What Do I Do at a Race?

Lots of people ask me that, and they're not usually too impressed when I say I wander around a lot. So, from my visit to the IndyCar race at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, last weekend, here's an explanation in photos. Here's me ...

Watching crews working on cars (this one is Josef Newgarden's).

Seeing cars roll up to the fuel truck to top off before qualifying.

Watching qualifying from Pit Lane means a lot of watching the photographer scrum around the driver who's just about to go out for three laps of fury.

Seeing and sometimes meeting a lot of different racers, including John Force, 16-time NHRA champion (that's drag racing, and he's a legend, maybe the greatest of all time).

Meeting other great people involved in the sport, including these two who run IndyCar's Holmatro Safety Team, responsible for attending to drivers in the case of an accident/injury. They do a lot of good work.

Getting a great view (into Turn 1, from the end of Pit Lane) of the start of the race. You can't quite see it, but the speed trap (red square on outside of track) says the cars are going 214 m.p.h. there.

Getting an up-close view of Pippa in the cockpit of the #18.

Getting incredible action shots of the Dayle Coyne Racing crew servicing Pippa's car during a pit stop. (Click on the photo to see the fuel flying and the intensity on the middle guy's face!)

And even seeing what happens after the race, as drivers debrief with crew and team owners.

Finally Cooled Down

It was HOT last weekend during the run up to IndyCar's season finale race in Fontana, CA. Standing in the pits for qualifying on Friday afternoon (at 2 p.m., in August, 60 miles inland from the ocean), ambient temperature was 99F and the track temp was 137F. The heat radiating up from the concrete and asphalt was intense.

It made for an odd race weekend: practice at 10 a.m. Friday, qualifying at 2 p.m., and evening practice before sundown. All for a race that would take the green after the sun went down on Saturday—or at least after the sun dipped below the edge of the Speedway. The reason? Not the heat so much as the glare of the sun. Turns out, it's not a great idea to be blinded when you're flying down the back straight at 220 m.p.h.

Yes, you see that speed correctly. On the Auto Club Speedway's speed-billboard (standing in Turn 1 to catch top-speed on the front straight), I saw a high of 226 m.p.h., and the driver who took me around for a hot lap on Saturday (at noon, in a Camaro, with air conditioning going full blast) said the drivers in the race would easily hit 220. We topped out at 130 m.p.h.

After that Saturday hot lap, my friend @cogitoergobibo and I repaired to an air-conditioned restaurant for a late lunch, and then to our hotel rooms to cool off again. We ventured out again at 4 p.m. (still hot) to make the tweet-up with Pippa. (That's us, @cogitoergobibo, me, and Pippa; photo stolen from Pippa's photo album from the Fontana weekend.)

The sun started to go down, and we made our way to the temporary stage on the front straight where driver intros would happen. We had IndyCar Fan Nation access to be inside the rope line to watch drivers come out to the stage—and the first one down the line, working the crowd the whole way, was Mario Andretti.

And then it was nearly race time. We scrambled off the front grid and made it to our viewing spots in time for the green flag. I was lucky enough to be in a seat on the rooftop deck of the pit suites for most of the race—which was a perfect view and a perfect temperature. If you look closely at the photo below, you'll see the green flag was waving, and Helio Castroneves had taken the lead before the line.

After the race, we wandered between celebrations (Tony Kanaan's for winning the race, Will Power's for winning the championship) and finally made our way back to the car and the hotel. We passed In 'n' Out on the way, surprised at the enormous line at 11:30 p.m.—but maybe we shouldn't have been surprised, because according to Twitter, half of the paddock was there post-race.

Sunday was another adventure, as we headed into downtown LA for the IndyCar Championship Celebration. I got to handle Pippa's cell phone camera as she and her husband walked the red carpet, and then we chatted with new and old friends inside. It was a (mercifully) short ceremony, and then the season was over.

Thank goodness we had Monday, to recover, is all I have to say.

Once again, the "trip" to the race proved hugely valuable. I finished connecting with IndyCar last weekend—literally and figuratively. I've made some great new friends (all thanks to social media) who've been incredibly supportive and helpful about connecting me to more readers and resources: I put my first book in Sarah Fisher's hands on Friday, thanks to one friend (info on her, for my non-race-fan readers), and on Sunday I connected with the Director of Communications for IndyCar, who offered to help me with whatever I needed to write about IndyCar accurately (and forever!).

The business of racing really does happen at the race, but the family of racing is also vibrant and present every race weekend. I'm starting to really feel like one of the family, and it's a pretty neat feeling.

If you want to follow great racing writers, fans, and racers, check out @cogitoergobibo, @stevewittich, @tonydizinno, @nasarcasm, and @pippamann. They're good people.

Fun and Research in Fontucky

Over the Labor Day weekend, I'm headed for a couple adventures, all to do with racing. With IndyCar, specifically. But it won't all be sunscreen and race fuel. And it's highly likely all of it will show up in a future book....

Next Saturday evening is IndyCar's season finale at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. The town otherwise known as Fontucky to the rest of the greater LA area (no offense meant to Fontana or Kentucky ... it's just a long way east of here). I'll be out at the track Friday for practice and qualifying, as well as there on Saturday for festivities and the race itself.

That will be one adventure—my second IndyCar oval race and my second at that speedway (I attended my one and only NASCAR race, so far, there a couple years back). Yes, I expect it to be hot. But I expect to hang out with a whole bunch of fellow crazy race fans/friends—including @cogitoergobibo, aka, the other member of "the crazy hair color race fan club" (pictured here with me on the front straight of the Indy 500; hair colors are more crazy in person). So we'll find shade and drink plenty of water. 

The other adventure will take place Sunday night, because the same friend got us both tickets to the IndyCar championship banquet. That's up at LA Live in Downtown Los Angeles, and it's a situation that will require a whole different dress code! Cocktail attire, I'm told. I'm looking forward to seeing what the scene is about.

I'll be comparing it to the one other Series championship banquet I've attended. That was the ALMS party 10 years ago. I remember it being partly interminable and partly a whole lot of fun. Then again, I knew more people then and was more connected to the series. This time around, I'll be more on the fringes. But whether I'm connected or not, it'll be a great opportunity for people watching and note-taking. 

Sometimes when I go to a race, there's specific research I need to do. But most of the time, I'm enjoying the event, taking in everything that's going on, and waiting for ideas to come to me. Not that I'm plotting new books or scenes in the moment. Instead, I'm soaking up the scene and the interactions for use later, when I need them. In particular, it helps to see how real-life drivers interact with passers-by, fans, and their teams. It helps to see what they're doing and when throughout a race weekend.

And I'm sure it'll help to see how they all interact—and what kinds of relationships they really have with each other—when the pressure and the performance of a race weekend and series are over. 

Kate might not ever end up at an IndyCar banquet (at least in print!), but you never know what I encounter next weekend might turn out to be useful. I sure can't tell you yet!