indianapolis motor speedway indiana guide
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Where we headed this time?
indianapolis motor speedway indiana usa (aka "the brickyard")
Venue Physical Address: 4910 West 16th Street, Speedway - Indiana 46224, USA
Got Directions?> How do we get there?
The Speedway is located at the north-east corner of 16th Street & Georgetown Road. From the city's airport, take Interstate 465 North-bound to the Crawfordsville Road exit. There, turn East onto Crawfordsville Road and the track is located approximately 5km away. Normal travel time from the airport to the track is approximately 15 minutes, but see below for race day hold ups / info.
> Distance from:
> Downtown Indianapolis (9MILES / 12 kMS)
Hotels Accommodations Lodging nearby the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
> Find 40+ Hotels near Indianapolis Motor Speedway (10 mile radius)
Find 120 Indianapolis, IN downtown Hotels (about 9 miles)
> Find Hotels in city hotels Indiana, USA
Watch out for "motels" listed close to the track since this isn't the nicest part of Indianapolis and the motels aren't always used for people to "sleep" in. With the inner city transit system to rely on downtown might be a good choice, and closer to entertainment in the evenings.
Camping? You can't camp in the infield at Indianapolis Speedway any more. THe days of the famous Snakepit and the stories (oh, the stories!) are dark racing secrets. There's a golf course there now, wouldn't you know it, but there's camping as close as over the road from the track, call the track for details.
> What's the nearest major airport?
Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
11 KMs/7 MIs SW of downtown.
> Find Hotels near Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
> Indianapolis Airport Website
> Hotels near all Indiana USA Aiports
Shop for the cheapest airfare to Indianapolis International Airport (IND) for your trip to Atlanta Motor Speedway with my online travel store. Compare prices by big discount travel package providers and save. For info about getting from ATL to Atlanta Downtown visit to and from the airport.
> Where's the Map?
> Check out this IMS Indianapolis Motor Speedway satellite and road map
Got a trackmap / seating chart? see link above or check out this Indianapolis Motor Speedway Track Map
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Driving
Road Advisories:
> Local road work / construction?
Indiana Department of Transport
...More states
Parking: Copious space in feilds adjacent the circuit, rather empty during every USGP I've been too, so just a drive up deal, but to be sure, I advise you purchase your parking Passes with from the official website.
Note: Race day traffic is made one-way around the circuit during race days. Also, Indianapolis is surrounded by a ring road I-475, which will get you around fast (except on race day) from one corner of the metro area to another.
Drive Right, steering Left. Foreigners need home license & International Driver's Permit (IDP), available from your local auto club
Local Public Transit
Indianapolis is blessed with a fine transportation system with bus service called INDYGO, which links the airport, downtown and the track on race weekends. In 2005 a round-trip fare ticket during the Indy500 weekend from the airport, downtown (by the RCA Dome on Capitol or at the Indianapolis ZOo) and to the Indianapolis Speedway cost $15US.
Entertainment:
Local Events Listings
Search Tix for sports and concerts in Indianapolis
Shopping:???
Casinos? Illegal in Indiana, you need to hit a riverboat, say in Lawrenceburg on the Kentucky border, where they have some good cheap concerts too...!
Arts/Musuems/HIstory:
> The greek inspired architecture around downtown
> The Indianapolis Zoo (a good place to park your car to avoid paying a heap at a downtown hotel's lot!). Find Hotels near Indianapolis Zoo
> The Indianapolis Children's Museum.
Go Carts: Indoor Carting at Fast Times
Theme Parks Near by:
Restaurants/Clubs/Cafes:
As you might expect you’ll find all the regular fast food restaurants only minutes from the track. In the middle of downtown you'll find the Circle Center mall where there's a foodhall providing fast food with many different flavors and Bertolini's, a nice bistro for Italian meals and 'real' espresso. If it's a gourmet meal you want, you'll need to walk 3 blocks from the central monument circle to Massachusetts Avenue (Mass Ave, yeah, just like Boston & Minneapolis), to the city's quickly growing arts block, ∧ only really cool European style area, where some of the town's finest eateries can be found. Any one of the (12 and growing) restaurants there will serve up fine nouveau American cuisine (with an Italian or French influence). Check out my personal favorite, Agio at 635 Mass. Ave. tel: (317) 488-0359. Nearby is a comedy club too.
Other revhead Activites
> Check to find tickets for Events at Indianapolis Raceway Park Home of NHRA drags & NASCAR BUSCH SERIES RACING. The track is near the motor speedway and often has racing to coincide with big events at the Speedway.
> Indianapolis Motor Speedway's: Motorsport Hall of Fame Museum (in the infield of the track)
> Hotrod and Restoration Trade Show Indiana Convention Center, Downtown, Indianapolis
> SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) Spring Show - Indiana Convention Center, Downtown.
> Other Racetracks (Dirt, Clay, Asphalt, Speedways) in Indiana see Racing Around America
SCALPING
Note: Ticket Scalping is legal in Indiana, however there are some rules. You'll find lots of scalpers around the circuit, & lots of cops. Ask one before you ask the other.
Other Major Local Sports
Indianapolis has it's Colts (NFL) and CAVS (NBA) . For tickets see Indy TIckets link in Entertainment section above.
HANDY LINKS
Speedway Official Website: indinapolismotorspeedway.com
> Got the weather and radar?
> What's the local newspaper say?
MISC INFO
... Curency: U.S Dollar (USD) - Oanda Exchange Rate Converter
... ATM Locator
...Tipping: Expected. Usually you'll round up your bill 15%.
> Time Zone: Indiana runs to Eastern Standard Time. GMT-5. It now observes Daylight Saving time with the rest of the EST zone.
> Telephone Info:
... Emergency Number: 911
... U.S. International dialing code is +1
...Note American mobile/cell phones have a habit of not working in huge crowds on race days because of interference. Make secondary plans for contacting friends just in case.
> Local Liquor Laws: Legal Drinking Age in Indiana is 21.
Did you know?
> Find out about plans to revitalize the city from Indy Downtown.
> Short but illuminating history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which hosted many early USGP's from Silhouet.com
> African American places of interest in Indy
> Listen to Indiana police scanners
> Indianapolis 500 fans view pics from autogeek.com
A FEW NOTES ABOUT INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY IMS USA MOTORSPORT TRAVEL
Who races there / events?
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Godspeed on all your motorsport travel adventures, wherever they may take you, Cvetko Ostroznik.
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2002 USGP Review - Continued from left column
I imagined the bars and cafes and the really nice restaurants there filled to capacity with people from all over the world. I imagined a local Indianapolis playwright showing his latest groundbreaking work at the little theatre there. I imagined the comedy club with it's stage open to the street encouraging budding impromptu standup by tipsy Dutch, German, and Columbian visitors. (in Dutch, German and Spanish!) I imagined the smell of fried onions and steaks and sausages rising from lines of barbeques. I imagined the city advertising it's attractions, team merchandise and crafts on sale, motor displays like the cool "pit stop tire change competition" Honda staged in Montreal. I imagined no room for this pedal cab to pass, and the peddler, who told me he was studying Marketing, practicing his freshly learned skills to the betterment of the city.
What I imagined was really just a fancy Independence Day parade and carnival, but I filled it, in my mind, with the 125,000 people from the circuit, and masses of locals who'd come to see Miss Indy in her finest skirts, putting it on for, and with, the world, much like the amazing show the city puts on for it's Indy500® festival, but at night so that tourists in town had something amazing to experience. Then I walked back through an empty unlit park towards the central monument circle, where I found a lady painting, a couple of tourist guides, who also weren't sure where the tourists were, a dozen people dressed in black doing some modern dance, and 5 guys looking at another guy's Ferrari, (on Saturday night!) and I imagined the park I'd just walked through lit up with stalls and sideshows and local hot rod enthusiasts parading their modified American muscle cars, and people promenading though all this with ice-creams, past some of the most distinctive greco-roman monumental buildings in the United States, on their way to the killer Mass Ave. street festival, which you could hear blaring just a little further along. I walked back to the central downtown and found that while more people were around, and some 200 had gathered to politely watch a U2 coverband in a small parking lot, there still seemed a look of "here we are now, entertain us" on the faces of those new to the city. Except for a bunch of German guys, who were doing a fine job entertaining themselves with a song in the key of Bud.
Perhaps in late May or August of 2003, when I'll most certainly return to Indianapolis, I'll see my vision alive, and I'll also find Indy transformed into the world's premier grandprixcity™. I somehow doubt I'll see it in September though. I have to wonder, after the mockery that Ferrari made of the goodwill of everyone who worked so hard to make the 2002 USGP weekend a success, if people won't think such a grand spectacle is better deserved by their other world-standard and much more professionally contested events!
Whatever happens, I'll be keeping tabs, if only so I don't miss out when I get there, and I'll let you know in advance of the coming race weekends. Check back.
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