F1Fan

I attended the USGP last year and found the Thursday prior to the race an interesting day to be at the track. As mentioned before, the pitwalk (9am-12pm) allowed you closer access to the garages than mere mortals are usually allowed. You can get your picture taken on the yard of bricks and wonder about without much in the way of crowds. Last year after the pitwalk was closed to the public the Speed Channel crew set up a stage in an area behind the pits and interviewed numerous F1 personalities and occasionally fielded questions from the audience. I would go again if I could just for that part of the event.

We also contacted an organization named CARA Charites in Indianapolis prior to the event and managed to get tours of three different race shops in the area and attend a dinner that included Peter Windsor (Speed Channel and F1 Racing magazine) as the featured speaker. Very well worth the $150/person contribution. I don't know if they are having anything this year but I would look into it if you'll be there on Thursday.

If you're a PCA member check out the CIR-PCA website to see what activities they have going as well. I know they are hosting a Porsche Cup dinner and last year they even threw in an IMAX movie with speed-related overtones. BMW Club usually has something going on as well.

Downtown Indy is the place to be in the evenings. It's a very nice downtown and you never know who you'll be sitting next to at a restaurant. The teams tend to stay at the downtown hotels I understand.

On practice and qualifying days venture out to the infield and watch from the grassy knolls. These are great places to watch the cars under braking and to get yourself on Speed Channel!

Best wishes and have fun.

911CabSteve

Unfortunately, I do not think any TV station is carrying it live ? Is that right ?

If so, that’s really unbelievable, but I did a search and *** is showing taped F1 from the British Grand prix this Sunday. Even Speed channel is showing old tapes of the Long Beach GP…. Unbelievable…. Guess we have to watch the boring taped broadcast in a week or 2 after we have read all about it ?

Itgb

Well, I guess they are called scanners. Here's a link to one place I found:Race Scanners

Reynard38

Somebody said that this might be the last USGP at Indy? Why is that.
If so I vote for Barber Motorsports park for the 2007 event!

F1Fan

Somebody said that this might be the last USGP at Indy? Why is that?

The word is that the Georges' (owners of the Speedway) are feed up with F1 and their greed. It's too bad that is has come to this for US fans but it has gotten to the point that only races backed by governments (Turkey, Bahrain, China, Malaysia for example) who are trying to gain global status can afford the $ demands put on them by F1 management.

dhicks

Tell me more about the radios..........every year they advertize that you can pick up radio broadcast from the track on something like FM 101.3 or something like that and I can NEVER get it on my radio does anybody else have a name of a radio that works at Indy?

ignomini

Here's a sales pitch for the Thursday pit walk. In '04 you could walk right up to the Renault garage with only a few people around, but I spent an hour and a half and never did get to the front at Ferrari. I got some great shots over the Tifosi's heads though.

STLPCA

The race is broadcast live on WIBC @ 1070 on the AM dial. Nothing exotic is needed, just an AM radio with good, ambient sound blocking in-ear headphones (e.g., Shure).

Arrwin

Did you happen to see any of the F1 drivers walking around (Shumi, Alonso, Kimi, etc.)?

ignomini

Button, Sato, Fisi, can't recall whom else off hand. Saw a couple big moving crowds with screaming groupies and autograph hounds, most likely containing someone famous in the middle. I've never been one to fawn over the drivers. I was there to see cars and car parts.

fat cab

make sure to goto st,elmos downtown for a cocktail,last year i saw Jakie Stweart,DC , Fisi and alot of other faces i couldnt put names to,good luck getting a reservation.

mck911

I will be back this year. Luckily, I was unable to attend last year. As most have already said, the supercup race is great. Those cup cars are amazing. I was thinking they were going to seem slow coming down the strait compared to the F1 cars....i was dead wrong. Also, bring ear plugs. Also, stay hydrated. I'm a FL native so the heat didn't bother me, but there were an aweful lot of people there suffering from heat exhaustion. Walk around the infield too. There is one section near turn "1" or coming onto the strait for the F1 cars where some nice exotics were parked last time. There was an F40 and some Lambos there and you could go right up to them to get pics. Have fun, i can't wait to go back this year.

ljugete

Thanks for the suggestions above. I'll be there with my son next weekend.

We are looking forward to it! We will drive down from Chicago in my 993 and will attend the USGP Dinner at the Indy Zoo (Dolphin Dome) Sat. night (Vic Elford is the guest speaker)! There are some Police Escorted Car Club (most represented) Cruises Downtown (leave from the Zoo Parking lot - need to reserve slot).

See you there!!!

Bull

This is the last year on the current contract.

STLPCA

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