Despite the mud, I thoroughly enjoyed the race yesterday. Meeting some of the drivers at the autograph session, including my total geek out moment when I met my favorite Jordan Taylor
, was totally awesome! My mom got to meet her favorite Helio Castroneves - I love his positive energy, he's so animated. Montoya was grumpy as always
.
Hearing/seeing some of the cars warming up their engines was cool, including the Porsche 911 RSR (so loud!). The weather went from cool, foggy, and full overcast to hints of sun 10 minutes before the race to completely clear skies by the end. What a change (typical for Ohio)!
I loved seeing my Corvettes out front until the #4 had issues. At least the #3 was able to fight it's way up for a good finish. I spotted the damage on Castroneves' car right away but didn't see how it happened - I'll catch it on my DVR. I didn't see the #9 Porsche spin (we were by the esses after the keyhole straight) but that was a bummer because they seemed to be having a good run. I did see them pull the car out after the race.
There were body parts flying all over the place! The Ford GT lost its left rear right in front of us and I'm pretty surprised they didn't throw the caution to pick up the debris (not complaining as the drivers acted professionally, for the most part, as it forced the turn exit into basically one lane). The #9 Porsche had it's right mirror flailing about hanging by a cord for a couple laps.
The McLaren looked impressive. It was really interesting though, during the grid walk I was looking over the rear of the McLaren and some of the crew members were there. I overheard them talking about how some of the bits of the engine/area were held together with zip ties - go figure lol!
All in all I loved it and am already planning to take my kids next year for their first time! I'm hoping I can get to Watkins Glen this year but not sure that will happen.