Wednesday 9/20
Nancy and I hit the Raceview Family Campground across the road from IRP (Indianapolis Raceway Park) around 1 p.m. Our Canadian friends (and new DMVR dual members) Dick and Barb Coburn arrived before us and saved us a space next to them. The campground is nice. The showers are clean, there is ice available and we get a power hookup. We get five days here for a lot less than what we could have spent for one night's stay in a hotel, as all the room rates got jacked up for the F1 race.
After getting set up and a quick shower, Bill and Dodie Rinke from Kansas City pick us up and we head over to their motor home site just across Georgetown Road from the Speedway. Bill grew up around the area and has been attending the 500 many more years than I'm sure he cares to admit. As we get close to their campsite, the new Speedway pagoda comes into view. It's very impressive and dominates the skyline in that area of town. According to Bill, last night there was a great light show with pencil spotlight beams playing around in the sky from the roof of the pagoda.
For those of you who have never been to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, you are in for a shock when you first see the track. The size of the place is staggering. I was last at the track in 1994 and the place still strikes me with awe.
We make our way through the 16th Street tunnel and head to the Hall of Fame Museum. The size and quality of the museum has never ceased to amaze me. There are cars from every era of the 500, sports racing cars, famous Formula One (F1) cars, and of course, Winston Cup cars. The museum is very popular today. Mixed in with the U.S. and foreign race fans, we see many of the F1 teams dressed in their team gear taking in the sights. I can tell who speaks English in the Ferrari camp. Team members are gathered around those individuals as the signs are translated. On more than one mechanic's face I see a look of awe as they view the exhibits.
Wednesday evening Bill and Dodie take us to a must-see place in Speedway, the "Union Jack Pub". The food is great, the list of beers available is extensive and the racing memorabilia is amazing. There's everything from autographed helmets, photos and posters, one-of-a-kind oil paintings, to a stock block Indy car once driven by Roger Mears. If you ever get to Indy, you have to see this place.
Thursday 9/21
Bill and Dodie are going to pick us up again for some more running around town. Dick has to be at a captain's meeting in the United States Auto Club (USAC) office at 1 p.m. and they take our Caravan so they don't have to move their motor home.
Bill and Dodie take us to downtown Indy; Bill pointing out the sights and local monuments along the way. We soon find ourselves at the "Circle Center", a shopping, restaurant and entertainment mall larger than the size of Des Moines' Merle Hay Mall that's right across from the RCA dome.
As we ride down the elevator from the parking garage to the skywalk, we look out over a long double line of black and silver C class Mercedes-Benz. We've found the hotel where the West McLaren team is staying. We watch for a few minutes as the team manager walks down the long row of cars checking off who is in each one.
We begin to wander the center, and soon I find myself face-to-face with Heinz-Harald Frentzen coming up an escalator. I point him out to Nancy and she fishes in her bag for the camera. Others at the mall spot him also and soon he happily submits to autograph requests and photos. Bill walks up to him and introduces himself, then Nancy and I as Grand Prix Corner Workers. H-H reaches out and shakes both our hands, thanking us for being corner marshals for the USGP, then motions us to grab a quick photo with him. Unfortunately he has to take a call in the middle of the photo. A little later on, I spot Jensen Button in the Warner Brothers store buying Tweety Bird stuff for his girlfriend and a Scooby Doo die-cast shifter kart. These guys are out walking around with the common folk and are just having a great time.
After lunch at the Alcatraz Brew Pub (I love brew pubs), we're dropped off at the worker parking area and start running into many workers we know. We quaff a beer and head into the paddock. No one checks our credentials until we get close to the gate by the USAC office in Gasoline Alley where the yellow shirt (safety patrol) questions me. I show him my USAC gold card and get the reply "Oh, you can go any place you want sir".
We wait for the 3 p.m. scheduled worker track walk. Three o'clock comes and goes; and at 4 p.m. we're told we can go out any direction on the track, the walk will be self-guided. The captains are still in their 1:00 meeting, that ends up lasting 4 hours! So Tony Siembieda, Monica Shaw, Nancy and I start out at turn 8 and I'm happily snapping photos the whole way. Soon we arrive at the yard of bricks. When we first heard we were in as workers, I told Nancy that I was going to kiss the bricks. That's just what I do after making sure Nancy and Monica have cameras ready.
The walk is not without moments of levity. It's
pointed out to us that we should check out the signage painted on the grass
at turn 3. Sure enough, we find it. One of the race sponsors is a cell phone
company out of the United Kingdom (UK)
called Orange. The sign reads "Orango", a big blooper that isn't caught until
after the camera chopper pilot sees it during the first on-track session
on Friday. It's fixed Friday night, but makes the
Speedvision and world feed broadcasts on
Friday.
Track walk done, we're off to the country club next door for USAC and FIA registration. It goes very smoothly as we sign our lives away and get our blue, very flammable, 100% nylon jumpsuits (more on these later), our vests, and our "wonderful" rain gear (also more later). We also get a real nice USAC Officials polo shirt and an official USGP cap with the USAC logo. I figure that the shirt and hat are worth more than the $25 that we had to shell out to join USAC to be covered by their insurance. A very good dinner follows registration, and gives us the opportunity to catch up with fellow DMVR member Jack Kish and other friends.
Back to the campground and I don't feel tired, so I decide to check out our neighbors. There are a few folks from Holland, Switzerland and Germany, along with many Americans. They all want to know where we're from and how we got selected to work the race.
Friday 9/22
The day I've been waiting for a long time has arrived. I finally get to hear what F1 cars sound like live.
Nancy, Tony and I are working turns 7 and 7A. Turn 7 is the last turn before the back straight, and 7A is about a fourth of the way down that straight. We have the United Nations at our corner. Out of the 17 workers, we have Adam from Australia, Marc from Belgium, Marc from Luxembourg, Robert and Serge from France, JJ and Brendan from England, and the rest from the U.S. We have a slight language problem, as Robert from France and Marc from Belgium speak only French. But Marc from Luxembourg can translate. There are also track firefighters stationed with us. Good thing, as there is no way I'm going to be fighting any fires this weekend wearing this meltable jumpsuit.
The Porsche Supercup cars hit the track first for a 45-minute practice. Then at 11 a.m. the sound that I've been waiting for fills the air. The F1 cars are on their way down the pit lane and the crowd estimated at 100,000 begins to cheer. Here's a trivia answer for the future: the first F1 car and driver to turn a lap at Indy on the USGP course is Heinz-Harald Frentzen in his Jordan.
There is no way to accurately describe the sound of an F1 car. The CDs that I have are close, but when you hear the real thing it's incredible. Engines winding up to over 18,000 rpm have a sound all their own. GT1 and TransAm cars hit you in the chest with their sound. F1 cars vibrate your very soul. I have never seen anything that can downshift, brake, turn, accelerate and up shift as fast as these cars. CART cars are faster in overall speed, but they don't come close to getting in and out of the corners like these cars can. They're hitting 222 mph before they shut down for a 90 mph turn one and they make it look effortless. They stay out for an hour, ducking in and out of the pits looking for the best setups.
Following lunch break, the F1 cars head back out and as they hit the end of pit lane more cheering is heard. One hour and they're done for the day. After the F1s, the Porsche and Ferrari Challenge cars seem to be running at a snail's pace.
A big hit for me comes just before the Ferrari qualifying session. The historic Formula One cars go out for a "parade" behind the safety car for 15 minutes. It should have been an hour. The sound of the Ford Cosworths and Ferrari V12s is wonderful. As my coworker Brendan said, "this is not noise, this is an eargasm". There is everything out there from Jochen Rindt's 1967 Brabham BT 24/3 to Keke Rosberg's 1983 Williams FW08C. The smart drivers are hanging back a bit from the rest of the pack so that when they hit the straights they can wring the engines out.
Soon our day is over and we head over to the worker get-together -- a party with munchies and beer held in a fairly dark place behind the Northeast Vista grandstands. The MiDiv folks, including Ron and Jean Sharp who've joined us, gather for a mass WHOOMAH! (tm). Some of the other workers just stare, but some know... and many more will know the word by the end of the weekend.
Back at the campsite again, I wander around a bit in my blue jumpsuit and find to my extreme pleasure that the foreign fans in the campground treat the race officials like gods. I never been handed so many beers or offers of shots and food in my life.
Saturday 9/23
We now have about three-fourths of the fans we will have on Sunday in the grandstands and on the berms behind us. Once again, as the F1 cars hit the pit lane the cheering starts. There are two F1 practice sessions with the all-important qualifying to be held at 1 p.m. today. They only get one hour and can only turn 12 laps in qualifying. It's the world's most expensive chess game.
During qualifying Alesi in his Prost blows the motor right in front of Brendan and I, flames belching out the back of the car about 2 1/2 feet, and ends up parking downstream drivers left just past 7B. Not too smart a place to park it had he been oiling the track, but he wasn't putting anything down until he got off-line. So much for that expensive noise maker.
Brendan and I are sent up to 7A for the first race. At least I get a chance to check up with Nancy, who is the F1 communicator up there and pretty much tied to that station all weekend. The Porsche Supercup becomes the first race ever held on the USGP track at Indy. The race is so-so. Little Al ends up spinning and hitting the tire wall at 3, continues but is way back. Mario and Gentilozzi are about mid-pack. At least we can tell who the SCCA trained drivers are as they wave back at us on the cool down lap.
Now comes the fun part. Brendan and I are in the perfect place to watch the historic F1 cars blast down the straight. What fun! Man, I wish I could have attended one of the USGPs prior to 1983, before the turbo era. Again, 15 minutes is way too short for those cars.
Then it's back to our usual flagging positions for the Ferrari qualifying session. I'm on the yellow flag, and it's real weird waving the flag for everything. If in SCCA it should be a stationary yellow flag, the FIA rules say it should be waved. If it should be a waving yellow in SCCA, their rules call for two yellow flags to be waved.
At the party this evening, at first it seems that Tony George has provided some unique entertainment for us. There are two very young, very scantily clad women hanging around with someone that looks to be their pimp. Hookers at the worker party? I've never seen that before! Turns out they were hired to shave the head of one of our fellow workers in his hotel room. That's another story that I won't get into here. Other than the entertainment", at least there is more beer and food out tonight. But we're still in the same crummy location. Tonight we teach the French Canadians to say WHOOMAH! (tm). Frank Safranek would be proud of us.
Sunday 9/24
Race day! It's going to be cool and wet today according to the forecast, and I'm happy for the warmth of our nylon jumpsuit. Our French and Belgium crew greets us all with the handshake and "good morning"; we reciprocate with "bonjour". Brendan shows up with "pastries with bits and biscuits with crap in them". Read that as doughnuts with sprinkles and cookies with m&ms.
The spectator berms are full of fans at 6:05 a.m. and the cars are not due out until 8:30. I can't shake the idea that the eyes of the world are truly on me today, as I know billions will tune in from all over the world to watch the race.
The track is wet for the F1 warm-up session. The sound of fans cheering the cars going down the pit lane has now grown to over 250,000 voices and it sends chills down my spine. Everywhere I look there are people and a sea of colors in the grandstands. The fans seem to really be happy watching the cars throwing up rooster tails on the wet track, something that has never been seen at Indy before.
The Ferrari race takes place after the F1 warm-up, and the next on-track session is not slated to happen until 11:40 so we have some time, that's Pro racing. As it starts to rain harder, we all decide to put on our "one size fits all" rain gear. I have to blow out the bottom of the rain pants to get them over my boots, and the waist goes up to under my arms. I feel like my grandfather wearing this get-up. The suit is plastic and cheaply made, so most of us have blown out the suit within a half hour. But it's what we have to wear.
Driver introductions take place, then they send them out for a lap of the track in vintage cars. Most of our worker team is track-side waving at them. I notice most of the drivers look happy and wave back and yell out their thanks to us for being there. The rain stops but it still stays cool, so the track will be wet for a while. The announcer repeatedly talks about the thrill it would be for the crowd to see these cars race in the rain.
After a lap or two to acclimate themselves to
track conditions, the F1 cars form up on the grid. At 1 p.m. the red lights
go out and all hell breaks loose on the grid as the pack drops the hammer
and heads for turn one. They get through
all the turns around us just fine and the race settles into it's rhythm.
Once Schumacher (Schuey) gets by David, Mika starts dropping about 2 seconds
per lap on his times chasing him. But it's all for naught when Mika blows
his motor over by turn 13, where DMVR members Will and Kelley Huxtable are
working this weekend.
There is some good racing all through the pack
and we are treated to a real battle by Frentzen and Villeneuve. Schuey is
on a tear though and can't be caught. Ferrari finally wins at Indy.
Now it's time to check in our jumpsuits and corner gear, and the hard part -- saying good-bye. I ask Marc from Luxembourg to translate to our French-speaking workers how much I enjoyed working with them, learning from them and having them in my country, and they reply back likewise (through Marc of course). Then it's time for my weekend working partner, Brendan, to leave. It's tough to see him go. We worked so well together all weekend. Told each other jokes when we got bored and compared many notes on worker training. I found there are many similarities to the training here and in the UK. We shake hands and tell each other one more joke, then he's gone.
This event was a blast to work for me. I loved working with an international crew, and I plan on working this event again. Even with all the hoops we had to jump through with the FIA flagging, the inspections 30 minutes before each session, etc., I still had fun. Nancy and I have been invited to work races at LeMans, the French GP, Spa, Monaco and Britain. Maybe some day we can take them up on the offers. I will never forget the cheering every time the F1 cars hit the track. And I hope we can work with our new "over the pond" worker friends again in the near future.
I am very proud that I was a small part of the team that made for a successful return of F1 racing in the U.S. And the chiefs all promised that next year the jumpsuits would be 100% cotton.
