It was a beautiful Sunday morning, both in Indianapolis and here in San Jose. Even though the race started an hour later than we thought, Barb and I were still getting ready when the first race fans arrived. Traditional Mimosas were available when the Green Flag dropped on the pack of cars in the running start at a few minutes past 9 AM (PDT). Fortunately no one showed up at the advertised “doors open at” time of 7:30 AM. Part of the tradition of TTSCC Indy Parties is that food and visiting gets equal billing with the race.

This year’s race was an opportunity for a historic first, one driver to win three consecutive races. The possibility of Helio Castroneves making history was viable up until the last lap. He finished a close second. This year’s race seemed to be plagued by accidents, fortunately none serious, and yellow flags. The first occurred on lap 7, and it was on again off again yellow flags until the last 6 laps.

The yellow flags allowed plenty of time to eat and let others in on what has been happening. Rich and Karen Gibbon seem to be accumulating a significant percentage of member’s cars at their Gold Country retreat. The Gold’s are looking for a place that Doug can set up his Masseuse table now that he is finishing up his professional training. I have a suggestion for getting meeting attendance up…

The finish of the race was close, but because of the yellow flag situation there were only 6 laps of real racing at the end. Castroneves’s bid for the history book was foiled by his team mate Gil de Ferran. They still seemed to be friends at the end; I guess that shows that auto racing is a gentleman’s sport. And gentlewoman’s as well. Sarah Fisher, unfortunately, got caught in an accident on the 14th lap.

Some interesting statistics for this year’s Indy 500:
Time – 3hrs 12min, Winner’s avg speed – 156.29 mph, Separation between 1st and 2nd - .299 sec, eight different drivers were in the lead as the race progressed, yellow flag out for 49 of the 200 laps
A final note on engines: only three manufacturers were represented; Toyota – 13, Chevy – 11, Honda – 9. Percentage that finished; Toyota – 62%, Chevy – 27%, Honda – 45%. Toyota seems to have figured this out.

B & B Knapp