Here we are the day after the late evening finish to another memorable race. Every year I seem to just fall more in love with this event and this track. I was able to bring my mom to her 1st Indy 500 and she had a fantastic time. We’ll be back for the Brickyard 400 in July as well.
I love taking photos at these events but taking photos from the stands is so limiting here. Some venues allow for fantastic shots in non-credentialed areas. Hopefully I can make the transition to something more professional in the near future.
This year was my 6th Indy 500, and I wanted to experience as much of the day as possible. I arrived with my two friends around 6:30am. The energy of race day is already present even this early, and a steady amount of fans begin to trickle in the early light of dawn. Since race day requires more employees than any other day in May, some of the track workers are having their briefings for the first time,
We dropped some of our belongings at our seats in the North Vista, right at the exit of turn 3. I had a minor goal of getting to the museum to pick up an IMS Pride hat. IMS/Indycar have increased their outreach to the LGBTQ community over the last 5 years, an effort which is greatly appreciated by us. After sometime in the museum gift shop, I wanted to take my friends over to turn 1. For those not in the know, a pedestrian pathway is open from turn 1 stands to the infield is open to facilitate the speed of fans getting around the speedway before pre-race festivities require it to be closed. I highly recommend this as part of any race day schedule. Getting to walk the track surface on race day is a treat. If you’re an annual attendee, you may even run into some old friends!
Around 8:30am we made our way to the Pagoda to grab some breakfast. The breakfast burrito was pretty good, and I waited for a fan group meet up I had planned on attending. During my wait I saw Alanis King and Elizabeth Blackstock make their way through the area around this time. The two fantastic automotive and motorsport journalists, and very fashionable for race day. (Note to self: Wear a nice sundress one of these years). I met up with my racing friends afterwards and I got a minute to talk with Marshall Pruett, who I guess had heard about my stint in the hospital earlier that month.
We perused the midway before heading back to our seats to get ready for pre-race celebrations. Hearing “Back Home Again in Indiana” always makes me cry: Indianapolis and the Speedway do feel like home to me. While the temperature has cooled somewhat, May was in the midst of raging culture war over trans rights, and our right to exist. Many republican controlled states, Indiana being one of them, are working towards banning our healthcare and our right to exist in public. When I got to the Speedway this May, I didn’t know if I would be coming back in 2024 and I still don’t know. I do know that at almost every Indycar event there will be people I can trust and be safe with, so perhaps I’ll figure something out no matter the risk.
The race was great as usual. Fantastic race craft on display, and the speed never gets old. A late caution, turned into a red flag, setting up a 1-lap shootout between Marcus Ericsson and Josef Newgarden. As a fan of both drivers, it was a difficult choice to cheer for one over the other. Marcus getting back to back wins would have been magical, but Josef is undeniably talented and he would not be denied again. As someone who’s been following him from his 3rd year in Indycar, Josef has become an absolute star. His celebration with the fans at the finish line will be remembered for a long time.
The 2021 Indy 8 Hour was the first race I attended in person since July 2019. A lot happened since then, at the Indycar race in 2019, there was a pandemic, I started a new job in 2020, I came out as transgender. 2021 was the year I started living as myself and came out to everyone. As a result, I made lots of new friends in the trans community and met a few that like racing! This was the first race I went to with one of those friends.
Since there was such a long gap between in person events for me, I was way more excited than usual. We arrived about 10 minutes before the green flag. We watched the start from the front stretch, and watching them take the green moved me to tears. Happy crying was still quite new to me, and was surprising. It happened again watching the start of the Indy 500 a few months later. Being removed from the emotional numbness of my pre-HRT days, really showed me how important the sport is to me.
It was great to see Taylor Hagler race for the first time after I discovered her earlier that year. She’s great to see on track, and there were a few other women drivers that day, which always awesome to see. Currently we are smack in the middle of winter here in Michigan, so it might be a couple months before I get to see any racing. Might really delve into my old photos and see what I can find for the next post.
mrm-photo.com 