2023-09-09 Second Day at the Track

One benefit of having seats in the pit suites is that breakfast is included.
But that creates an incentive to get to the track early. Even if the roads
are fog-shrouded and the air is very cool. We usually try to get there
around 8:00, when on-track activity is just starting. On Saturday morning
the Radicals were practicing in the fog. These are amazing cars, made in the
UK, somewhat "affordable" as race cars go, and there is a road-legal version
available. And reading this article, I learned that it has an engine similar
to the one in my Mustang:
https://www.radicalmotorsport.com/news/radical-unleashes-race-bred-road-lega
l-rapture. So we enjoyed our coffee and watched the Radicals go at it. Very
loud! Unfortunately, the fog hung around long enough to delay the IndyCar
practice. The reason is not that the cars can't run; it's because the
medical helicopters can't fly. I whole-heartedly accept that reasoning.
Anyway, the IndyCar practice started eventually and we got to see some great
pit action from our seats. We also spent some time wandering the track with
our new "Prue Day" friend James Lyau. We met through the Marshal Pruett fan
club known as ""The Prue Day". James lives in nearby San Jose and has a full
year membership to the track, so he sure knows his way around. He took us to
a vendor tent for "goodboybob" coffee. It appears to be a gathering place
for "unemployed drivers". Note that I did not coin that expression. It was
coined by Conor Daly, a very talented IndyCar driver who is only recently
unemployed, temporarily, I'm sure. We also wandered around and peeked into
many of the IndyCar team tents, Penske for example. I'm useless at taking
pictures but imagine a fully enclosed RV awning attached to the side of an
18-wheeler, except that this awning is 70 feet long and 50 feet wide. It
contains three IndyCars parked diagonally on carpets, each one surrounded by
its own team of mechanics and engineers. And their van-sized Snap-On
toolboxes. You can tell the teams apart because they are all wearing their
unique "livery" uniforms" to match their cars: Xpel yellow-and-white for
Scott McLaughlin's team; Hitachi black-and-white for Josef Newgarden's team;
and Verizon red-and-black for Will Power's team. Of course, there's also the
IndyCar "tech" tent to explore. That's where all the cars go to be
"scrutineered"; closely inspected to ensure that they are "legal" according
to the IndyCar rules. Agnes and I started our IndyCar involvement in the
tech tent at the 1984 Phoenix race. But I don't think we had a tent in those
days, just a set of ramps sitting out in the blazing sun. Stay tuned.

2023-09-05 First Day on the Road

OK, so I totally realize that I haven't updated this blog in several weeks,
so I am going back in time for this story. We left home on Tuesday morning,
September the 5th. We had a very uneventful drive in the Mustang over to La
Quinta, where we had booked a room at the Embassy Suites in Olde Towne La
Quinta. We checked in there and then drove over to visit Agnes's cousin
Cathy and her husband Bob. After a lovely visit with the Cousins, and their
new baby cats, we all went to a nearby restaurant called the Road Runner.
But the restaurant owners wanted to express themselves on a license plate,
so the name became RD RNNR. Fun. So that's Cathy and me posing outside the
restaurant. Photo by Agnes; heckling by Bob. We had a great dinner and a
great visit, then toddled off to bed for an early sleep. Tomorrow's drive is
more complex.