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Toronto Indy 2022

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Jericoke:

--- Quote from: cosworth151 on July 17, 2022, 04:07:28 PM ---Tell them you're the official correspondent for GP Wizard. That should get you all access.  ;)

Have fun!

--- End quote ---

There was a lady there with photographer access, with the 'photo' jersey on and everything.  She was taking shots of the race on her iPhone.  Maybe getting journo credits isn't all that hard?

(It's possible she had real gear somewhere that was broken, confiscated or otherwise unavailable and she was just doing her best)

cosworth151:
Maybe PenskeCar is getting to be like F1 - enough money will get you anything.

John S:
But did you have a good time Jeri? Never mind the press credentials, we're dying to know how it went as an experience.
Oh - and was the racing good?  :D

Jericoke:
We had a fantastic time at the race!

It's been a while since I've seen racing live (2015 in Montreal, and what I remember most from that race was how the McLaren Hondas sounded like a bag of wrenches compared to the other cars). 

What really surprised me is how much of a monster a modern IndyCar is.  There were several support series, including sports cars and junior open wheel categories.  The Indycars were much louder, of course, but also much larger.  As the support series lay down rubber, you could see that the IndyCar racing line would straddle the other cars' line. 

Also, somehow the IndyCars just looked better.  The paint jobs, clear coat and polish made the cars look like a million bucks compared to even the million dollar sports cars.  We had paddock passes, so we could see the cars up close, but the paddock in Toronto is indoors, and the cars looked okay inside, but magical in the sunlight.

We were seated in turn 11, right across from the pits.  I submit there is nothing more heartstopping in the world of sport than watching 20+ IndyCars come into the pitlane during a yellow flag.  The pit boxes and crew are working mere meters (yards) apart, the cars are coming and going.  It's a ballet, yet completely out of control, but it also works. 

The paddock passes were great. 

1)  The paddock was indoors, so a chance to get out of the sun (still got a burn anyway, cursed Scottish heritage!) 

2)  The 'garage' areas are fully open, you can see everything going on.  True, IndyCars are 'spec', so there's no secrets like F1, but still, fans can be part of it, rather than walled off.

3) I didn't get any selfies, but got to meet with Colton Herta, Simon Pagenaud, Takuma Sato and Al Unser Jr.  Each and every one of them seemed as pleased to be there meeting fans in passing, understanding that they're there for us, just as we're there for them.  (Never got my chance to meet Zach Brown, wasn't even sure he was there)

The racing itself was pretty good.  Honestly, if you're interested in the race itself, watching from home is a better experience.  On track, the only 'real' action I saw with my own eyes (outside of the pits, which was fantastic to watch), was Grosjean hitting the wall during practise.  Turn 11 is just before the start/finish straight, so mostly was cars winding up for the straightaway.

Over all it was fun, I'm sure we'll go back.  Going to Toronto was a 'consolation' for not being able to get to Montreal this year.  Maybe we'll try another track next year.  Watkins Glen and Detroit aren't any further than Montreal for a road trip

Jericoke:
Tough to photograph race cars with a cell phone, but this is what I got:

https://www.gpwizard.co.uk/forum/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=58;u=1495

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