indy attendance

The Seat support race in Spain was a lot more entertaining than the F1 race, but that's how it goes. I remember Hockenheim 79 and the Renault 5 cup was more action than F1 (and at that time Gilles was driving!). Oranges to apples.

 

I think you found them. the 3 shots in 1 post were all shot thru the gap in the fence at turn 6. you cannot autofocus on that shot since the field of view is narrow so i had to prefocus on the spot and then have a speedy shutter finger for those shots.

Rob

 

I rarely use autofocus in these situations. Prefocus and use enough depth of field to have some room to play. That normally also brings down the shutter speeds nicely so you can get the wipe effect.

The professional 600mm lens from Nikon has AF fast enough, but my regular 300 mm Nikkor doesn't.

 

Once my my 70-300mm Nikkor is locked in i dont have a problem with the focus losing track. All of my shots are done in shutter priority mode, shutter speeds of 350-250 using 200 film and 500-350 using 400 film and the AF mode set to center sensor only.

The lens i want to take for a test drive is the new Sigma 300-800 f/5.6 EX with the HSM focusing motor.

Rob

 

That sounds intriguing. Keep us posted.

One more great thing about digital: You can change the ASA (ISO) for every single shot depending on what you need. I love that feature. Always ended up with the wrong film loaded on my travel.

PS: We ought to stop hijacking this thread. It ain't about photography.

 

Hi guys,
I just got the numbers from the "official" F1 site and they said the numbers Indy officials provided were:
Thursday - 20,000
Friday - 40,000
Saturday - 60,000 (looked like a lot more to me....)
Sunday - 120,000
So of course IMS is claiming "almost a quarter million people were in attendance for race weekend". Well, yes - and, NO!

As far as the Challange race is concerned, I guess I'm not the only one who remembers all those 360's converging on turn one in the rain, carrying WAY too much speed! Now THAT was entertaining! I thought there was some good racing in that series, I don't care what Echohead says. One thing that stands out about these guys and the Vintage F1 guys is that they were all terrific to talk to. I never talked to any of the Porch Bug drivers, I'm sure they are nice too. Hey, get a couple of race freaks together and you can guarantee a good time! That is, unless the Montoya subject comes up!

The little Beemer gokarts were eeeeh, ok. It was cool to see that 16yr old from the US pull a textbook perfect move on Montoya's 18yr old brother to take the win on the last lap! Then in true Montoya family fashion, watching him pull a silly move, spin and end up 8th or something - when he could have had 2nd. Apple does not fall far.....

I hope they come up with something besides the VW-bug Superpoop. I read somewhere here that the National F-car meet will be at the USGP next year. How about a parade lap of nothing but F-cars! Now THAT would be a cool diversion that an average Joe like me could participate in. Heck, everybody likes to see F-cars - right? Someone with conections to Tony G. should pursue this! Is it the FOC or the FCA?

Hey Beast, I was lookin' for ya! Next year I am taking the whole week off so I can participate in some of the Chat events!

Aloha!
Jim

 

No I remember too, and got to hang out in the pit area with 'em all weekend.

I never went back to the event.

I knew I could not have that much fun again!!!!!!

 

Actually next year's FCA national meet will be combined with the USGP and discussions are currently under way with Tony George to let the FCA members do a lap on the GP track.

 

I heard the reason the seats were empty on the front straightaway was that they closed that section of the grandstand on Friday and Saturday.

Why? I have no idea. But who would want a buy a ticket in a section that you could not utilize on a 3 day pass..............very smart..........about as smart as leaving Ralph in the cockpit unattended WAAAAAY too long.

 

I was there the year it took DAYs to do the 500....
the rumor was Tony had a warehouse full of plywood "Fans" he could break out! lol

 

I think there were more people this year than last year.. 2 new seating areas in turn 6 and 10 were added plus more people were in the stands and the beer garden was back. The race was great fun. I sat in stand H section 24 right at the apex of turn #1

Cheers,

 

Of course if I was at Indy, the last place I'd want to be would be on the main straight as that's all I ever see (since I'm usually in the pits working when I'm at the track)

I'd bet the hot seat to get would be in the grandstand at turn 1 so you could see back down the straight, see passing under braking into 1 and dog fighting through 2 and three.

I've been there for the 500 (pre CART demise), and I can tell you it was UNBELIEVABLE. A whole lot more people.

Maybe that's why Bernie let "or mandated" the teams to be VERY open this year in North America for the cameras and paddock.

One of my mechanics and his wife went to Quebec the week before and has unbelievable photos of the Ferrari on the scales during corner weigh and alignment procedures.

D

 

Speedmore, you buy passes for Friday and Saturday and cna sit anywhere. I heard they closed off sections to help make the place look fuller for the world feed camera shots (due to certain camera angles).

Oh boy do I have memories from the "Snakepit" in the infield from many a 500 YEARS ago!

Jim

 

Mc/Merc people were at their own table as was Bernie and Flavio. MS and Sato ate together in a private dining area.

 

Sorry, but every statement in this post is either incorrect or inaccurate or, in the case of Tony George and open wheel racing, an uninformed opinion.

 

the problem with indy isn't the track, it is the town. I was there for the first and second races and felt ripped off. It's a shame they try to make so much money on that event. It just pissed me off to pay 275 a nite for a 60 dollar room. Maybe I paid 350. They can get that straightened out before I go again.
The town is just money hungry and they can keep it.

 

The thing that annoys me the most about it is, that it is really hard to find a place with the dates you like. I can live and understand the hijacking of the prices. But what irks me is, that if you do a hotel search on line everything shows up as booked/blocked. It would be much better if you could still make the reservation at a higher price.

And for the life of me I would never buy a package deal, those are ridiculously overprized (1 GP weekend for a grant, yeah right).

 

That's why I never attended Indy. I tried the first year and thought it was an outrageous rip-off.

The GP in Indy is now the absolute last one on my list. I'll go to Bahrain first.

 

Well nobody has lower GP tickets than Indy. And this year I was able to get a hotel room for sixty bucks: When the FIA announced the new Indy date I made my reservation immediately and not all hotel managers had heard about the new date, hehe.

However next year's combined event with FCA makes me cringe: Those package "deals" will probably be costlier than a 3k tune up.

 

Good for you!

That's what lured me- the ticket prices. Then I called for hotels- too late it seems.

 

Hi guys,
The last two years we had some folks from Denmark sitting next to us (although not this year). They said it is cheaper for them to fly into Indy and stay for a WEEK (I don't know what the hell they would do!?!), buy race tickets, meals, etc. and that is STILL cheaper than driving to the closest race in Europe and paying the obnoxious prices for tics over there. Not sure how accurate this statement was as I know there are folks on this board who have gone over to Europe for races from the US. I don't remember any comments on ticket prices being that far out of line - I do know they are a load more than the USGP.
Jim

 

Definitely an exaggeration. European GP tickets cost roughly $ 400 compared to the $ 100 of an Indy ticket (I'm rounding, ok). For $ 300 difference you can't really get a transatlantic flight. Food is cheaper here, but you'd have to sleep in a tent to make up the rest of the difference.

Especially if they're from Denmark, they could actually drive to Spa or Nuerburgring, not that far.

 

Maybe the exchange rate thing also helps a little. Maybe 30%.