IRL

ZOOOOOOOOOM!











On August 11, 2007 the Indy Racing League came to Sparta, KY to go fast and turn left. My nephew is on a mailing list linked to Penske Racing and they send him passes every year. And so, for the past 3 years he has invited me to go.















This was my 4th Indy race. It was a pretty good race. I took my digital camera for the first time to this event. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to capture these amazingly fast cars all the while missing a fair part of the race.


These cars are soooo fast... I can't tell you how many pictures had empty frames from where the cars just passed by too fast and were gone before the lag time of my camera had passed. But I got some shots that I like and we saw some good racing.

Actually, there were two races that night the Indy Pro Series ran a 67 lap race after the IRL cars were done. I've seen Busch Series racing and Indy racing at the Speedway. It's a pretty place to race nestled in the rolling hills of Kentucky.

Cars entering pit row.

Cars racing off pit row.

The conclusion of Dario's wheels up in the air crash.

I was able to get a pic of the cars crashing into the wall, with sparks and pieces flying. Just a second before that Dario was flying past me at the level of the top of the catch fence... right before my eyes. Stuff happens sooooo fast at 200 mph. I said "holy freakin' cow" and barely had time to utter that before I placed my shutter down the track where they were already into the wall with a flash and a crash.

Later, I watched the sports news and Dario said he didn't know the race was over. Yikes... so he didn't lift when everyone else did and he raced right over the car in front him which launched him up in the air, the second time in 2 weekends of racing in which he took to flight. A wicked wreck it was... Everyone was OK though.

Earlier, in the race, Danika spun in Turn 2 after a tire blew out. A spin that really had me worried as she was spinning and heading towards a safety vehicle that was rolling down the back stretch.

To see video of Danika's spin and Dario's Flight I've found a link to ESPN:

http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=1&id=2970488

Sorry folks, the story is still there but the video stream from the Disney server no longer streams.