Uncle Paul & Seth at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The picture above is from the archives of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is from one of the first races of motorized vehicles that ever occured on the two and a half mile track. The race took place in August of 1909. The winning bike had no brakes, no fenders, and basically was a bicycle with a motor attached.

This 1909 Indian Racer was the winning bike. Why am I telling you all this motorcycle history????

Well, I took my two year old nephew Seth to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today. The Speedway is like an old friend that I always feel the need to visit while I am in town. Honestly, I was hoping to spend a little time at the museum knowing there wasn't much happening on the track between the 500 in May and the 400 later this month.

I was wrong.

There was much ado.

For the first time since that 1909 race, the Speedway will host a motorcycle event later this year in September. In preparation for the race, the Red Bull teams are all on the newly laid out motorcycle road course doing tire testing. Admission was free and Mr. Seth and I had our choice of seating from a variety of very cool vantage points. We scored. We hit the jackpot.

I have seen Indy cars piloted by the likes of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and yes, Danica Patrick on this track. I have seen Jeff Gordon & Rusty Wallace doing NASCAR testing a few years ago. I must say that watching motorcycles flash by at over 200 miles per hour was also fun to watch (and I know nothing about the GP series and can't name a single driver). We saw Ninjas and Bugatis at full throttle and it kept a 2 year old's attention for over three hours.

Here's a couple of pictures from today's action.




Here's a short video that was filmed at yesterday's testing. It will give you a general idea of the track layout for the September race.