on May 25, 2025 at 5:37 am and is filed under Indianapolis 500. 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.