By Jamie Makin
July 1 2005

Wow!! They say time flies when you're having fun. But sometimes it flies too when the proverbial #### hits the fan. It just hit me today that it has been a full two weeks since I arrived at Indianapolis and I still have not written to you about my adventures there as I had promised.
So here it goes then. I hope you will forgive my tardiness and read this anyway and along the way gain some insight on what it was like to be there on a weekend that people will be talking about for years.

It all started on a high. By the time I arrived in Indianapolis for my fourth trip to the US Grand Prix I had already been on the road for a full week. The first stop was of course Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix, where Massa had thrilled me with a strong drive to fourth place. Three days of peace and quiet along Lake Erie in Astabula County, Ohio followed leaving me rested, refreshed and in high spirits.

The weather in Indianapolis was about as perfect as perfect gets. Thursday saw temperatures in the mid-70's with a nice breeze and low humidity. What a refreshing contrast to the heat and oppressive humidity in Montreal. As luck would have it, these ideal conditions prevailed for the entire race weekend.

For the third straight year, the US GP weekend began with the pitlane walkabout. This fairly unique event in the world of F1 gives us fans a chance to view the cars and teams up close. As usual, I spent most of my time camped out in front of the Sauber garage. The mechanics were still occupied with rebuilding the cars following the race in Montreal. The cars were about half assembled when the day began and I watched the mechanics install the rear of the car as well as the front brake systems.

Later in the morning they fired up the V10 engines for their first check. Standing a mere 20 or so feet away from one of these while it runs is an amazing experience that words just don't do proper justice to. Even at idle, these engines rev higher than a street car.

Over the years, the Speedway has added more to the walkabout event than just the garage area. This year they had a main stage in the infield where Speed TV personnel were interviewing key F1 players throughout the morning. I only caught parts of this but happened to be there at the right time to catch Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Jackie Stewart.

For Bob Varsha's interview with Schumacher, I was very far back in the crowd and honestly had a hard time hearing everything that he said. But a few things became clear to me. He clearly loved our country, loved the fans and was happy to be racing here again. The crowd response to him was equally enthusiastic, especially when he hinted that he would not be retiring any time soon. He signed a lot of autographs after the talk but again I was way too far back in the crowd to cash in on it.

I returned to the infield later with a new friend I had made over in front of the Sauber garage. We arrived just in time to catch Felipe Massa for an autograph. There was really no time to converse but I told him, "nice job in Canada last week" to which he smiled and responded "thanks". A few minutes later he was up on stage along with Sir Jackie Stewart, Derek Daly and Peter Windsor. As you can imagine, it was Stewart who stole the limelight but I realized how very little I knew about the racing legend. It turns out he's a very funny guy and you can see how his popularity has endured throughout the ages.

Massa talked a little about his improvements in the past few seasons and how he and Villeneuve get along but look for very different things in car setup. Massa prefers a very hard and stiff car, something he attributed to his time as a Ferrari test driver. Villeneuve prefers a softer car which likely traces back to his days in Indy Cars.

The day ended with some souvenir shopping. It has become my custom to do my shopping on Thursdays as nothing is sold out yet and you don't have to fight much in the way of crowds to get to it. I picked up one of those new Sauber shirts which was a nice match for the Massa hat I had bought there last year. I also confess I picked up quite a bit of Minardi gear. It was the first time I'd seen Minardi stuff for sale at the track before and I had a hunch I'd be needing it for next year should the sale of Sauber to BMW go through.

I returned to the hotel a very happy fan that Thursday night. It had been a rough year for me so far but finally I was enjoying myself to the fullest and everything seemed right in the world. Little did I know that events the following morning would bring about an unforeseeable shock to the F1 world.

To be continued . . . .