Editors Note: If you’re one of our diehard readers, you’ll know that each year GTMs most hardcore track rats participate in some sort of “Cannonball Run” going to far off places to have epic adventures. Sometimes it’s to watch F1 races live, stay up all night for the Rolex-24, or tow in excess of 700 miles to a track event like: Barber MSP. As with any group, there always seems to be the extreme of the extremes, and the Latton Lads are no exception! They raised the bar once again by getting access to a very rare event… an HPDE held at the Indianapolis Grand Prix circuit (Former home of the Formula 1 US Grand Prix.) Enjoy the recap!
Yes Sir! We went to Indy last weekend…and what an event!
Our group consisted of myself, brother Steve W, Steve’s son Liam and my wife Carolyn. The hosts were PCA and they treated us like kin. It was an incredible event!
Because IndyGP is rarely open to the public, this event was 3 days long. And since the course is so long (~2.7 miles including the greyed-out section between 5-6 – above right), PCA registered 308 cars! Even with that many cars, we got 3 or 4 sessions per day on the F1 track.
On Friday we had a buffet dinner and a private tour of the Indy museum. If you have never been there, it is worth the journey just for that place. There was a whole room of displays, just as a homage to Mario…magnificent. We also had touring laps (lead-follow) on that big, almost flat oval.
The track itself is pretty flat with no blind corners. It has 14 turns, some of which can be a bit of a challenge. All-in-all it was actually fairly well suited to handling cars, as opposed to pure h.p. cars. It’s not hard to learn and has some good rhythm sections that reward a bit of trail braking. My pedal box is not well suited to heel-and-toe, which would have made life easier (gotta fix that). The track rewards some curb taking…unless you hit the big bump going into turn1 where it blends with the pit-out. If you take too much curb there, you can get up on 2 wheels you know!…Not that I would ever do such a thing, but I hear it is possible! You do come down with a bump though, but it’s OK, since turn 2 puts you back on all 4…or so I have heard. The 7-8-9 complex sets you up brilliantly for a slightly banked transition onto the front straight of the oval…Caaaaawwww…shift..(pop pop)…caaawwww…bap bap…over that fabulous yard of bricks. How many people get to do that? – It was nothing short of fabulous!
We did OK out on the track and embarrassed a few $150K Porsches, but there were some pretty stout cars out there as well, with some excellent drivers. Despite our expectations, the PCA made us feel very welcome and not at all “second class” in our little FWD cars. Steve W naturally kicked some serious bum in his Mini and even blew by a full-up track Mini with surprising dexterity. We have some videos and a lot of pictures.
As you would expect, the track is very well maintained and was incredibly well staffed for just some amateur schmucks. There was a full compliment of corner workers (supplied by Indy), “yellow shirt” marshals and a terrific pit crew supplied by PCA, who were experienced SCCA and NASA officials. Yes, I did use the tow truck a little bit, since my shift cable keeps coming loose. The longest I had to wait for a tow truck…was 58 seconds!
We even got a visit to race control…WOW! Every inch of that track is monitored and recorded and there were 4 full-time guys watching our every move…none of this “I didn’t do that” stuff…it’s all on video old son! #homeslice. The race control room has a huge bank of about 20 or 30 42″ monitors with zoom cameras. They were checking on the condition of the drivers before they even came to a halt. It was truly spectacular.
On Sat night we had a buffet Dinner at the Andretti Autosports facility and got to walk around one of the biggest shops I have ever seen. One room… just one room, of the Andretti facility houses 12 (yes TWELVE) 18-wheeler haulers… with room to load race cars and equipment into 2 story trailers.
There were Indy Lights cars, Sprint cars and McLaren Endurance cars all in various states of construction. There were more O.Z. wheels there than at their own factory and stacks of tires two-stories tall!
I must admit, gridding for that first lap, I got a little bit of butterflies being on the worlds most famous track. In my mirror, I could see 40 or more Porsches and other friends all distorted by the shimmering heat of thousands of horsepower, all pent up and ready to roar. It was something I will never forget. Enough missive, I can highly recommend a trip to Indy…highly. It is a momentous event…one you will never forget.
BTW, First class…all the way…go #gtmcannonballrun #fullsend
More photos available in the Vault!
