'500' Week at IMS Carb day

There are lots of neat events on Carb Day
(Carb is short for Carburetion and even though they haven't used carburetors in the '500' since 1963 the name has stuck)
 

The last practice for the Indy 500:

(the whole reason for carb day is the teams/drivers get one more hour to perfect their cars for race day.)

We sat in the Gasoline Alley seats at the South end of the front stretch and it was great watching the cars come down the front straightaway. All the teams took full advantage of the session and seeing everyone coming off pit lane at once with their engines roaring is so exciting.

Alex, of course, spent her time watching for only one car, Josef Newgarden's, and she loved watching his pit stops (which was easy since we were sitting just above his pitbox...no coincidence there).

The Indy Lights race:

(Our second favorite part of carb day.  Seeing the up and coming Indycar drivers racing 40 laps on the IMS track. It has previously been won by guys like Ed Carpenter and Josef Newgarden)

This year's race was fantastic with plenty of passing and a close finish for the second year in a row!

One of the most exciting Indy Lights race we've ever seen. The top three drivers were swapping back and forth most of the race and winner Gabby Chaves and Matthew Brabham crossed the line almost side by side winning by only .005 seconds!!!

 

 

 

The Pit Stop Challenge:
(IMS plays really loud music and drivers & crews compete two by two against one another until only one team is left.)
We were really excited when rookie Sage Karam got in the finals, and even though Scott Dixon won, we still think he did really good.  (Alex was not really interested in it that much because Josef was not competing)

 

PLUS
There was a
vintage car display
Stadium Super Truck Races
and
2 Music Concerts including Sammy Hagar

Oh, and one more thing...
This was the cool FREE pin that Firestone
gives out on special days at IMS.

Free Carb Day Pin 2014

 

 

 

GP of St Petersburg Indycar Practice

The Indycar season has officially begun!!

Cars were on track in the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, on Friday. 

 

The first practice session was led by last year's winner, James Hinchcliffe, followed by Justin Wilson and Takuma Sato.

The second sessions top three were Takuma Sato, Graham Rahal and Will Power.

The third practice session was Saturday morning (prior to the rain) and the leaders were Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Takuma Sato.

After the three practices Ryan Briscoe leads the speed charts with a speed of 103.807.

Qualifying has been delayed till 5:00 EST due to rain and hopefully will stay that way.

Indy lights qualifying has been canceled and they will line up by combined practice points.

Check out this awesome video from Indycar for some highlights of yesterdays practices!

The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio

What's going on at Mid-Ohio?

 

* Ryan Hunter Reay won his third pole of the 2013 season and will start P1 in Sunday's Honda Indy 200.

* Another strong start to the weekend for Ganassi weekend with all three of their cars in the top 5.   The top 6 are Hunter-Reay, Will Power, Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti, Charlie Kimball and Dario Franchitti.

* Rookie Luca Fillipi (driving in his first ever Indycar race) had the fourth fastest lap in Group 1 qualifying but didn't advance because he had a minor crash which stopped the qualifying session.  Indycar rules state that if a driver causes a halt to a session he lose his fastest two laps.
He will start 24th.

* Another Indycar rookie, James Davison will start 17th driving in his first Indycar race.

* You can watch the Honda Indy 200 at Mid Ohio live on NBC Sports Network live at 3:00 today. 

*  Tune in to NBC Sports a little earlier at 2:00 to watch 20 year old Gabby Chaves start on his first pole at the Indy Lights Mid Ohio race. (The race takes place at noon today.)