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For the 2008 Indianapolis 500 we will be bringing you all the latest news and thoughts from our dynamic pair of journeymen in the field Robert Rakete and Bob McMurray.
We are with them as they travel from New Zealand across to Indianapolis to make the ONE Sport Indianapolis 500 Preview show for screening on May 25 from 4:30pm within Powerbuilt Tools Motorsport on TV ONE.
From May 16 there will be daily reports
May 21: Indianapolis is hyping up for the big race but in 2012 the city will host the Super Bowl and Bob discovers that Auckland could learn a thing or two about planning stadium.
Bob says:
Our first "man down" in the fun bus today.
We were travelling between locations in the fun bus with producer / director / stopwatch man / van driver / mother hen and all round arranger David Turner and had not been driving for more that 10 minutes, before Rob seemed to have a bungee attached to the back of his head and he was resting his eyes and making peculiar heavy breathing sounds without actually talking into a telephone.
The call went out "man down" but that made absolutely no difference to him. He was away.
Super Bowl
The big news here today is that Indianapolis has been awarded the Super Bowl contract for 2012.
It might not seem that big to us but it apparently means a sudden influx of hundreds of millions of dollars to the city and surrounding communities.
The hotel we are staying in has already, within one hour of the announcement, had confirmed reservations made. For four years down the track!
This is all due to the building of a new super stadium that is all but complete and was just a hole in the ground two years ago.
It has a retracting roof and will seat 75,000+ people and have
under and over ground shopping and entertainment malls linking it
to the city centre which is about 500 metres away.
The bid was financed by private money, NOT State, to the tune of
US$25 million, just for the bid attempt.
All this in a city the approximate size of Auckland.
The "old" stadium that still stands just nearby and is about 24 years old with a meagre capacity of about 60,000 is being totally demolished. Too old, too small.
How is Eden Park getting on by the way?
Airport joys
Going back a few days now to our original arrival.
We arrived at the Indianapolis airport and were in a bit of a hurry to get out with our bags and get off to Kentucky. We went off to get our bags from the belt and as they were taking a while Mr. Turner rushed off to organise the transport.
A few visits to Indy ago we had a major problem with our bags, or at least our bags had a problem as they had lost us.
So when the belt went around and around and around and the bags on the belt got fewer and fewer and fewer until - no bags!!
I searched for a baggage man, actually woman in this case, and asked if there were any more to come through. At this point I got the message from Jonny Reid that the Kentucky Indy Lights rookie test was off so my mood sort of darkened somewhat.
I found somebody else and plaintively, but firmly, told them that my bags had not arrived.
"Where from"? was the question
"Denver" I said.
"What flight"?
"United Airlines"
"Belt 5"
"I know"
"So go there!"
"What"?
"Go there!"
"Where?"
"Belt 5"
"I am"
"You are not"
"Aren't I?"
"NO"
"Where am I?"
"Belt 6"
"AH!"
OK, so I find belt 5 and there, circulating like the first lonely leaves of autumn on a slowly moving stream, silently, plaintively whispering "help me", were our bags.
A tad embarrassing.
Please don't tell anybody, OK?
Pic of the day is cameraman John wondering just what the heck he has got himself into by agreeing to come to Indy for another year. He had to stand up there for best part of 3 hours while Rob attempted to remember his words.
Or was it me?
Bob
Rob says:
You ever met someone with an accent and suddenly found yourself
talking like them?
Today we met a guy called John and he's a good ole Southern boy
with a Southern twang straight outta' The Dukes of Hazzard.
Dang! Yee haw 'n grits'n'gravy.
John runs a drag bike for Schumacher Racing (no not Michael&Don) and he was the most enthusiastic, up-for-a-good-time, passionate, nitro head I've ever met.
At the workshop (which also runs 6 other teams and is big enough to house Eden Park) John had us jump on a coupla' practice bikes they use to measure a riders reaction times when the amber lights go out on the Xmas tree. These bikes go from 0 to 100 mph in a second. So every bit of time you can squeeze out counts. My reaction time from amber out to dropping the clutch was 0.019 seconds.
Apparently that was fast, I don't wanna go on about it - but apparently that was fast.
Lunch with Jonny
Caught up today with former A1 GP driver Jonny Reid. He has lined up a drive in the Indy Lights Series. His debut will be this Thursday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He'll have 1 ý hours to practice before he qualifies. Then Friday he hits the track for the Freedom 100! That's a heck of an intro.
We all went out to lunch and Jonny told us about this book he read. It's that famous story of the Argentinian rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes and they ended up eating fellow passengers.
Kinda took the edge of my club sandwich and coleslaw Jonny!
He's a great guy and we will all be cheering for him later this week.
Indy Service
Talking about food, last night the team went to a local diner for dinner. It's called 'Indys'. Think 'Dennys' but more low key - and the menus are greasy - and the service was - abrupt.
Our waitress was called 'Betty'. Imagine The Hulk as a woman - wearing an apron - but instead of being green she's orange. That's Betty. She was cool though; she got the orders right and the food was promptly served in her direct-no-mucking-around-manner.
Beside I was too scared to complain anyway. I wouldn't wanna see Betty angry.
Well I better shoot - thanks for taking time to read the Bob/Rob blog.
p.s: Oh by the way did I mention I was fast today - 0.019 seconds - I don't wanna go on about - but apparently that was fast.
Like the blog? Want to see the video ------ then
remember the show from Indianapolis screens Sunday May 25th within
PowerBuilt Tools Motorsport from 4:30pm on TV ONE.
