Indy GMR Gran Prix at IMS Full Report - Indianapolis Indiana

A trackside report by Mark Roden

12-13 May 2023

This year marks the second GMR Gran Prix for me. It is a race that I haven’t known much about in years past, but it is becoming one of my favorites due to the fast action as well as the relatively good access for photography at a venue that I am otherwise very familiar with.  

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a place that I have visited for decades, usually for the 500-mile race, but for the last two years I have extended my stay to include the road course, which I have found to be very enjoyable. Photography during this race produces different results than the big race, in that the road course is internal to the superspeedway, and also the direction is “backwards” (clockwise).

For those reasons, the photos take on a completely different look than the typical Indy 500 photos. The cars are also fitted with the street course aero setup, which includes a larger rear wing with side supports instead of a single central strut, and more substantial front wings.

12-May 2023, Practice Day

On the practice and qualifying day, the weather was a bit overcast. I started out the day taking a cart through the tunnel as usual, since I have a hard time negotiating inclines with my knees. I walked from there through the front of the garage area, toward what I call “the hole”, only to find that there were some new barricades that were not there last year.

It seems that you can still get into that area, but you have to walk around that barrier, and I am not sure if it is now a situation where I would get run off, so I continued to another location just past the Arrow building and permanent restroom facilities. 

The final turns of the road course come off of big turn 2, and the drivers have a choice of either taking the pit road or heading toward the front straightaway (in the reverse direction from the 500.) At the end of this last turn before the pit entrance road there is a fence with a photo hole which stretches for about 15 feet, maybe more. There is a barricade, but it is only a few feet away from that fence. In fact, on practice day I don’t remember seeing it in place at all. 

Many of the pros like this spot, and if there are yellow shirts around, they will enforce the “vest only” rule, however, on practice day, this wasn’t the case.

From there I decided to take a cart to the walk-over bridge which crosses the long backstraight. From there, I was able to get up close to the catch fence and shoot through several more fence holes. On this side of the speedway there is a golf course, and it is quite a pretty landscape.

I found a few viewing mounds and took advantage of them, but the really good shooting was done through the fence holes at their base, as the angle was at ground level and the mounds would let you only just see over the catch fence.

What I was looking at were turns 6-9 of the road course; 4 turns in close proximity so it was possible to get various angles without walking too far. While I was there, the Indy NXT cars were on track. These cars photograph very well and remind me somewhat of Formula 1 cars from a few years back with a signature “halo” which looks a lit different than the aero screen on today’s IndyCar but serves the same basic function; to protect the driver from debris and parts that might come into the cockpit and hit them.

In addition to photographing the race cars I was also documenting for an upcoming guide to IMS. For that reason, I made my way up the long backstretch toward the road course turn 5. Here I found another mound which was decent, however the view was only of the distant exit of turn 2. Not really good enough for me. I didn’t have the legs to continue into those turns, so I headed back to the walk-over bridge, stopping to take a few images of the golf course and pond that was nearby. 

It began to rain as I got close to the pagoda tower, so I ducked into a race souvenir tent for a bit until it calmed down again. Once that was finished and I was able to freshen up with new water and some food, it was off to the outside of big turn 4, and my race seats. I wanted to get a glimpse of how race day would be and how well I chose tickets.

I had purchased two tickets for the race because I was not sure how far along the “flex” tickets would get me, so I bought another ticket in the next grandstand over, just to be sure. The tickets were cheap enough to make it work. It turns out that I never even saw the second seat as the flex section had a fantastic view; easily within view and over the catch fence were the first 5 turns, as well as the front straightaway and all of pit lane. 

I moved around in the stands a couple of times just to tweak the view, but overall, it was an excellent choice. 

13-May 2023, Race Day

Coming to the track on race day I went to the flex section outside turn 4. I was going to meet up with some friends but it started getting late so I had to make a choice; I wanted to make sure that I would see the start of the race.  While they were getting through the pre-race ceremonies, none other than track CEO Doug Boles stepped out of a car which was parked against the fence on the unused part of big turn 4. He hopped up onto the outer retaining wall and was high fiving the crowd, making gestures and clapping. I really like this guy; he is doing a lot for the track and for IndyCar in general.

I took some shots with slightly different camera angles than the day before. This time I was further to the left and was getting a more straight on view of the exit of turn 2. I did not have the same “down the barrel” view of pit lane, however between the two days I think I got enough variety to be happy with. 

Once the race was well under way, I decided to risk it and try to catch a cart to take me to the same hole I had shot through for practice. I knew my friend was over that way and wanted to meet up before the end. As luck would have it, I caught one immediately and was there 12 laps later. If you have any idea of the size of this racetrack, you know that would be a miracle in twice the time. 

After a few minutes I realized that my friends had moved along. I completed the business of shooting in that location, surprised that there was not any crowd to speak of blocking the hole. I exhausted that area and walked to the end of the Hulman Blvd backstretch where I would stay until the end of the race.

I was very impressed with how this area had been so well thought out with respect to photography. I found 3 more vantage points to use, and as I was taking a cart back to my car, I noticed yet another one, the knowledge of which I will tuck away until the next Indy road course race in August.

In all, it was a very nice weekend. I wore myself out and over the course of the month of May, the practice day was the single longest mileage and step count that I had for the trip (6 miles, and almost 15K steps.) Learning more about the track will be helpful for a long time, provided they don’t change much. Knowing how to work the venue, the carts and the access points for a road race is invaluable.

Once it was all done, I switched gears and got ready for a month of Indianapolis 500 activities.