The 106th running of the Indianapolis 500 was today, May 29th, 2022 and 30years after attending my first Indy500, I’m back and this time Barb and I will both enjoy the race and the spectacle that this event is.

A light breakfast and we’re off to the track at 8:30am. The crowds are already building and the organizers are expecting 330,000 people here for the race (plus those that come just to camp and party).

Our seats are on the inside of the oval immediately behind the pits on the front straight. This puts them in the shade until noon when the racing starts. Just by complete coincidence, our seats this year are within 50 feet of the seats where Dean and I sat in 1992.

This is a classic US of A spectacle. All major sponsors get time at the microphone, including the folks that supply the milk to the winner on the podium. Lots of speeches and a flyby later and we’re ready to start a race.

As races go, the 2022 Indy500 was a good one with no major incidents or injuries. It appeared that Scott Dixon had the fastest car all day, but a speeding infraction while entering the pits caused him to be penalized by dropping him to the back of the lead lap and that essentially put him out of contention. Each in our group had picked a driver to win, and as the afternoon wore on all had either crashed or dropped back in the field. Only J-P, who had picked Pato O’Ward, had a driver that could win this race. Pato had run strong all afternoon and was running 2nd near the end; however, better tyre and fuel conservation meant that the race near the end was being led by Marcus Erickson of Sweden (ex F1 driver). Marcus was able to hold off a late push by Pato to win the race! It was an exciting conclusion to the afternoon and not one that most expected, but that is the nature of such a long race.

Leaving the track after the race is not an experience for the claustrophobic, the worst being the limited tunnels that lead from the track infield out to Georgetown Road. However, after 30 minutes of shuffling we were out! Another 30 minutes and we were back at the campground sitting in the shade of the van and enjoying yet another bottle of water all while recounting the racing event that just occurred.

Barb and I sat around for about an hour before saying our goodbyes and heading out at about 5:30pm towards a campground in Terre Haute, IN that we had booked. It was a chance to get away from the crowds and to dump our tanks and replenish our onboard water supply.

The campground is nice and very quiet compared to the racetrack camping field. I’m sure the shower in the morning will be equally as welcome. A long day, a fun day, a tiring day. Good night.

Saturday at the Indy500 is generally quiet from an ‘on-track activities’ perspective as drivers completed their last practice yesterday. Today there is a parade in downtown Indianapolis but as we’re in RVs there’s no way for us to easily get there to watch. As such, today is a day to relax and finally soak up some sunshine.

Yes, it has stopped raining. The camping field is sodden and squelch’s with every step. We can only hope that the predicted 2 days of sunshine will dry the ground enough to allow us to drive out when ready.

Our newest arrivals, Dean took Brian and Aiden for a walk along Georgetown Road past the track to look around as it’s their first time in Indy. The rest of us relaxed and did some cleaning and organizing…. Camp day.

In the afternoon, we played some ‘Cornhole’ while enjoying a few beverages. Cornhole is almost a national sport in these parts with many many sites having setup boards and bags.

We ended the afternoon with a steak dinner accompanied with some very nice red wine all followed by strawberry shortcake. Hey, I never said we wouldn’t be enjoying ourselves on this trip. It’s not all about rain and mud. 😎

It’s Friday, it’s rained most of the night and today we expect to see many campers in all varieties of vehicles arrive for the weekend of festivities.

After a great egg, bacon & hash brown breakfast prepared by J-P & myself, the gang decided to go for a walk down Georgetown Road towards the IMS museum. Much has changed in the 30 years that have passed since Dean & I first visited the Indy500 in 1992. Gone are the bikers, the Christian cross carriers and the masses of beer-can throwing goons of the early Nineties… Instead the atmosphere seems relaxed but ready for a party. Maybe we’re a day early.

The walk along Georgetown Road brings back many memories and it’s carburetion day so the cars are on track…. The noise outside as we’re walking past while the drivers are practicing make the hairs on my arms stand on end…. We’re back! It’s not just a race, it’s an experience that one never forgets and even years later the sights, smells and sounds take me back to that first visit. No wonder people come back year after year trying to relive the memories of their first visit.

We arrive at the main gate and follow the sidewalk around the track outside of Turn-1. BANG! The sound is unforgettable, a car has just hit the outside wall in Turn-1 just through the fence and under the grandstand from where we were walking. Colton Herta lost the rear of his car, contacted the wall at about 200 mph and the car flipped upside down with him in it. We walked further along the sidewalk to where we could see a large screen within the track and saw that the medics extract him from the wrecked car. He walked away waving at the fans. Amazing.

Arriving at the tunnel to the museum we purchased tickets into the track and then walked through the tunnel to the IMS museum.

The IMS museum has all of the winning Indy500 cars back to the first race in 1911. Not all are on display, but a great selection from the past 111 years is available to view at any given time. A few are shown below.

After touring the IMS museum, we headed over towards the grandstand to locate our seats that we will be in for the race on Sunday. As there are 235,000 seats at this track, it’s good to know where yours are before the morning of the race.

Arriving at our seats we found that the PitStop challenge was underway immediately in front of our section and so stayed to watch the event. Amazing to watch the teams perform a timed 4 wheel tyre change and fueling in just a few seconds.

Returning to the campground we arrived during yet another rain shower during which two more people joined us from Ottawa. Brian and Aiden who are both friends of Dean and Cathy and are visiting the Indy500 for the first time.

As the evening wore on, the party intensified as groups all around us relaxed and began the celebration of the US Memorial Day weekend. We are confident that the rain of the past few days will be replaced by sunshine for the weekend, so here’s the hoping for warmer and dryer weather!

The alarm woke us at 6:00am. Ugh. We wanted to arrive at the camping field mid morning so as to hopefully get a site closer to the track than those that would arrive later in the day. This means an early start in an effort to avoid traffic. And so. after walking 5 laps of the Walmart parking lot and having a quick snack while preparing for departure, we headed out for a Cracker Barrel breakfast in Greenfield, IN. Mmm.

The remaining drive to the Indy500 camping field was good; however, the sky’s were threatening. Arriving at Lot 1-C the rain had begun and all of the staff were dressed in full rain gear. We got parked up OK and have put boards under all wheels in the hopes that this will prevent getting stuck should it get really wet and muddy (something we’ve witnessed here in the 1990’s).

We were able to park facing in opposite directions so that our awnings could be extended and thus form one large covered area between our RV’s. We enjoyed this a lot today as the rains continued until mid-afternoon.

Part of the fun of arriving at a campsite for an event such as this is watching the arrivals of others. Camping vehicles of all sizes are brought to these events, and some probably shouldn’t be really considered ‘campers’. Due to the continued rain, we witnessed several campers get stuck and then towed out of the mud and onto their campsite. The staff here are well prepared and have a tracked bobcat they use to extract stuck vehicles.

As the day wore on the “show” changed from vehicle watching to people watching. Now parked up and settled, the campers enjoy a beverage or two and prepared their sites with tables, chairs, bbq’s, flags, and other paraphernalia. Some seem to go to some length trying to outdo their neighbors. Our neighbor actually brought a lawnmower to cut the field grass to better suit their personal tastes.

Late afternoon was dry as we prepared and enjoyed a BBQ chicken dinner, the sun even made an appearance. Looking ahead the forecast for Saturday and Sunday (Race Day!) look to also be dry and sunny.

This next paragraph is blank….. as I retired to the van and slept for a couple of hours. Evidently the conversation and drinks continued, but I missed it all. I understand that there were a few ‘unusual’ campground sightings.

At around 9:30pm the rains returned and we all agreed that this would mark the end of a long couple of days for us and so we cleaned up our site and retired to bed. Good night one and all!