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.