2023 Indianapolis 500, Practice Week

A Trackside Report by Mark Roden

All Photos by Mark Roden Except as Noted

Image Editing Assistance by Joana Esteves of JoMar Visions

29 June 2023

I’ve been going to the Indianapolis 500 on and off since my first one in 1985, and I’ve watched it on television going back to 1973.  There is something about this race that got into my blood and never left.  As luck would have it, my college roommate was from Indianapolis and invited me to come up for that first one in ’85.  The rest, as they say, is history.

My trip began early this year so that I could catch the GMR Gran Prix, which was run on the road course built into the infield of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  In fact, parts of the oval are included in the road course as well.  You can check out a separate report I did on that race here: Indy GMR Gran Prix at IMS Full Report 

After the GMR was finished on Saturday, the teams were given a two-day break and then the practice sessions for the Indianapolis 500 began on Tuesday.  Most practice days are 6-hour sessions from 12-6PM.  There are times when the track is undergoing inspection, or something special like a rookie orientation program is going on, but by and large these days are free practice sessions open to all cars.  Most areas are open to general admission fans (except for the garage and pit road which require special access cards.) 

Also requiring credentials are the suites and some areas around the pagoda, such as the media center and offices.  Almost all of the grandstands along the inside of the front stretch are open, as are some sections along the outside and in the turns.  I am not sure that all sections, especially those in turns 3 and 4, are open on every practice day.

Since 2018 I have purchased what is known as a “silver badge”.  Back in the days of my first races here, you couldn’t get one of these at any price, but now a limited number are made available for purchase.  A silver badge will grant you access to the garage area (Gasoline Alley) and pit road, as well as gate entry for every day the track is open (except for the two race days).  This allows you to capture scenes inside restricted areas which would otherwise be difficult to catch.  This pass is valid only during the month of May.

My badge “collection”, pinned to the inside of my camera bag

Recently, I have noticed that there is more equipment and platforms taking up space in the pit boxes, I suspect because of the development of the technology required to run a modern IndyCar.  From a photographer’s point of view, this makes it difficult to get off a good shot, especially if you don’t have one of those fancy photographer vests that allow access over “that other wall”. 

So, we have to be very nimble, and that is difficult at times when crowds are high.  Still, there are things to be seen in the pit area, and that silver badge is the way in for most of us.  If I go for any longer than race weekend, I always buy one.

On the first practice days, I spend most of my time in three spots; pit lane, the “hole”, and a deck that sits at the end of the grandstands called “Pit Road Terrace”, which is usually off limits on race day (and sometimes for qualifying). Toward the end of the day, I’ll catch one of the transportation golf carts out to the E Penthouse Grandstands.  I like it out there because the view of the track and pits is just terrific, and you can sit back and relax a while in a nice chair-backed seat and a cover over you to block the sun.

Pit Lane

I find it difficult to stay in the pits for long stretches due to some health issues that prevent me from moving very quickly.  I also tire easily, and so I will usually take one stroll through all of the boxes, or as many as I can reach, get what I can get in the way of shots, and then get out.  Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes I don’t; it just depends on what is going on at the time I decide to walk through. 

The “Hole”

One area I like to shoot from is a hole in the fence inside turn 1.  There are actually several, and they stretch along the road course fence all the way to turn 2.  For the “500” configuration (go fast, turn left), the best one of them is right inside the beginning of the apex, just past the Pit Road Terrace grandstands.  I will write more about this in my upcoming “Amateur Photographer’s Guide to IMS; in the meantime, here are some captures from that spot:

Pit Road Terrace

This spot is located at the very southern end of the main front stretch grandstands.  Shooting from this vantage point gives you an elevated view of the cars coming off the start/finish line at high speed.  They are setting up for turn 1, so depending on where you catch them, they could be high on the track or starting their dive down toward the apron. 

There are several backgrounds to choose from; my favorite is the blue field with white stars in the area of lower grandstands that has been covered and sits unused now as far as I can tell.  There is also a “Wing & Wheel” logo on the wall at the end of the straight which is an iconic photo if you can catch it. 

Another feature of that wall just past the wing and wheel is a stretch of Armco barrier built into the retaining wall; I believe this is where they let the crowd cross the track on race morning (very, very early on race morning as I remember).

16 May, Tuesday: Indy 500 Practice, Day 1

FP1: 9AM-11:15AM EST (OVAL VETERANS FIRST FREE PRACTICE)

1PM-3PM EST (INDY 500 ROP & REFRESHERS)

FP2: 3PM-6PM EST FREE PRACTICE

Given the weather forecast I headed into the pits straight away.  I wasn’t sure if we would get any laps in so I thought it best to try and capture some pit road ambience while it was available.  Something I like to do while waiting for a good driver shot to develop is to look for the little details and capture some of the atmosphere of the pit boxes. 

I love finding the air guns laying around, either on the ground or sitting on the pit wall.  These are interesting to look at, and every time I look at a photo of one, I can hear in my mind the chattering whine of it coming to life against the wheel nut. 

Other things to look for are tires and wheels, tools, and sometimes you might find some things around that give an impression of what goes on there.  The point is, look for anything that you can’t ordinarily catch anywhere else, and shoot it.

Day one ended up being a rain-out.  I logged a total of 24 minutes of shooting across 106 total shots, all in the pits. They had the track dry from the early morning showers and got as close as firing up a couple of waiting engines before the rain started once more, shutting down all the action for the day. Katherine Legge was in her car and Agustin Canapino was getting his helmet cinched up, just seconds away from a start when they called it.  No one ever made the track.

17 May, Wednesday: Indy 500 Practice, Day 2

10AM-10:05AM EST (INSTALL LAP, ALL CARS)

10:15AM-12PM EST (RC ENERSON, ROP)

FP3: 12PM-6PM EST FREE PRACTICE ALL CARS

Day two was better; a nice sunny day, and I spent almost an hour in the pits.  It was probably my best day of shooting up close and I had the energy to do it.

The rest of the day I was having trouble getting good focus.  I headed up to the Terrace where I started getting some familiar “car-on-the-track” shots, framing some of them out a bit to allow for interesting background detail. 

It was R.C. Enerson’s first day “at work”, so to speak.  The car initially had no sponsorship through practice but lined up Abel Construction for race day. 

Santino Ferrucci finished the day at P3 with a lap time of 39.305, just .08s behind the day’s high score put up by Takuma Sato, and a top speed of 228.97mph.

Taking a look at the Ganassi team: Sato and Dixon were P1 and P2, Palou was P4, and Marcus Ericsson finished the day in P7.  Ganassi posted 4 of the top 10 spots with three former winners of the race, along with Palou who is sure to be a future 500 winner, and who did win the road course a few days before.  Incidentally, the GMR Gran Prix race finished with 3 Ganassi drivers in the top 10 (Sato did not race, Marcus Armstrong drove the #11 and finished 15th). This is a team to keep a watch on throughout the month.

After tiring of the focusing issue, I left a bit early and decided to go to the camera store first thing the next day to square things up before hitting the track.

18 May, Thursday: Indy 500 Practice, Day 3

FP4: 12PM-6PM EST FREE PRACTICE

As I mentioned, I had to take a trip downtown to Roberts Camera, where I did a side-by-side test of my lens against one they had in stock, a similar EF mount 100-400mm Canon zoom.  I also did a test pitting my lens/camera combination against a new Canon R6/2 with a compact 100-400 f/8 lens.  The results surprised me as there were no discernable differences in either test.  So, what was it then?  No idea. 

I did discover that I had my lens stabilization set incorrectly for panning, so I fixed that.  It still doesn’t explain all of the problem, as even after this, the test results revealed that there was nothing wrong with my kit.  I showed the techs some shots from the previous day, and after reviewing them, the official determination was that I am “too critical of my own work.”

OK then, on to the track.

Day 3 shooting started at the hole.  I walked from the tower plaza through the front of the garages and around to the area inside turn 1.  This year they had the NBC communications van parked right behind the hole, so you could see the announcers occasionally ducking in there to do their announcer practice day things. 

Typically, I take quite a few shots from this location.  For one, it is an access point that gives a low perspective, and it’s clean.  But if I’m, honest about it, it’s mostly because shooting here is quite fun!  I have taken so many shots from here the last couple of years that I would never need to take another one to say “I’ve got that shot.” 

However, I really enjoy it, and of course, it’s good to catch the difference from year to year and have timely image sets, especially rookies and new liveries.  So, as long as I am able to access the spot, I will keep shooting from here.

Once I was confident that I had a good bit of work, I returned once again to the Pit Road Terrace.  I wanted to put some time in for a special art project that I’ve created using my camera. Using it more like a paintbrush than a camera, I set an extremely slow shutter speed combined with certain movements for the duration of the shot. 

The results are hit or miss; some good, most of them unusable, but at the end of the day if I get even one shot that I’m proud of, then it’s worth burning the shooting time to do it.  I spent about 20 minutes on it and managed a few images that I think will fit into the project nicely. 

They don’t necessarily look like racing cars, but then, that isn’t the point of it.  It is still a work in progress, so later in the year (after the Petit Le Mans in October) I will do an article about it.  Who knows, maybe someone else will try it and do better than me.

I finished the day with a stroll through the pits.  Again, I spent just under an hour there, and I was generally pleased with the results.  It was a nice variety of cars, crew, the trophy, and drivers to round out the afternoon.

Ganassi team cars were strong again, with all 4 in the top ten on a day that saw a lot of pack running, along with Conor Day who finished P6 and ran 105 laps on the day.  Well done, sir.

19 May, Friday: Indy 500 “Fast Friday” Practice, Day 4

FP5: 12PM-6PM EST FREE PRACTICE

Fast Friday, as they call it, is the first day they get to turn up the wick to full boost (5.1 bar.)  This is when we get to see what everyone has under the hood.  Teams will start to do simulated qualifying runs, and depending on how the traffic works out they can learn a lot about how their set up will perform on track during a real qualifying run.

Sato was strong right out of the box, at one point appearing to shave the safer barrier in turn 2 on a 234.753 mph lap.  Ericsson did a simulated run but the speeds dropped off after the second lap.  Will Power showed some consistency in his simulated run, dropping off only a bit in the last lap of 4.  Rinus Veekay set a benchmark 4-lap average of 232.898 which held up for most of the day.

The day was fast-paced and free of any wreckage, the only yellow flags of the day being for track inspections.  One could argue that some of the new aero strips and other kit may have something to do with the relatively clean nature of the practice sessions thus far.  A lot of work has gone into the science concerning ground effects and the balance between down force and speed.

At the end of the day, they held the qualification draw in the Pagoda Plaza to determine the order for qualifying.  I will lay out a short primer about how qualifying works at Indy along with the results of the draw in a second report. The final report for this year’s Indy 500 will be concerned with qualifying weekend and the action leading up to race day. 

Until then, you can see extended portfolios from this and my past reports at my new website: MRA Racing Images