The Indy Racing Experience.

On September 11, 2009, our family surprised my husband with the Indy Racing Experience at the Indianapolis 500 Speedway.  He has described it as, besides the days his children were born, the greatest day of his life (noticed he mentions nothing of marrying ME in there!  ha ha).  Three and a half months have passed and he is STILL talking about it to anyone who will listen.  I had the photos printed immediately and he looks through them every evening and watches the DVD of the video that we took at least once a week.  It was really a fun day.  If you have a race fan in your family, you might want to think about doing this for them when Father’s Day rolls around.  They have it at the track in Indianapolis from (I think) May to September and in the winter months you can go to Florida.  I think their track may be near Disney World. 

It was actually a huge surprise to my husband.  His daughter is a nurse and we told him that she was having an award lunch for her department and it was going to be at the restaurant at the Indy 500 track and she invited us to come see her receive the award.  All lies!  ha ha  We met up at her apartment that morning along with my husband’s son, granddaughter, and sister and brother-in-law. 

He never suspected a thing even at the point where we got to the racetrack and parked and then in this garage bay we all had to sign in on a sheet and say whether we were driving or riding or a guest.  We all signed in before my husband and put “guest” but when he signed in he didn’t know what to do and the lady was asking him if he was a rider or driver and he was like “Hell yes I’d like to drive,” but didn’t realize that he really WAS going to drive!  So we pulled him aside for a moment and told him SURPRISE and he was floored.  Here are a few photos from his day.

our arrival at the racetrack

Summer took a photo of him all “suited up” !

I loved that they let our entire family sit in on the “driving class” that Ken had to go through before driving.  It was pretty neat.

More being “suited up”

Summer with Ken waiting on his turn to drive.  There were a couple guys in front of him and 1 woman, but we didn’t have to wait long.  They really have their procedure working like a well-oiled machine at the track.

 Ken really enjoyed talking to Stephan Gregoire beforehand.  He was giving him tips on how to steer here, I think.  He was very nice and didn’t act like it was a bother at all to stand and chat with Ken while he was waiting for his turn to drive. 

 He really was just the nicest guy to pose for all of us taking photos. 

Ken with the car he drove on the left and the car he rode in back of on the right 

Ken taking off in the car as he began his first lap!

Then after he drove 3 laps around the racetrack, he got into a 2-seater car with Davey Hamilton driving and he rode around 2 laps going 180 mph.  He says it was exhilirating and didn’t last long enough!

It’s a tight squeeze!

There they go………. zoom zoom zoom …………

This is right after he got out of the car.  It’s my favorite photo from the whole day because my husband’s face just radiates with happiness!

Ken even got interviewed by a TV station in Indy, channel 8 WISH TV.  The reporter lady told us it would be on the news that weekend, but since we don’t live there we didn’t get to see it.  I’ve tried to e-mail her to ask how to get a copy, but never got a response from her.  Ken was disappointed.  All in all, it was a great and very fun day!