Working trackside and fixing the net

Okay, here is an update for the two first days of the U.S Nationals at Indy.

Wednesday

Met up at the trailer at 6 o'clock and started to load up the trucks even before daylight. I'm going to be on truck #1by the startline today, and probably for the rest of the race. Working truck #1 also includes working trackside as a spotter :-)

Today and tomorrow will be only sportsman racing. 

Well, hot sunny and humid as usual, but everything went just fine until one of the Super Stockers lost his brakes and went through the sand trap and ended up tangled in the net, upside down. Met up with my friend Stanley who is here for the race :-)

He was A-okay, but the nets were messed up. It took us 2.5-3 huors to get the two nets back in place again, which were very exausting in this kind of heat. So with that kind of downtime we were done for the day right before 9 pm. Packed up and Rick and I went to Taco Bell for a quick dinner.

Thursday

Up at 5 this morning and left 5.45 for the track. Got over to Racing Electronics first thing in the morning to get my earplugs which broke yesterday, then down to Laura for my credentials. Same truck and same kind of work today, but thank God not as hot as yesterday. Sportsman racing all day too exept for two rounds of Comp. Easy day with no incidents or oil downs at all. Had pizza at the end of the day, thanks to Coca Cola. Back to the hotel for some laundry. Time is now 9.30 pm and we are all dogtired, but having fun. Two down four to go..

I think they multiply in the staging lanes

View from the tower

Happy after the pizza dinner

One more day of preparation and fixing the Power Boss

Tuesday

 Left at the break of day today for our final day of preparations. 

Started to unload more equipment from the trailer and distribute it to different places around the track. Later Randy am I made two sets of new tires for the tire machine, which were quite exausting in the bright sunshine. Well, you can't back down ;-)

Now it was time to take care of the Power Boss. Brought it up to the maintenance garage and jacked it up. Finally got the squeegees to go up and down again with a temporary solution, new parts are coming in later this week. Cleaned out all the coolers and loaded up the first pallet of of beverage.

More crew members showing up from their time off, some I met before and some new ones aswell.

Late dinner by the hotel and a quick shower then off to bed. We leave 5.30 tomorrow.

Tomorrow it's raceday and I'm on truck 1 by the startline. I'm living the dream :-)

Yay! ;-)

Yes, we had some rain today too..

Track prep and Cracker Barrel

Monday

Okay, Monday morning and back to work :-)

Took off with Ron at 7.15, and we went to a Chevy dealer in Plainfield for an oil change. After that was taken care of we drove out to the Lucas Oil Raceway for some preparations.

 My good it's hot today! Runned some errands, drag the track, cleaned the truck, picked up all the laundry and fixed some stuff on the credential trailer. Down to Brownburg and had lunch at Bob Evans. Back again and carried on with prep stuff through this very hot and humid day. 

Crew members are coming back from their leave, so tomorrow we will be in full swing again.

Back in the afternoon and had some rest. Was challenged for the Ice Bucket Challenge yesterday so I was about to go for it tonight,but Coop and his guys were stuck by the track so we will do it tomorrow instead. Damn, I hate cold water!

Had dinner at Cracker Barrel with Randy and Ron. They got some good food over there.. Three stuffed guys slowly walked back to the hotel :-) Thunder storms and rain this night too :-/

 How I love it over here! Good night folks.

Early birds ;-)

"Corn on one side and race cars on the other"

Aha, scooter!

The oval track behind the strip

The oval track behind the strip

Laundry

Brownsburg

More laundry..

Even more laundry..

Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel

  

Walmart and barbeque

Sunday

Off duty today too, so after breakfast I took the shuttle bus down to Walmart for some additionall shopping. Got what I wanted, so went on to Metropolis Mall. Browsed some stores but didn't really find something, so instead I ended up at Starbucks and had coffee. Ron had been out at the track some work, so he picked me up on his way home.

Rested and did some laundry before it was time for barbeque and Cornhole by the poolside at the hotel. Stuffed and tired after another humid day, we left for bed about 9.30. Thanks Coops!

Tomorrow people are comming back from their time off and we'll start the preparations for the race that starts on Wednesday. Good night and good morning out there.

A day of indolence

Saturday

 

Today I was off duty completely. Ron has to take care of some stuff but needed no help,

so I slept in today. 

Didn't do much at all besides a little laundry, and took a short walk to get me some lunch. Later in the evening I met up with Coops, Krystle, Larry, Brandon and a few more guys for dinner.

 They are all part of either marketing or pit control so they have to start their work already today as the Indy race is a big one, about 900 entries. It's going to be fun, but also exausting I guess.

Well tomorrow I'm off too but you never know, maybe something comes up. Tomorrow night Ron and I have some plans. If I can find one.. :-) Good night folks

 

 

 

 

Maintenance work and football with Coops

Friday

Today Ron and I have done some maintenance aroud the camp at the track. We also runned some errands, fixed the track and some other stuff. Did some shopping on the way home at the Metropolis Mall.

I'm pretty beat up by this humid weather so didn't do much this evening, just went round the corner from the hotel to Cracker Barrel for some candy and had dinner at Steak n' Shake.

Runned into Coops and his girlfriend at the hotel and join them for a few beers and football back at their room.

Soooo damn tired right now, but I just want to go on. I want to stay and keep going on to more races, cause I'm having so much fun doing this. I'm having the time of my life.

Todays lunch place

Work, eat, sleep, repeat ( I love it )

Thursday

Left the hotel at 6 in heavy rain this morning going to the track, so not much we could do when we arrived. Instead we arrange a lot of tools and other stuff in the trailer, until it finally stopped. Then Power Boss, tractors, blowers and super sucker began drying, and just after noon the first fuel car ran down the track.

Only fuel cars will be testing today, but that's alright I think :-) A really quick shower again some hours later which came away almost immediately due to the high temp today. Now it became very humid again :-p At 8pm we were done for the day and loaded up.

Tomorrow everybody is flying home over the weekend for some rest and return on Monday to start the prep work, so I will be off duty. Well, that backfired... ;-) Ron is staying over here and will do some maintenance work for some of our equipment and vehicles, so I volunteered ( of course ). Yay, more things to do and more things experience, so I'm not complaining :-)

Good night.

Monica the super sucker

Well, I tell you the story some day.. :-)