"The greatest race in the world". The biggest race in the world! So, in a spectacular way, the Americans define the Indianapolis 500 Miles.
And they're right. Because the 500 Miles is not just a race. It's really a great show.
Before, and around the big race that engages the circuit once a year, there is a unique and unimaginable show for those who have never been there.
Half a million spectators
Four hundred thousand people on the bleachers. Another hundred thousand who gravitate around the hellish basin. A huge amusement park that surrounds the oval, where you can satisfy any desire playful or food. For three days it is a very animated camp, a swarm of heterogeneous characters, an opportunity for freedom and passion. A fascinating festival of speed.
A real party
On the eve of the event, the city is crossed by a parade of floats and cabriolet cars on each of which there is one of the 33 drivers who will start. It's a party, with a crowd that goes into raptures for the protagonists who greet, smile, respond to fans.
The wagons bear the sponsors' insignia: and it happens to see the wagon of the funeral home, or that of the Masonic lodge. They are also among the sponsors of the laps of the track. Yes, because every single lap of the 200th race is in the name of a sponsor who rewards the driver who is the first to pass him on the famous red brick line that marks the finish line.
The emotion of being in the midst of the drivers
On the eve of the event, you can also walk around the paddock if you have an authorised ticket. The pass consists of a kind of medal that you can staple to the shirt or the waist of the trousers, meanwhile when you enter the old man of the control does not ask you anything. He knows that if you enter it is because you are authorized.
You can talk to the drivers and team technicians while the mechanics work on the cars. To find yourself in that immense oval when it is still empty is exciting. If you're lucky you can even take a lap alongside some idols of the past who are there: obviously with the car of the brand of what will be the "pace-car".
Then, the night before the race, all around the track, between lights, music and entertainment, the beer flows in rivers.
In the morning at six o'clock, while the car parks are filled with thousands of cars, motorbikes and campers, when the gates open, the most passionate fans begin to enter and take their seats inside turn four, the one that precedes the entrance to the pits. They have the bandana in the lead, they are a bit 'shiny and their balance is precarious. But all the procedures, the parades of the misses, of the vintage cars, of the champions of the past, allow to dispose of the alcohol and to find them standing and ready to put their hand on their hearts when, in grandstands now full and cars lined up on 11 rows of three, the notes of the American anthem will resound. While a formation of "Stealth" fighters flies over the track at such a low altitude that it casts its shadow on the track and on the tide of heads and hearts that are now vibrating.
The Shepherd's sermon
Just the time of the sermon of the pastor or priest who invites to pray for those who at the end of the race may no longer be there (sic!) and then, at 10, comes the mythical: "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. The roar of the 33 engines at the same time can not overcome the scream of 400,000 spectators. But it makes those 100,000 who are outside understand that the race is about to begin.
Then three ever faster laps in the formation of the 33 cars prepare for the waving of the green flag that signals the start launched at the passage on the red line of the bricks.
You get to the first curve at 380 kilometers per hour. The first rows can exploit the aerodynamic effect on the ailerons that crushes the cars on the ground. The next ones are practically in an air hole and the cars float fearfully towards the outer wall.
Yes. The biggest race in the world has begun!
P.S. At least once in your life you have to go to the Indianapolis 500 Miles. But if you go there once you can't help but go back there.
Thanks for your attention!
