Friends

US Grand Prix 2001
Indianapolis Motor Speedway


9/28 - 9/30/2001

(click photo for larger image)


Photo Travelogue by Keith


This trip was planned for more than a year. Looteye (Don Lutes) had a bed reserved for me at Pickwick Farms for Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning. The Thursday flight from Houston was full, so I flew in Wednesday and stayed at the La Quinta near the airport.


Thursday, September 27

Don picked me up at the La Quinta on his way in from Ft Wayne.

Looteye

We arrived at Pickwick Farms and got checked in. The apartment was fairly spacious with full kitchen and two rooms with two beds in each. We chose the room with a small TV, which left the other for his buddy (and boss) Tim Palmer, due to arrive later with his sons Devon and Sean.

Pickwick apartment
front door
front to kitchen
bedroom 1

bedroom 2
bath
bedroom 1
kitchen

kitchen to front

Joe Norris and his group arrived a bit later and moved in to the apartment next to ours. We joined them for a visit and a brew. Later Fiona and Jean-Francois joined us.

Jean-Francois, Joe
Don Winch
Jeri Norris, Katie Winch
J-F, Looteye, Don

Johanna
Don, Katie, J-F, Joe

At 7:00PM all except Jean-Francois drove to Rick's Café Boatyard for dinner. Jean went to the airport to pick up Fiona and met us at the restaurant a bit later.

Don, Katie, Jeri
Joe, Looteye, Johanna
Jeri, Katie, Don
Don, Katie, Jeri, Joe
Keith, Looteye, Johanna
Fiona

On the way back from dinner Looteye and I stopped at the grocery store for food, coffee and cleaning supplies. Jeri Norris volunteered to make the daily morning coffee and I supplied the Maxwell House Colombian and filters. Arriving back at the apartment, we found Tim and his sons in from Ft Wayne.


Friday, September 28

It was this morning that the only downside to the apartment was discovered: five persons and one bathroom. But, everyone managed to have breakfast and get ready for the day's activities by about 8:00AM. The trip to the speedway was short with little traffic. We walked about 10 blocks to the southwest gate. At the track there were sounds of a 911 normally aspirated Porsche. A quick climb to the stands revealed several more practicing for their race on Saturday.

southwest corner
Looteye, Sean
Tim, Devon

Tim and his boys left there to see the infield in general and Mickey Mouse in particular. The latter is the common name for turns 9 and 10 designed to slow the cars before the final two turns merging back to the main course. Meanwhile, Looteye and I went to buy some shirts and hats.

vendors
vendors, Looteye
Keith

After making the purchases, we walked around the southwest gate area and found several huge banners of past Indy 500 winners. This one is of A J Foyt, a Texas boy. His ranch is located about 8 miles west of Tomball, or about 10 miles west of my home.

A J Foyt

The first practice session was viewed from a stand in the southwest corner.

return from recon lap
Jarno?
Rubens?

We split up after the first session. These shots of the second session are from the south end of the pits.

looking north
looking south

The remaining shots are from the southeast corner after rejoining Looteye. The cars appear at the exit of turn 11 and then merge to the main course for the final two turns.

toward turn 11
again
Eddie?

Back at Pickwick we met Edward and Rhonda in Joe's apartment. Then everybody headed to The Library for dinner. Contrary to Doug Finley's opinion of Indy restaurants as a culinary wasteland, the steaks were marvelous and Edward comments his chicken Caesar salad was the best he ever had. After dinner some of us went for ice cream.

Rhonda, Edward
Fiona, J-F, Devon, Looteye
Rhonda, Edward
Johanna, Tim, Sean
Tim's Audi at DQ



Saturday, September 29

During the walk to the track I did a double take when passing this parked WS6. It looks exactly like my car. Closer inspection revealed a major difference; it is an automatic <frown>. At the track entrance we once again drooled over some merchandise at the vendor booth.

WS6
vendors

The first session was viewed from a point about halfway between start/finish and turn 1. The fourth shot shows Schumi negotiating turn 1. It is hard to believe he did not lift until reaching the "50" marker. This means he slowed from 210 to 70 in about 150 feet!

Rubens?
turns 4-7 in background
looking back at pits
Michael in turn 1

Session two was viewed from the pedestrian mounds around Mickey Mouse. This set was taken from just past turn 8.

Arrows
David?
Eddie?
Heidfeld?

Prost teammates
Jaguar
Trulli?
Mika?

Mickey Mouse
Benetton
Michael?

Here is a sequence of shots showing a spin by a Minardi.

around he goes
where he stops...
and back
to the track

accelerating
up to speed

There were several passes between turns 8 and 9.

BAR teammates
through Mickey Mouse

This set was taken from the entrance to Mickey (turn 9).

Jaguar, BAR, McLaren
Benetton off at turn 8
another pass
Mickey Mouse is full!

After session two I walked over to turn 11 to get this shot of corner workers, then grabbed lunch, and finally went back to the stands to see the Porsche cup race. The track was opened just north of the pedestrian overpass so there are two shots of the back straight taken from the track surface.

turn 11
back straight looking north
back straight looking south
view for Porsche race

Back at Pickwick we went over to Johanna's apartment for the Saturday night cookout.

Looteye, Tim Taylor
Mike Taylor
Joe, Sean, Tim, Devon
Tim, Mike, Looteye
food!
Denise, Andy

Johanna, Denise, Andy
Devon, Jeri, Mike
Don, Tim, Joe
Spenser, Melinda
Denise
Joe, Andy, Mike, Tim
Sean, Don, J-F, Fiona
Edward, Devon

crowd watching qualifying

It was a long day and we got to bed fairly early to rest up for the BIG DAY.



Sunday, September 30

Our seats for the main event were seven rows up in the northwest vista stand.

Looteye, Joe, Don, Katie

The race was so interesting to me that the camera was not taken out of the case again after the above shot. The group waited about 15 minutes for the crowd to thin out, then we went our separate ways after saying goodbye. Looteye delivered me to the Fairfield Inn for the night, then drove back to Ft Wayne. I flew back to Houston Monday afternoon.


Epilogue

This was an extremely rewarding experience for me. The sights and sounds at the track were new and exciting. Meeting folks from the F1 list has changed the way posts are interpreted; I now see faces and hear voices when reading the stories and comments.

Beth and I are planning a trip to Hawaii next year, so attendance at the 2002 USGP is in doubt. However, if there is a way to squeeze it in you can bet I will be there.





For more photos of the USGP, see Looteye's page.



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