2012 Honda Indy Toronto

Canadian, James Hinchcliffe, leaving pit lane in practice.

They had Free Friday again at this year's Honda Indy. I went last year and thought I'd go again to see if there was anything different.

Things were different for sure... but, not in a good way. There were less cars (I think it was the NASCAR cars that were absent from this year's race) and they didn't have the Indy drivers' autograph session. It's not that I was interested in getting anyone's autograph, but that was a great opportunity to get some decent shots of the drivers.

This year was also unbearably hot. Not even taking the humidity into account, the forecast high was a tarmac melting 36C. Try sitting in the bleachers with the sun beating down on your head for very long and you'd be risking sun stroke.

Like last year I took the TTC down. Unless you were willing to shell out $20 to park your vehicle this was definitely the best option.

The streetcar dropped us off at the Ricoh Centre where all visitors had their bags check by security. No food or water was allowed. How ridiculous is that? They told people they had to dump their water there and they could refill their bottles at a fountain inside. But, I'm sure they just wanted everyone to spend their hard earned money at the concession stands. I passed one place that was selling ice cream bars for nearly $8 a piece. Who are they kidding? Even if it was a premium brand it wasn't worth anything near that.

When I entered the Direct Energy Centre I couldn't help but notice how empty it looked (compared to last year). Like I said before, I believe it was the NASCAR vehicles that were missing this time. The only cars inside were the Ferrari Challenge ones and the Star Mazda cars (young drivers series).

I was a bit late catching the Indy cars practice. Perhaps I thought they'd be driving around the track a little longer. I spent a bit of time a the back straightaway (along Lakeshore Boulevard) seeing if I could get some good shots (which I couldn't because of the high fences). By the time I finally made it around to the main grandstand along pit lane there was only around 10 minutes of practice time left. That was disappointing.

The Indy Cars paddock gave me another opportunity to get some close up shots of the cars which was nice. I saw two or three drivers wandering around there and got some pictures. But last year I saw at least two or three times as many.

Maybe the novelty has worn off for me after attending only two years. We'll see if I go again next year.

2011 Honda Indy, Part II

My photo of Dario Franchitti winning driver of 2011 Honda Indy Toronto (practice round).

After visiting the Support Series Paddock at the Direct Energy Centre I went outside. The Indy cars were doing their practice laps. All the stands were open so I headed over to the Gold section by pit lane and found myself a seat.

There were multiple sets of protective fences just about everywhere. It made it tough to get a decent shot. Another problem I had was that the cars were just too darned fast. The first few attempts I tried ended in failure. Either I'd cut the front half of the car off or the back. I had to pull back a little to give myself a better chance at success. After awhile I got the hang of it.

The practice was alright. After that I wandered around a bit more to see what else they had there. I got a few samples of Dr. Pepper and some Schick razors. There were some booths set up for various other promotional things and to sell food too.

I found an area set up for an autograph session for 12 of the Indy drivers. I wasn't interested so much in getting autographs as photos. So I skipped the long line up and just stood in front of the table waiting for the drivers to come out. I have to say I hardly know any of the drivers. One of the few names I knew was Danica Patrick. So I stood in front of her spot.

When she came out and sat down I took a few shots of her and Marco Andretti who sat to her right. She didn't smile at all. And she had dark sunglasses on. Oh well. I made my way around the table. The friendliest guys seemed to be French driver, Sebasitien Bourdais, and Japanese driver, Takuma Sato.

After the autograph session I thought I'd try to look for wherever they kept the Indy cars. I asked one of the volunteers there and he told me where the Indy Car Paddock was. It was a bit west of where they were signing autographs.

It was pretty cool to be able to get that close to the Indy cars. I got a few decent shots of them I think. As well, after the 12 drivers finished signing autographs, they came back to their trailers in the paddocks. By chance I managed to get a few shots of some of them there.

I even got an autographed shot of Sebastien Bourdais in front of the area where they kept his car. They had a few extra ones that he didn't give away. One of his team managers put them in a stand there, so I didn't have to wait an hour or two to get one like everyone else. Nice.

2011 Honda Indy, Part I

I dropped by the Honda Indy this past weekend. It's the 25th Anniversary of the race in Toronto. I have to say I'm not much of a car racing fan, but it was free on Friday so I thought I'd head down to the CNE for a look. It was my first time ever attending the Indy. I had no idea what to expect.

I took the subway down to Union Station and hopped on the 509 streetcar which dropped me of at the CNE grounds. From there I walked with the rest of the crowds to the Direct Energy Centre just inside the Princes' Gates.

My first stop was to the bathroom. After that I walked into Hall B (I believe). Inside was the Support Series Paddock which included the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, Ferrari Challenge and Canadian Touring Car race cars.

It was interesting. You could pretty much walk up to any of the cars and touch them if you wanted. Of course you might get the "evil eye" from one of the crew members who were working on the vehicles at the time. But, that's how much access people had. For the most part people just wandered around taking photos (like myself).

After checking out the NASCAR Series cars I headed west into Hall A. There I saw the Ferrari race cars. I had no idea they raced them. They were pretty cool to look at. If I bought a Ferrari I certainly wouldn't be racing it around though. Quite a few of them had dings and scratches from dust ups around the various circuits they raced around.