MotoGP Indianapolis 2015
Adil Ansari
by Adil Ansari

Categories

  • travel

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Got my passes for the 2015 Indianapolis GP, and special access to Paddocks.

Schedule:

  1. August 7 2015, Friday - Free Practice
  2. August 8 2015, Saturday - Qualifying
  3. August 9 2015, Sunday - Raceday

Travel

  • Took off on Friday night to Chicago from SF, overnight flight landed at 4.30 in morning.
  • Picked a rental car to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, still 200 miles to destination.
  • Took a nap in a rest area after a sleepless night.
  • Indianapolis was such a deserted town compared to SF.

Qualifying, Saturday

  • Went directly to paddocks and roamed around a bit.
  • Backyard to pits and team garages, this was exciting.
  • You cannot actually see teams working inside garages but they occassionally come out for parts.
  • Within first 5 minutes, Andrea Doviozoso raced past me on his scooter.
  • Went to Moto America and Moto2 team garages, huge trucks around there.
  • Graves motorsport had the healthiest lineup.
  • Stunt shows on other part of the raceway.
  • Explored some gear shops and bought VR|46 merchandise.
  • Explored more of the exhibition from manufacturers around the world.
  • Stayed in the garages during MotoGP qualifying, not much was happening here then.
  • Waited for Valentino outside the garage for like an hour and he arrived.
  • I just stayed to get a picture, and saw he was giving autographs for fans, I put my hat forward and this happened.
  • Jumped around for a bit and left for my hotel.

Raceday

  • Had a sound sleep. Woke up already late for some action.
  • Headed directly to the pits. Raining.
  • Found an umbrella
  • Had a chance to meet Aleix Espargaro, no one knew him so I just reached out.
  • Off to stands for race, and penthouse seats didn’t disappoint me.
  • Rossi managed a hard fought 3rd, but disappointed for Lorenzo.
  • Raced to the pits again post celebration.
  • Bradley Smith and Aleix Espargaro were the first ones to exit pits.
  • Not many people knew other racers except VR|46. Another reason why his garage was swamped with fans and other riders left unnoticed.
  • Photobombing Danilo Petrucci and Yonny Hernandez.
  • There goes Dani Pedrosa, such a short guy.
  • In fact, all these riders were short and lightweight, totally made sense as it helps easy maneuverability and shift of bike weight.
  • Andrea Iannone, the Ducati rider was having a banter with reporters when I approached him.
  • There comes the today’s champion Marc Marquez, undefeated at Indianapolis five times in a row.
  • A dozen fans surrounded him but not bad, worth waiting 2 hours.
  • Most of the teams packed up their stuff, this was the winning bike from today going home.
  • Saw Dani Pedrosa leaving in his rental cruze.
  • Drove back to Chicago but the freeway was closed so had to detour for 70 miles through farmlands.