2011 Indianapolis 500 (from the stands)

1996 winner Buddy Lazier in the 1911 era Inter-State

Lyn St. James, 1911 Buick

AJ was holding on to his hat and several people around me were complaining that he was on a cell phone.

The Izod/Hot Wheels jump. Coming down the ramp.

In flight.

Sliding to a stop, but he still went into the sand.

Past drivers in 100 years worth of old cars.

1963 winner Parnelli Jones in the no. 32 Marmon “Wasp” that won in 1911 with Ray Harroun.

1969 winner Mario Andretti in the Boyle Maserati that won in 1939 and 1940 with Wilbur Shaw. I thought Mario was Italian, but he looks like a Pole in this shot.

1983 winner Tom Sneva in the Blue Crown Spark Plug Diedt/Offy that won in 1947 and 1948 with Mauri Rose.

1968, 1975 and 1981 winner Bobby Unser in the No. 8 National that won in 1912 with Joe Dawson.

1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987 winner Al Unser in the No. 82 Lotus-Ford that won in 1965 with Jim Clark.

1974, 1976 and 1980 winner Johnny Rutherford in the No. 4 Pennzoil Chaparral/Cosworth (the Yellow Submarine) in which he won in 1980.

1990 and 1997 winner Arie Luyendyk in the No. 30 Domino’s Pizza Lola/Chevrolet Indy in which he won in 1990.

2003 winner Gil de Ferran in the No. 66 Sunoco McLaren that won in 1972 with Mark Donohue.

Kenny Brack in the Belond Salih/Offy that won in 1957 with Sam Hanks and 1958 with Jimmy Bryan.

Flyover by the B-2

When I arrived, these seats were almost empty!

Front row l to r: Oriol Serva, Scott Dixon, & Alex Tagliani.

The field files by getting ready for.....

The start of the 2011 Indianapolis 500!!!

Will Power's day went bad fast when his tire fell off after the first round of pit stops. That's Danica Patrick going past.

Dario Franchitti.

James Hinchcliffe had hit the wall coming out of three and still slid past me.

He was OK, but it took a while to clean up.

A bad end to the day, but it could have been worse.

The restarts were the most exciting part, so I'm putting several up here....

Danica was leading at this point late in the race.

Another restart.

Three wide at Belleville is one thing, but here???

This shows how much of a pain the posts & catch fence are for taking pictures!!!!!

I saw Hildebrand coming through turn 4 on that last lap and it was obvious he wasn't going to make it. He was too high and too fast. He hit right behind another ^&%#&^% post, but I still got some of it.....

..... as he tried to slide to the win.

aaaa

He had such a lead that Wheldon is only now coming into view just disappearing behind the infield fence.

Wheldon catching Hildebrand to win the race.

Salina Opening Night 5-6-2011

The reshaped turn one.

All new planks for grandstand seating.

Josh Rice

Jeff Olson

Rick Slothower

Dan Heina

Smokin'Joe

Rodger Peck

Tim Watts

Gettin' a little TOO sideways.

Bud Lee, still fast after all these years.

Kurtis Pihl and Chad Markley in B Mod heat #2.

One thing about Salina, you can get REAL close to the racin'.

Sometimes the cars get really close too.

Gary Whitmore

Shannon Johnson (819), Jesse Richter (8), & Mike Peterslie in the 2nd mod heat.

Steve Burch (11) and Jeff Welsh in heat 3.

Jerry Phillips and Welsh.

Steve Burch doesn't look too pleased for some reason.

A swarm of mosquitoes or hornets or ..........

Brandon Lobdell gets by Garett Hake in the A.

Nice 3-wide in the mod B.

Brian Knoell tries to hold off Joe Cleveland in the B.

Mike Traskowsky getting by Casey Gilmore to win the Hobby feature.

Three wide and room for several more.

Tyler Bradshaw had to work to get by Bud.

Corbin Pickerill maneuvered his car so his sponsor would show up well in this photo.Right Wiggy?

Tyler Bradshaw takes the checkers.

Another 3-wide, but where they goin'???

Josh Rice (8) and Shane Meeks who is on his way to winning the B-Mod feature.

Seth Schroer runs into turn one a little hard and gets into Jeff Olson and..........

.......spins out.

Jesse Levin almost did the same thing but saved it.

Dustin Newlin leads the pack in the Stock feature.

Scot Granzella is running Newlin down.

Newlin seemed to have it wrapped up until he ran off turn 3 late in the race.

Danny Morrison Jr jumped out to an early lead in the Mod feature.

Jerry Phillips and Rodger Peck.

Burch, Watts, & Chris Vogan.

Danny, you're leading by thiiiiis much

Now you're leading by thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much!


You can purchase any of these photos and more at:

http://racetrackin.dotphoto.com/CPViewAlbum.asp?AID=6363449

Ahhhhh, it was good to see Salina Speedway back in operation again, just wasn't right with it closed. Everybody I talked to was really so I didn't get as much background as I wanted. No problem, I got plenty of racing.

I won't go into race details here, you can get all that at the track website or at midwestdirt.com.