Saturday, 18th June 2005
Formula One Qualifying Race at Indianapolis
Today was my dad's birthday and to suprise him, i had planned a trip to Indianapolis to see the Formula 1 race. The original plan was to see the race on Sunday (June 19). However my brother-in-law has a crucial midwest circket tournament encounter with COPCA on sunday and so we decided to make the trip today itself. Indianapolis is in the state of Indiana and 175 miles west from Columbus. Thats about a 3 hour drive along I-70 West. The formula one weekend is an exciting one for the locals and is probably one of the most happening weekends of the year with tourism at a peak !!!. I have also posted pictures in the album.
With the qualifying race slated to start at 1 PM, we decided to leave around 10 AM keeping in mind that Indiana is on central time and so we would gain an hour on our way there. We did keep to making it out on time and the drive was nice and thankfully not too long. We made it to indianapolis around 12 PM local time with an hour to spare for the race. The race track was buzz with excitement and lots of people. Finding a parking spot would have been a nightmare. Thankfully we didn't need to since only me and my dad were going in, whilst the others (mom, sister and bro) would be going around downtown. My sister isnt big on F-1 anyway and it would have been exhausting in the heat anyway.
Considering how big a race circuit track is, it took us a good 15-20 minutes to get to our seats. We choose to watch from the paddock, right in front of the start finish line and more importantly right in front of the garage of the one and only Micheal Schumacher and his Ferrari.
For those who dont know it, i am a big-time Schumacher fan (who isnt ???). And being there at the circuit, reinforced my belief of the superstar status of the man commonly reffered to as 'schumi'. Of the fans that were there, it was hard to look for people not dressed in red or waving the 'Prancing horse' flag. And amongt the sea of red that you see, interposed among them were a few Barrichello fans with their brazillian flags. The rest were all hard core schumi lovers. Another (not too suprising) observation was that all the desis were also ferrari fans !!!. And dutifully sported ferrari attire. Hard not to support a true winner right.
When my parents were about to leave from India, i had asked them to bring along the indian flag, which at the time i thought was a great idea since Narain Kartikeyan was the first indian driver to be taking part in Formula 1 and this would be his first year on the circuit. I imagined that the whole bunch of us students would be waving the flag wildly about. But considering his performance on the races prior to indianapolis, i realised that cheering on a guy who probably isnt even going to finish the race wasn't such a big idea and hence resisted from bringing the flag with me and sat it nice and safe in my closed much to the chargin of mom and dad who took the trouble of getting it for me. Now if it was schumacher, i was supporting, that would have been an all-together cup of tea. Fernando Alonso (the current leader on the circuit in terms of points) also had a fair share of the fans, but they looked miniscule in comparison to the legion of ferrari and schumi supporters. On a side note, Fernando Alonso is not only the world championship leader, he is also known as the 'it-boy' of Formula One racing, with his undeniably snappy dress sense. Girls certainly go gaga over him. But irrespective of all that for me there is only one undisputed 'King' and by now you know who i'm referring to.
All year long, i had heard (from guys in CSU who were here last year) that the sounds from the cars were deafening. I got to experience it now and they were right. The speed of the cars and they racket they make should be seen (or more rightly heard) to be believed. Brings back memories of the days in enginneering college at BMS where cometh monday morning following a sunday grand prix, the last bench was buzzing with F-1 gossip, bitching and more importantly imitating formula one car sounds while the professor's speech was falling on deaf ears. The experience was definetly worth the wait and the visit.
The race began (a little earlier than scheduled owing to telecast issues) and our desi boy (kartikeyan) was the second guy off the blocks. He didnt fare too badly but his performance was soon to be upstaged by the faster cars following after him. His postition kept dropping like flies. Schumi and his ferrari compatriot were scheduled at last but one and two and i was waiting with bated breath for the ferraris. The decibel levels reached when the cars start out of their garage and accelerate out of their pits is intense !!!! Silly me was so keen on taking a camera shot of the moving cars. But armed with a tiny digital camera, this proved to be a non trival task especially given that the camera takes close to a second after being clicked before it actually captures the picture and in formula One, 1 milli second is an awful amount of time, let alone a second ! Most of my attempts to grab a picture of a care proved futile. The image here is the best i could get. Strain hard to catch a glimpse of the car zooming past. Even the best of calculations i made to estimate the correct time that a car would go past ended in disappointment. Even thought i timed myself from the time the cars turned the final corner and headed down the straight to the finish line, the cars were just too fast for the camera.
Like i already mentioned, we were sitting (actually standing owing to the excitement) right in front of the ferrari pit garage hoping to catch a glimpse of 'the Man' and attain 'semi Formula1 nirvana'. But the number of people who flock around a ferrari garage can only be compared to the number of people outside the indian circket team pavilion. No other team garage was as abuzz with activity and cameras going off as the ferrari one.
I know it is unfair to compare sportsmen of different disciplines, but the commonality of fan adulation, i have seen only for one other person who goes by the name 'Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar'. Whether i state that Sachin is the 'Schumi of Cricket' or Schumi is the 'Sachin of cricket' is of little signigicance. What is more important is to acknowledge the role they play in their respective sport, and how big a loss it would have been if the world hadnt got to seen their magnificent displays of sporting talent. Such fan adulation is something me as a former sportsperson would probably find hard to even dream of.
At the end of the day, the results of the qualifying race has Jarno Trulli at pole, Kimi Raikkonen in second, Jenson Button in third, Giancarlo Fisichella in fourth and (as far as i'm concerned the only guy that really matters) Michael Schumacher in fifth. Our desi dude Narain Karthikeyan was 19th out 20 drivers, couple of spots behind his jordan teammate Tiago Monteiro. The full listing of results is available here. It was dissapointing to see schumi not get pole, but fifth aint too bad considering his dismal (by his standards) results leading up to this race.
2005 Indianapolis Concours D'EleganceWhilst me and dad were getting thrilled out on the circuit, mom and others were having an equally wonderful time in downtown. Indianapolis this time of the year (coinciding with the US grand prix) is all about cars and quite naturally a car display wasnt to be unexpected. So right in the middle of downtown the "2005 Indianapolis Concours D'Elegance" was held. Over 150 classic and antique cars were on display in the picturesque, historic setting of monument circle on Saturday June 18th, 2005. Chrylser was the main sponsor and hence you could even Test drive a Chrysler!. The cars on display included Classic models and their contemporary stable mates including Chrysler 300, Ford GT40, Ferrari, Bentley, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Rolls Royce and Mercedes Benz. The event is held annually and is a big favorite especially amongt locals. Read about it here.The gallery section hasnt been updated to include pictures from this year but it does have pictures from previous years. There are some pictures in the same album i have posted also. We would have taken more pictures and i would have uploaded em but the battery ran out and with good reason too, considering how i had wasted it so much with my speeding-car-photo-capture attempts.
We made it back home in the evening (bhaiyya made it in good time .. little over two and a half hours), a little tired but certainly satisfied having had fun. Guess dad had a nice b'day and an equally nice birthday suprise.
Posted by Nikhil on Saturday, 18th June 2005 in Life in General | Fun | Sports | Events