My weekend at Formula one (Pic intensive, + link to over 600 pics I took over the weekend)
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My weekend at Formula one (Pic intensive, + link to over 600 pics I took over the weekend)
Well, here is my big bad F1 at Indy wrap up post, this will probably be my longest post ever.......... so here we go.
Since last years race that I had attended, I was already making plans to come again this year. A few months back, my dad told me my uncle was working on getting us tickets with FedEx, a sponsor for BMW-Williams. Naturally, I was stoked. As time drew closer to the race, details became clearer on what we were going to experience on FedEx's behalf at the race. We were going to be viewing the race from FedEx's suite on the inside of the front straight, free room at the downtown Marriott, and transportation to and from the track on Saturday and Sunday.
We were happy but wondered why there wasn't any transportation on Friday, then we learned that we (myself, my dad and my uncle) were going to have passes to the Paddock Club, possibly the most exclusive place at an F1 race. We also got to park in the infield, which was an added bonus. There they fly in their own caterers, waiters, cooks, food, silverware, etc. These tickets cost FedEx $3000 per person, and an individual cannot buy them, period. Here are some pics from the Paddock Club (we were in the Williams club box).
Bottom of the Bombardier pagoda, just past the electronically coded Paddock Club entrance
Inside the Williams suite
Tablet PC that gave detailed info on the car and the team, as well as the whole operation regarding transporting the car and team. It also had a live video feed from the garage
Command center of the Williams suite
View from the Williams suite
Here are some shots I was able to get outside of the suite
Ok, more writing. Included in the Paddock Club features was a Pitlane Walkabout on Friday before first qualifying. We were able to get our pics in the respective team pits. There was also a guy walking around with a sign that said no filming, and he would hold it in front of your camera when you would try and take a pic. However, there was one of him, and many of us, so when he would love to block others, the shutter started flying on the cameras. Anyways, here are some highlights from the walkabout.
My uncle, my dad and myself in the Williams pit
The next pics are of the cars after they qualify, they go into a scrutineer garage where there are put on a low rack, then dropped onto a template, if the underside does not match up, they are disqualified. The first pic is of a car in the garage during the walkabout.
There are many more of those pics in the album.
A few last pics of the Williams suite
That night we went to the famous St. Elmo's steak house for dinner with FedEx with a special guest, none other than Juan Pablo Montoya! He was on a limited schedule but spoke to the group (~40 people). His best comment was "A school bus can stop better than a NASCAR!" He was pretty funny. I also got a picture with him, but I havent scanned that in yet. They had some trivia questions and out of that my uncle won an Montoya autographed tshirt (we win more later
).
Pics of Montoya speaking
(that's Montoya's wife just in front of me, very nice girl)
On to Saturday, the first day in the FedEx suite, and also the first day of transportation
. A little before qualifying, Kimberly, one of the FedEx people, asks if I would like to go on the F1 Paddock tour, a more exclusive area than the Paddock Club, so naturally I say yes . As soon as we got in, Rubens Barrichello rode past us, it caught me off guard so this was the only pic I was able to get:
And with Rubens going past, I figured this guy wouldnt be far behind....
I seriously got a chill when he rode by....
I also saw Sir Frank Williams, and I honestly didn't feel right taking a picture of him in his wheel chair, I don't know why, but seeing him is a memory I get to keep to myself. I had also seen Ross Brawn but my camera had run out of batteries by then. But they hadn't when we went past the Jordan room with Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols sitting out front
This is me in front of the Gasoline Alley sign
This is the pass to get you in the F1 paddock, had to be electronically swiped, and proof I was a VIP for about 20 minutes
Then it was back to the FedEx suite for qualifying and the Porsche Cup Race, lots more pics:
The view out of the back of the suite, turns 4-6
Some pics from the SuperCup race:
That night was a black tie optional dinner, not really my bag, but Danny Sullivan was there to speak so we couldn't miss that. He is quite the personality and we really enjoyed listening to him. My uncle won again with trivia, this time an autographed copy of the Sports Illustrated that featured Sullivan's "Spin and Win" at Indy in 1985.
On to race day, when we got a police escort to the track. We didn't stop once between leaving the hotel and getting to the parking spot!
We were treated to having Danny Sullivan speak again in the suite on Sunday.
Another treat was Williams test driver Marc Gene coming in and speaking to us. He has a great personality, and personally I would like to see him make it big in F1 some day. The insight he gave us was the drivers were braking 70 meters before turn 1. 215mph to 70mph in 70 meters, amazing.
Some of the pre-race pageantry as well as the drivers parade.
God Bless America
The wrinkle in the plans...
Now onto the good stuff, this part really needs no explanation.
Before the race had started, FedEx does this contest called "Pick 6" where you try and pick the top 6 drivers, and it would be based on driver points to win a prize (whoever was closest to being exactly correct would break any ties). So the whole time we were in the FedEx suite, I was eyeing these hugh autographed photos of Juan and Ralf. Turns out, they were the prizes for the Pick 6 winners. Low and behold, guess who won one. I hope to have a pic of it up in a few days, its fuggin awesome. Oh, and I also won another autographed Sports Illustrated for knowing what the "40" in GT40 stands for .
Here is the only pic I got of the FedEx suite
All in all, this was possibly one of the best times of my life, and I'm so glad I got to share it with my dad! He brought me up on racing, and its a great joy being able to share a passion like this with each other. I honestly doubt I will have another opportunity like this again, getting the full VIP treatment. I'm still having trouble explaining exactly how much the weekend meant to me, its something I will never forget.
And last but not least, here is the link to all 600 of my photos, I HIGHLY recommend checking out the full size versions of the photos as most are fuggin AWESOME. And if you are wondering, 90% of the shots were taken with a Nikon D100 digital camera with Normal jpeg quality and the small size setting. Lenses used were a 70-300mm telephoto and a 35-70mm lens.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288983065
Oh, and also saw this "thing" at the track
Hope you enjoyed my weekend, because I know I did!
Brian
Since last years race that I had attended, I was already making plans to come again this year. A few months back, my dad told me my uncle was working on getting us tickets with FedEx, a sponsor for BMW-Williams. Naturally, I was stoked. As time drew closer to the race, details became clearer on what we were going to experience on FedEx's behalf at the race. We were going to be viewing the race from FedEx's suite on the inside of the front straight, free room at the downtown Marriott, and transportation to and from the track on Saturday and Sunday.
We were happy but wondered why there wasn't any transportation on Friday, then we learned that we (myself, my dad and my uncle) were going to have passes to the Paddock Club, possibly the most exclusive place at an F1 race. We also got to park in the infield, which was an added bonus. There they fly in their own caterers, waiters, cooks, food, silverware, etc. These tickets cost FedEx $3000 per person, and an individual cannot buy them, period. Here are some pics from the Paddock Club (we were in the Williams club box).
Bottom of the Bombardier pagoda, just past the electronically coded Paddock Club entrance
Inside the Williams suite
Tablet PC that gave detailed info on the car and the team, as well as the whole operation regarding transporting the car and team. It also had a live video feed from the garage
Command center of the Williams suite
View from the Williams suite
Here are some shots I was able to get outside of the suite
Ok, more writing. Included in the Paddock Club features was a Pitlane Walkabout on Friday before first qualifying. We were able to get our pics in the respective team pits. There was also a guy walking around with a sign that said no filming, and he would hold it in front of your camera when you would try and take a pic. However, there was one of him, and many of us, so when he would love to block others, the shutter started flying on the cameras. Anyways, here are some highlights from the walkabout.
My uncle, my dad and myself in the Williams pit
The next pics are of the cars after they qualify, they go into a scrutineer garage where there are put on a low rack, then dropped onto a template, if the underside does not match up, they are disqualified. The first pic is of a car in the garage during the walkabout.
There are many more of those pics in the album.
A few last pics of the Williams suite
That night we went to the famous St. Elmo's steak house for dinner with FedEx with a special guest, none other than Juan Pablo Montoya! He was on a limited schedule but spoke to the group (~40 people). His best comment was "A school bus can stop better than a NASCAR!" He was pretty funny. I also got a picture with him, but I havent scanned that in yet. They had some trivia questions and out of that my uncle won an Montoya autographed tshirt (we win more later
).Pics of Montoya speaking
(that's Montoya's wife just in front of me, very nice girl)
On to Saturday, the first day in the FedEx suite, and also the first day of transportation
. A little before qualifying, Kimberly, one of the FedEx people, asks if I would like to go on the F1 Paddock tour, a more exclusive area than the Paddock Club, so naturally I say yes . As soon as we got in, Rubens Barrichello rode past us, it caught me off guard so this was the only pic I was able to get: And with Rubens going past, I figured this guy wouldnt be far behind....
I seriously got a chill when he rode by....
I also saw Sir Frank Williams, and I honestly didn't feel right taking a picture of him in his wheel chair, I don't know why, but seeing him is a memory I get to keep to myself. I had also seen Ross Brawn but my camera had run out of batteries by then. But they hadn't when we went past the Jordan room with Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols sitting out front
This is me in front of the Gasoline Alley sign
This is the pass to get you in the F1 paddock, had to be electronically swiped, and proof I was a VIP for about 20 minutes
Then it was back to the FedEx suite for qualifying and the Porsche Cup Race, lots more pics:
The view out of the back of the suite, turns 4-6
Some pics from the SuperCup race:
That night was a black tie optional dinner, not really my bag, but Danny Sullivan was there to speak so we couldn't miss that. He is quite the personality and we really enjoyed listening to him. My uncle won again with trivia, this time an autographed copy of the Sports Illustrated that featured Sullivan's "Spin and Win" at Indy in 1985.
On to race day, when we got a police escort to the track
. We didn't stop once between leaving the hotel and getting to the parking spot! We were treated to having Danny Sullivan speak again in the suite on Sunday.
Another treat was Williams test driver Marc Gene coming in and speaking to us. He has a great personality, and personally I would like to see him make it big in F1 some day. The insight he gave us was the drivers were braking 70 meters before turn 1. 215mph to 70mph in 70 meters, amazing.
Some of the pre-race pageantry as well as the drivers parade.
God Bless America
The wrinkle in the plans...
Now onto the good stuff, this part really needs no explanation.
Before the race had started, FedEx does this contest called "Pick 6" where you try and pick the top 6 drivers, and it would be based on driver points to win a prize (whoever was closest to being exactly correct would break any ties). So the whole time we were in the FedEx suite, I was eyeing these hugh autographed photos of Juan and Ralf. Turns out, they were the prizes for the Pick 6 winners. Low and behold, guess who won one
. I hope to have a pic of it up in a few days, its fuggin awesome. Oh, and I also won another autographed Sports Illustrated for knowing what the "40" in GT40 stands for .Here is the only pic I got of the FedEx suite
All in all, this was possibly one of the best times of my life, and I'm so glad I got to share it with my dad! He brought me up on racing, and its a great joy being able to share a passion like this with each other. I honestly doubt I will have another opportunity like this again, getting the full VIP treatment. I'm still having trouble explaining exactly how much the weekend meant to me, its something I will never forget.
And last but not least, here is the link to all 600 of my photos, I HIGHLY recommend checking out the full size versions of the photos as most are fuggin AWESOME. And if you are wondering, 90% of the shots were taken with a Nikon D100 digital camera with Normal jpeg quality and the small size setting. Lenses used were a 70-300mm telephoto and a 35-70mm lens.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288983065
Oh, and also saw this "thing" at the track
Hope you enjoyed my weekend, because I know I did!
Brian
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 6,094
Likes: 6
From: PASADENA, CA, USA
Re: My weekend at Formula one (El Pollo Diablo)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by El Pollo Diablo »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Let me the first one to let j00 know how much i hate you....
</TD></TR></TABLE>
DITTO, but my hate is towards the SLR camera you own!!!
DAMN nice color enriched pics B!
</TD></TR></TABLE>DITTO, but my hate is towards the SLR camera you own!!!
DAMN nice color enriched pics B!
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Joined: Mar 2001
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From: everywhere
Re: My weekend at Formula one (Brian*Blue95M3)
Awesome pictures and a truly awesome weekend you must have had. And I know what you mean about getting chills when seeing some of those people in real life and also hearing those simply unreal F1 sounds live.... Thanks for the post!
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Joined: Nov 2000
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From: Boston, MA, USA
Re: My weekend at Formula one (Hracer)
I think this post needed a warning in the title like "Put on Drool Bib before Clicking"
Very Nice Pics Brian, looks like you had a fantastic time.
BTW I think I know what DigiCam I'm getting next
Very Nice Pics Brian, looks like you had a fantastic time.
BTW I think I know what DigiCam I'm getting next
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Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,532
Likes: 1
From: MKE
Re: My weekend at Formula one (Evil Mike M)
<FONT COLOR="green">Jake</FONT> (thats me ....green with envy)
Glad you had a chance to experience an F1 race like that....and thanks for the great write up, and pics!!!
)Glad you had a chance to experience an F1 race like that....and thanks for the great write up, and pics!!!
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 3,496
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From: Jasmatown, GA
Re: My weekend at Formula one (HondaRcB)
Incredible!!! That had to been just an amazing experience!!
I will try and go through the ~4000 pics my friends and I took and post em up this week.
I will try and go through the ~4000 pics my friends and I took and post em up this week.
Honda-Tech Member
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 12,092
Likes: 2
Re: My weekend at Formula one (lanceh)
Brian, thanks for the additional vicarious thrill of your "excellent F1 experience".
Sure makes up for suffering through the friday night thunderstorm in my semi-rigid tent, only being able to do the Thursday Pit walkabout and having to sit through 1 1/2 hours of traffic to get there without a police escort! LOL!
On the plus side I left the track at about laps 35-37 and made it back to my Mom's to watch the second half of the race on Speed TV @ 9 and then the whole thing again @ 1AM.
Thanks for the pics and the write-up Brian, class act all the way!
Sure makes up for suffering through the friday night thunderstorm in my semi-rigid tent, only being able to do the Thursday Pit walkabout and having to sit through 1 1/2 hours of traffic to get there without a police escort! LOL!
On the plus side I left the track at about laps 35-37 and made it back to my Mom's to watch the second half of the race on Speed TV @ 9 and then the whole thing again @ 1AM.
Thanks for the pics and the write-up Brian, class act all the way!
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Joined: Dec 2001
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From: Waco, TX, USA
Re: My weekend at Formula one (Brian*Blue95M3)
Seriously, man...those pics are so sweet that I almost crapped my pants. I am so jealous right now. How did you get in on this, if you don't mind my asking?
Thread Starter
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Joined: Dec 2001
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From: Colorado Springs, CO
Re: My weekend at Formula one (Regular Series)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Regular Series »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Seriously, man...those pics are so sweet that I almost crapped my pants. I am so jealous right now. How did you get in on this, if you don't mind my asking?</TD></TR></TABLE>
My uncle owns a decent amount of shares of FedEx and he has been going to CART races with them since the 90's. He formed some relationships with the FedEx folks that run these events so he was able to ask about acquiring tickets/passes for the F1 race. They were more than happy to oblige and that's how we got in. The total FedEx group was 80 people, most large customers and a few investors.
Brian
Seriously, man...those pics are so sweet that I almost crapped my pants. I am so jealous right now. How did you get in on this, if you don't mind my asking?</TD></TR></TABLE>
My uncle owns a decent amount of shares of FedEx and he has been going to CART races with them since the 90's. He formed some relationships with the FedEx folks that run these events so he was able to ask about acquiring tickets/passes for the F1 race. They were more than happy to oblige and that's how we got in
. The total FedEx group was 80 people, most large customers and a few investors.Brian
starts snapping up FedEx stock. 
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From: washington, dc, usa
Re: My weekend at Formula one (Brian*Blue95M3)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Brian*Blue95M3 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There was also a guy walking around with a sign that said no filming, and he would hold it in front of your camera when you would try and take a pic. However, there was one of him, and many of us, so when he would love to block others, the shutter started flying on the cameras. </TD></TR></TABLE>
My favorite part. God bless America!
My favorite part. God bless America!
