| United States (Indianapolis) Grand Prix |
Welcome, race fans, to my Formula 1 page. This page chronicles my United States (Indianapolis) Grand Prix trip. I hope you find it informative and interesting. You might also want to check out my other automotive pages: Montreal Grand Prix, Shanghai Grand Prix, Turkish (Istanbul) Grand Prix, Mazda RX-7 (FD3S) and Honda S2000 pages. Background I didn't really have a strong interest in seeing the United States Grand Prix (USGP) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) - Indianapolis, Indiana just doesn't scream out exciting - but with the race falling on the long July 4th weekend I figured I'll go see the race then head up to Chicago, which does scream out exciting. The Road to Indianapolis Because I waited until the last minute to arrange the trip everything was sold out or extremely, extremely expensive. The best itinerary I came up with was flying into Dayton, Ohio. From Dayton I would rent a car and drive to Indianapolis. The drive isn't bad at all, two hours if I recall correctly. After the race I would drive up to Chicago (about 3 hour drive) and fly back to San Francisco. If you can, budget some time in Chicago. Chicago is an amazing city. Rivals San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles for things to see and do. Lodging Again, because I waited until the last minute, all the hotels in Indianapolis were booked or ridiculously expensive. I ended up staying at a cheapo Motel 6 in Anderson, Indiana for $50/night. Anderson to Indianapolis is a quick 45 minutes, no traffic even on race day. Impressions First, impressions on Indianapolis. Indianapolis is no Montreal, no Shanghai. There's a decent downtown with restaurants, bars and shops, but it's not a F1 party town like Montreal or a bustling big city like Shanghai. I would not travel far and long to just see Indianapolis, no matter how big an F1 fan I was. Make sure you extend your trip and stop by Chicago. As for the race itself...Unlike other grand prixs you don't need to buy reserved seating for Friday and Saturday. Basically Friday and Saturday is open seating. So for $20 you can get great seats to see qualifying. There are reserved seating for the race on Sunday, but I'd probably just stick with general admissions. The only thing the reserved grandstands give you is the big TV screen, but it's not worth it. Just get to the track a little early, setup on the viewing mounds, walk around the infield and check things out. 
I like the turn 8, 9, 10 viewing mound (indicated by the big red square I drew on the map). The cars go through here slow enough to get some good photos in, like this one I got: 
Turn 6 terrance is also good if you do opt for reserved seating. Do bring a radio, and tune into 100.1 FM for the race broadcast. Parking for the race is plentiful. Many folks with houses right next to the track will offer parking for $20. For $10 you can get parking a little farther away. Here are the photos from the trip. |
