Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

Memorial Day weekend had us off on a road trip to Indianapolis, where my lovely friend Teresa treated us to some great Hoosier hospitality. She invited Doug and Cynthia to come along too and she put us all up at her house for the weekend.


Even though she just had knee surgery the week before and was still getting around on crutches, she wasn't about to miss the race!


For first time race-goers like us, entering this gate was a little like a pilgrimage. This IS the mecca of racing after all.


Let the race begin!

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!

Above is the National Guard car that we were all cheering for, and below is the Target car which eventually won the race.


When everyone is driving under the caution flag it's possible to track the cars with the camera and actually get some shots where they are in focus.


Once they get back up to speed, however, forget about it. They all go by in a blur like this.


I never drove that fast even when I lived in Germany!!!

Hanging Out on Pit Row

Teresa scored us the best seats in the house! I'm not sure what they call this area but it's inside the track right behind pit row.

The Agony of Defeat

We also had front row seats for one of the first crashes of the race ....




.... and we got to see Danica's car get pushed back after her unfortunate mishap.

Go Guard

They always give out hundreds of free tickets to military personnel and maybe it was because the National Guard car was a a top seed this year, but it seemed like Guard soldiers made up the majority of the crowd.


When you're a photographer in the Army you always have to be acutely aware of the image you're trying to project, so you want to avoid using photos of soldiers who are out of uniform or doing stupid things. Of course there's never any shortage of those though!


Like this ditz wearing braids that extend way past the collar of her shirt, which is totally in violation of the regulation governing hair styles. I'm willing to cut her a little bit of slack however, since she does have a combat patch on her right shoulder .... unlike this John Wayne wannabe below!

Speedway Spirit!

We were lucky that Teresa has a really good friend who lives just a few blocks from the track so she let us park for free in her driveway, and after the race she invited us all to stay for a cookout so we could hang out until after the traffic cleared out. More wonderful Hoosier hospitality, thanks Lori!


These are just a couple of the awesome yard displays we saw as we walked through Lori's neighborhood.



A great time was had by all!