That time when I went to an IndyCar race!

Back in 2008 Adam Booker, a long-time friend of mine, and I took a road trip from Saskatoon to Edmonton to attend the Rexall Edmonton Indy. It was both of our first experience attending a race. Both of us were excited, not only because it was going to be an epic weekend, but also because we hadn’t seen each other much in the previous year after I had moved away from Regina to attend university.

The plan was that he would drive up from Regina and then we would hop into my car and drive the rest of the way. When we hopped into my car to leave it decided it didn’t want to start. I don’t remember why we didn’t just take his car, a 2004 Hyundai Tiburon, but we decided to work on mine all day to get it working. Luckily he was working as a mechanic at the time and had the know-how to fix it. After some investigations we discovered that one of the cylinders wasn’t sparking. We tried a bunch of different things but decided that we were going to need to completely rewire the ignition system on my 1998 Honda Civic. Finally, after hours of working on the car, we started driving to Edmonton and got there after midnight, fueled by energy drinks and loud music.

Since we didn’t have a hotel room that night we ended up pulling into the Walmart parking lot at around 1 am and parked among the RVs. We laid the seats back and got the little bit of sleep we could get in those uncomfortable seats. I was going to post a picture I took of this moment but while I was looking through the photos I had taken on my old Olympus camera I realized how hilariously bad the pictures were!

Eventually we made it to the Ramada Hotel & Conference Centre (Now the Edmonton Inn & Conference Centre). After we made it up to the hotel room we crashed. The hotel was just steps from the track and we could hear the cars driving around when we woke up in the morning. After getting some breakfast we went and collected our passes and then made our way over to the track. We couldn’t believe how many people there were and how much access we got with our paddock pass. We had opted not to get the pit lane pass, but even still we could get right up next to the pits.

That weekend there were several different series racing, ranging from Amateur to Professional. There was the Atlantic Championship series, NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and the IZOD IndyCar race, recently created following the merger of Champ Car and Indy Racing League (IRL). In addition there was an amateur race, though I can’t recall what the series was called. While the typical IndyCar stars were there, such as Danica Patrick and Helio Castroneves, there were some other stars or upcoming stars as well. Canadian racer James Hinchcliffe was racing in the Atlantic Championship at the time, later becoming a star in IndyCar. Also, actor Frankie Munez raced in the Atlantic Championship that year, following his fame on the show Malcolm in the Middle.

Since the race was going to be on Saturday, instead of Sunday like usual, we watched qualifying on Friday in between the support races. In between sessions we wandered around checking out the paddock area and enjoying the atmosphere. We were able to get really close to several drivers – one of the benefits of IndyCar over other top tier series’ – because the paddock area is very open to the public. We got to see the cars taken apart, Firestone mounting all of the tires to be used that weekend and got to talk to several people from various teams. I loved the fan engagement that they had! A lot of the mechanics and team members were happy to chat about just about anything about the car and the team.

After the day was done we went back to the hotel, had supper and then decided to go out on the town. There had been a blue and white Maserati MC12 parked outside of the track that day and then when we went out to cruise around Edmonton we ended up stopping beside that car at a red light. Since I was already believing I was a racing driver after the adrenaline of watching 1 day of racing, I decided to show that MC12 what my 4 cylinder Honda Civic could do compared to his 621 Ferrari developed horsepower and rev’d my engine at him. Luckily he was up for a little racing as well and rev’d back. The race was on! When the lights turned green I dropped the clutch and took off, keeping up with him, believing I might have a chance to win this street race! And then he actually accelerated, leaving us to bask in the wail from his 6.0L Ferrari V12 as he took off down the road.

The next day it was race day! There were races pretty much all day from the different series. We watched some from our seats and others we watched from the fences beside the track to get a different view. When the IndyCar race was about to get started we got to our seats to get ready for all of the festivities leading up to the start of the race, including the driver’s parade and introductions. After the drivers were all set to go in their cars Gene Simmons had the honour of calling out the famous words “Drivers, start your engines!”

It was a really exciting race and was won by Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing. The below is a video I took from my seat of the race. The quality is terrible, but it was 2008 and cameras weren’t like they are now.

After the race I was able to meet with Danica Patrick, whom I had a HUGE crush on at the time. We waited outside of her trailer for what felt like almost an hour before she came out to sign autographs and take pictures with fans. There were hundreds of people waiting to get an autograph with her and we managed to get to the front of the pack before she went back into the trailer. It is a moment I have not forgotten about!

If you have attended any live races, share your experiences below!