Well, summer is over and I must say that I have had the best summer ever. I have definitly met a lot of great new people and made a lot of close friends. I've had to say some goodbyes that could be forever or just temporary.
I was lucky enough to score a hard card for the 2009 Indy Car race season. So I decided that I would take full advantage of having this as I may never have one again. I started the season off in Long Beach for the Long Beach Grand Prix. Followed up with INDY, Milwaukee, Kentucky, Mid-Ohio, Chicagoland, and POSSIBLY Homestead!
Long Beach was definitly a race i'm glad I got to go to. We stayed in Seal Beach, ate AMAZING Sushi at Mahe, drank lots of Hopi's at Skip's pool party grotto, and watched a lot of racing. The weather out there was really hot. The last day at the track was in the 90's and our last day in Cali it was in the 100's. Mind you, it was still freezing when we got home! So those new short american apparel shorts I bought were not the best airplane attire.
Next was INDY. Enough said. I was at the track everyday that I had the chance to be there. Carb day was not so successful as my two friends (Pippa and Plowey) wrecked into each other on about the 7th lap. Wah wah....My other friend Pablo did end up 9th I think and started almost from the very back so he did quite well.
And then my horrible Milwaukee trip was next. Who knew I'd drive 4 1/2 hours north to Milwaukee only to discover that I have vertigo. Yes, vertigo. Google it. I was incredibly dizzy the whole time and "chowdered" my guts out in front of a bunch of Indy Car employees outside their hotel. Awesome. I spent the next day (Race Day) at the infield medical center. Again, thank god I had a hard card as it was a free stay for me. After the race was over, my awesome friend Packy drove Katie and I home safely and it took me about 2 more days to quit spinning. So I will never forget my trip to Milwaukee.
Up next, after a few months of far races was Kentucky! The first day was spent at a warm and sunny wet track. Yes, wet track. Weepers kept weeping and wouldn't stop. So basically we just hung out in the garages and waited for the track to dry which it never did. I did get to go to the Belterra hotel and gamble some. That didn't work out so well in my favor. Race day (Saturday) was an up and down day. The weepers were finally starting to stop when it started raining again. I think everyone just assumed the day was done. Luckily, the rain stopped and the track dried so we could get some racing in. Dad even came out to his first race other than the Indy 500. I took him down pit lane and pointed out all the drivers to him. For the Indy Lights race, we sat right on the pit wall and watched. For the Big car race, we went up high into the stands to what I thought was a VERY exciting race. I was so excited to see Ed leading the race. It was sooo close at the end and Ryan Briscoe ended up winning it. Wah Wah. We had some beers at Plowey's coach then Plowey and I ventured off to Belterra again for some gambling. Again, it didn't go so well. We like to say we contributed to Belterra's success. At about 2:30 am we called it a night and I decided to head home by myself. Probably not the smartest, but it was nice to finally get home to my bed.
Super Sweet 26 @ Mid-Ohio was next. Wow, what a good time we had. We camped at the track right by the paddack so we were real close to everything. The first night we got in just about dark so we had tri-tip and beers waiting on us when we got there thanks to Packy and liv. We set up tent in the dark (thanks Amy and Jason for letting me borrow your tent) and called it a night somewhat early. We knew with the early morning track action from ALMS or whatever cars were out there that we'd be waking up early. Erin, Brad, and I slept in the tent the first night and I'm not sure any of us slept real well. Saturday was just a day of walking around, watching quals, and starting our partying early for liv's super sweet 26. Indy Cars were done at 2, so that's about when the beers, hopi's, and bloody mary's started flowing. We had alot of great visitors stop by our campsite. The Plowman's, Pancho, Miss Indiana-Nicole, Abby, Tate and Andie, Scott and his camera crew, some crew from TCGR, and probably more that I'm missing all stopped by for a drink. At about dark, we ran out of alcohol. Yes, wah wah again. liv and I ventured off to the general campground on the other side of the track. And boy was that a good time! We walked around to different campsites with our friends Phil, Jarrod, Michael, and some others I prob don't remember (remember we had been drinking since 2). We found the Alley Cat's from the IMS camped out and they were pouring us shots of Jack Daniels into the bottle cap and having us chase it with margaritas. YUP. liv and I definitly ended super sweet 26 with a bang. The next morning was race day and we were all moving a little slow. Nothing a screwdriver and some espresso can't cure. I watched the Indy Lights race from Plowey's pit box and watched him finish his best finish of the season in 5th place. I also watched Vision Racing get their first win ever with James Davison winning the Indy Lights Race. We finished off the day with the Indy Car race and Brad and I headed home.
Last, but certainly not least was Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet Illinois! I had been to this race and Kentucky race in 2008. I hitched a ride with plowey.com to Chicago. You have to understand that race car drivers are not the best at driving cars....enough said. We made it safely and that's all that matters. That first day that we got there was kinda boring. There was no track action for the indy lights drivers and there was just quali's for the big cars. So there was alot of downtime. The next day was race day and quali day for lights cars. Pippa qualified 5th and Plowey 8th with a finish of 8th and 9th. Temperatures started dropping as the sun went down for the Indy Car race. I had two jackets on that day and was still freezing. There was a lot of time to kill between the Indy Lights race and the Indy Car race. The Plowman's definitly put on a great feast at their motorcoach with lots of beer, burgers and snacks!! Oh, and I forgot to mention some rockband. We all went atop the Panther hospitality trailor so that we could see the whole track for the Indy Car race. It was an awesome and exciting race with cars running three wide in the Indy Car race and I forgot to mention in the lights race as well. But of course, a red and white car ended up winning it. I'm a little sick of seeing Briscoe, Castroneves, Dixon, and Franchitti up front in every race.
I am hopefully planning on ending this awesome season with a trip to Homestead for the final race of the season.
Also, I need to mention that we had to bid farewell to our close friend Pablo and Ksenia who had to go back home for the year. Pablo went back to his home in Chile and his girlfriend went back to Russia. We hope to work hard to get Pablo a ride for next season so that we can see him come back.
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