With all of the excitement surrounding our bathroom remodel, I completely forgot to post these pictures from our visit to the centennial anniversary of the Indianapolis 500. There was a lot of pre-race excitement and plenty of action during the race. So get ready for lots of pictures!

First off was the winners’ parade lap. (We saw many of these cars during our visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum in April.) Leading the drivers was Indianapolis Motor Speedway Chairman of the Board Mari Hulman George and four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt, who drove the 1977 pace car from his fourth win at Indy.

Next, 1963 winner Parnelli Jones drove the No. 32 Marmon Wasp that was driven by Ray Harroun when he won the first race in 1911.

Bobby Unser, who won in 1968, 1975 and 1981, drove the No. 8 National that won in 1912 with Joe Dawson. Bobby’s wife, Lisa, sat in the second seat, which was used for a riding mechanic. Just as Bobby entered turn 2, the car sputtered and stopped. It appeared to be leaking fluid! I guess he eventually got going again because he was able to complete his pace lap.

Here is the Boyle Maserati that won in 1939 and 1940 with Wilbur Shaw. This was driven by Mario Andretti, the 1969 champion.

Al Unser Jr., the champion in 1992 and 1994, drove the Blue Crown Spark Plug Diedt/Offy that won in 1947 and 1948 with Mauri Rose.

Here’s one of my favorite Indy-winning cars. The No. 82 Lotus-Ford that won in 1965 with Jim Clark was the first rear-engine car to win the Indy 500. Al Unser Sr., the champion in 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987, drove this car.

The 1974, 1976 and 1980 winner Johnny Rutherford drove the No. 4 Pennzoil Chaparral/Cosworth in which he won in 1980. This car was affectionately nicknamed to as The Yellow Submarine.

The 1999 winner Kenny Brack navigated the No. 9 Target G Force/Oldsmobile that won in 2000 with Juan Pablo Montoya. Since I’m a JPM fan, I was pleased to see this car on the famed oval again. Apparently, before the race Kenny joked that he might stay on the track to compete in the race.

The timing must have been off slightly because these two cars came around the track very close together. It’s 1990 and 1997 winner Arie Luyendyk driving the No. 30 Domino’s Pizza Lola/Chevrolet Indy in which he won in 1990 and 2003 winner Gil de Ferran in the No. 66 Sunoco McLaren that won in 1972 with Mark Donohue, which posted the first of a record 15 victories for team owner Roger Penske.

Hey, Gil! Speed it up, old man!

Look at me! I can still pass you!

The 1983 winner Tom Sneva drove the Belond Salih/Offy that won in 1957 with Sam Hanks and 1958 with Jimmy Bryan.

It was such a thrill to see so many former drivers come to this year’s race. I hope many of them will return in the future.

Up next were a military parade lap, driver introductions, several songs and the national anthem (terrible rendition, in my opinion) that culminated in a flyover by a Stealth Bomber. We also saw the Stealth Bomber at a previous year’s race, and it’s still such a sight to behold.

Do you see that tiny speck in the center of the picture? That’s the Bomber coming over the north chute. We saw the flyover start right at the beginning of the national anthem. We thought there was a mistake and the aircraft arrived too soon. Then when we realized it was a Stealth Bomber, we understood why it arrived so early. It took nearly the whole song for it to fly from the north chute to the south chute!

Lucky for us, as the Bomber left the track it went right over our seats.

Here are the views from our seats:

The museum…

…turn one…
…turn two…
…and the front stretch.

And real race fans will notice the error on this fan’s shirt from the 2010 race. I guess he bought this on the street and not from an officially licensed IMS vendor. :o)

Here are the cars on the parade laps. The rows of three looked stunning!

Here is the first turn on the first lap. Everyone got through cleanly!

More race action:

Danica in the lead.

And the saddest pictures of the day. J.R. Hildebrand’s wrecked car…
…and J.R. hunched over in despair after losing the race.
While I haven’t witnessed all 95 500-mile races, I personally believe this was the most exciting race ever. No one dominated from start to finish (even though my boy led the second most laps). There were several exciting lead changes. There were only a few minor crashes. And during the last few laps, we had no idea who would win. We would have been happy if any one of maybe 15 drivers had won the race. We definitely were rooting for J.R. Hildebrand at the end, and it’s too bad his day ended like that. But he should be proud of his rookie performance.
Here’s to another 100 years of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing!
Centennial celebration