While running some errands I saw an indy car racing team trailer at the Verizon store. The marketing people were setting up a booth to promote the Iowa Corn 250 Indy car race that was happening in the next few days. I stopped and talked with the guys there, and told them I would bring the boys back to see the car that they were setting up. They said a radio station might be coming to do a promo and possibly give away some tickets. I did some calling around to radio stations and nobody knew anything about tickets, or appearing at the verizon store. I pretty much gave up hope that we would get a "free ride" to the race. The next day we all went up and tooks some pictures and had a good time. The guy I had talked to the day before said that there would definitely be a radio station giving out tickets there at 6pm. He said that I may want to show up a little bit early. Even though Luke had a baseball game at 5:30, I went BACK to the verizon store for the 3rd time. Almost as soon as I got there, the guy I had talked to the previous 2 times came up to me and and handed me 3 tickets to the race. I thanked every verizon and radio station person in the parking lot and then headed off to see the rest of Luke's baseball game. I was so excited for the boys and for myself. None of us had ever seen an indy car race!
The most promising rookie driver of the 2011 season!
Do NOT carpool with this guy!!!
Eliza was too young to handle the machine like her brothers had...but a lot cuter!
Morning of the race, with our cool "necklaces" We were all SO excited. The racing didnt start until 4, but we got there at 2 for all of the festivities.
This is the new indy car design for 2012 with it's designer standing up there by it conducting a Q&A. He seemed a little shy actually.
I had a lot of christmas requests coming at me all day long, so I guess if your want to see a few million dollars worth of sports/race cars come on over on Christmas day.
This is how real race car drivers walk around all the time. Practice!
Of course, the thing that the boys were most fascinated by was this big rock right outside the racetrack (Making their uncle Paul proud). Other things to find in this picture of the "cool rock" (for you where's Waldo fans) are an empty beer can and a dirty sock!
POSERS!
We saw 3 different races that day. This was right before the Mazda series cars began their race. They are on the pit road in the background. They go about 120 mph around this track.
Luke was excited for the real indy cars to start.
VERY EXCITED!!!
Jensen: NOT EXCITED.
He is scared of firewoks which they shot off around the track on the cars' last lap before they went racing. That was a bad start, and combine that with the ENORMOUS amount of noise that the indy cars make as they go around the track at almost 200 mph, Jensen was not into it and hid under his blanket for the entire race.
We got Jensen to pull his head out of the sand for a few seconds to take this picture. It really was a unique and awesome experience. I am so glad that we got to go. It was just SO fun spending 12 hours with those guys making great memories!
There were tons of freebies at the race which included flags, t-shirts, posters, toys, magazines, photos, media guides. It was cool to get all this stuff to remember the race and our fun time there.
THE RACE AFTERMATH:
I showed Luke how to draw an indy car and he has been drawing 4-5 each day. This is one week after the race, and he drew it completely on his own. He is a fantastic artist. I asked him what kind of sponsor he wanted for his car and he decided on quaker oatmeal! Funny kid.
I drew a car also. This is a guy named Mike Conway who has a cool story. He almost got killed in the Indy 500 last year and has worked his way back.
The boys design race tracks and hold races on them all day long now. They are constantly coming upstairs and begging Heather and I to come look at their race track and watch their race. It is so often that we usually take turns going downstairs now.
These are the Mazda Series Cars. A 16 year old boy won this race.
This is the real Indy Car race. The cars cost 1 million dollars and can go 240 mph. The air was so humid on race night that there were 10 foot long vapor trails steaming off the rear wings of the cars as they went by. The tv announcers said that this race was the best that they've seen in the past 3 years. We thought it was amazing!
