It’s almost May in Indy
One of the more traditional signs of spring in Central Indiana is a flourish of activity out on W. 16th Street as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) gets ready to usher in the month of May. There have been a lot of visual changes around the IMS grounds that included the razing of the historic old Brickyard Crossing Motel I shared with you all here at The Experience.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway starts its 2009 season the same way the facility’s rich history began 100 years ago: with a balloon race.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Centennial Era Balloon Festival presented by AT&T Real Yellow Pages will fill the city’s skies with many colorful balloons Friday, May 1-Sunday, May 3. It will be the first competitive event of the Speedway’s 2009-2011 Centennial Era, celebrating the founding year of IMS in 1909 through the 100th anniversary of the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911.
DNK Records recording artist Josh Kelley and Papa Joe Records recording artist Ryan Cabrera will headline a free concert at 6:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday, May 2. Kelley and Cabrera, pop/rock sensations who kick off their “Tell It Like It Is” tour of the United States April 15, will play the Coke Zero Music Stage in the Pagoda Plaza. Opening acts will be Brandon Whyde and Australia natives The Kin.
The entire weekend of hot-air balloon activities at IMS is free for the public, including infield parking, which will be accessible from the main IMS gate/tunnel (Gate 2) off 16th Street. Check out this link for complete information for this coming weekend: IMS Balloon Festival
With spring finally making its way to the area, I did manage to get in a full weekend of riding. Sunday’s adventure took me up to the second “meeting” of the new INDY DESMO club I shared with you all in last week’s edition of The Experience. What better way to view the Dutch round of the World Superbike series at Assen and the Grand Prix of Japan MotoGP event at Motegi than with a group of Ducati enthusiasts.
Well, I’ve got to wrap this up and get over to the Brickyard for a very interesting experience this afternoon you all will find out about later this month.
I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com.
Greg
There’s a new club in town…
This week’s Monday morning started out a bit different than a bunch of others so far this year. You may remember several installments of The Experience have been drafted during long flights out to the West coast. This week started off with a five-hour drive instead of a five-hour flight.
I’m now sitting in my hotel room on the scenic banks of the Tuscarawas River in New Philadelphia, Ohio. This eastern side of Ohio is full of quaint river towns with names like Schoenbrunn, Uhrichsville, Tuscarawas and Gnadenhutten. Could you imagine growing up in a town with a name like that and having to learn how to spell that mouthful of letters?!
This past week saw the launch of a new Ducati Owners Club in Indianapolis. Our friends up at Ducati Indianapolis in Zionsville, Ind., hosted the inaugural meeting of the INDY DESMO Owners Club. Over 50 Ducati enthusiasts and owners attended, and like any good ole prayer meeting, the front row of seats was empty!
We were all greeted by Ryan Ramsey, who has spent the past four months putting together all the details, including a very cool founding members’ T-shirt. Ryan laid out the course of action for the new club to gain official recognition from Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A. in Bologna, Italy. With lots of good input and ideas for events from the attendees, Bill Carr of Ducati Indianapolis stepped up and added his welcome to the group. Thanks, Bill, for sponsoring this event, and just how big was that fish?
If you are a Ducati enthusiast with or without a Ducati in your garage, your participation in the INDY DESMO Owners Club will be welcomed. Be sure to check out their new Web site at www.idesmo.org
In case anyone’s at all curious what I’m doing in eastern Ohio, I get to spend the week playing with the ultimate BIG dump trucks at an off-road test facility. The Hitachi EH1100-3 rigid frame haul truck can handle over 72 tons of payload and is powered by 760 horsepower coupled with an Allison transmission built right here in Speedway, Ind.
This beast could haul away the mountain the Tucker Sno-Cats groom the snow on!
I’ll see you all next week at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Motorcyclists can make a difference!
The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) is a non-profit charitable organization that seeks to:
•Find the cause of and cure for childhood brain tumors by supporting medical research
•Increase public awareness about the severity and prevalence of childhood brain tumors
•Aid in the early detection and treatment of childhood brain tumors
•Support a national database on all primary brain tumors
•Provide educational and emotional support for children and families affected by this life-threatening disease
The Ride for Kids® is a motorcyclist’s program that is helping find the cause and cure of pediatric brain tumors. It also serves as an educational support program for patients, their families and the medical community.
Mike and Dianne Traynor started the Ride for Kids® program in 1984 in Atlanta when a friend’s child was diagnosed with a brain tumor. After watching the tragic deaths of many children, they set out to help find the cause and cure of this childhood killer by soliciting help from their friends in the motorcycling community.
With the support of America’s motorcyclists, the program began to raise awareness and funds to pay for research in the nation’s leading brain tumor research centers. The success of the first Ride for Kids® event in Atlanta led to the program’s expansion to Chicago in 1989. Mike and Dianne soon decided to devote full-time attention to their advocacy and fundraising efforts, and started the PBTF in 1991.
The PBTF is honored to be the official charity of the Honda Rider’s Club of America (HRCA), which has been the presenting sponsor of Ride for Kids® since 1991. Thanks to the significant support of American Honda Motor Company’s motorcycle division, Honda dealers and other motorcycle industry companies, the program has raised more than $40 million for pediatric brain tumor research.
This support has helped make PBTF the largest non-profit source of funding for pediatric brain tumor research outside of the U.S. government. In addition to research grants to medical laboratories, PBTF funds started the Central Brain Tumor Registry of the U.S., a national database of disease and patient information.
Thanks to the efforts of Ride for Kids®, progress is being made in the search for the answer to this terrible affliction. Each year laboratories worldwide take steps toward new and more innovative treatments for young patients. However, until the cause is isolated, the prognosis of these children will continue to cast doubt on their recovery, and for those who survive, their resulting quality of life.
On Sunday, June 14, 2009, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will host the Indianapolis Ride for Kids®. When you join hundreds of other motorcyclists for this scenic ride, you’ll have a great time while raising funds for the PBTF’s medical research and family support programs! Riders on all makes and models of motorcycles are welcome to participate.
Registration opens at 8 a.m. and closes at 9:45 a.m. The escorted ride starts at 10 a.m. sharp, rain or shine!
The ride will loop back to the Speedway. After a light lunch, participants will enjoy a Celebration of Life program that features interviews with young brain tumor survivors – the Ride for Kids® “stars” of the day. Award presentations to top fundraisers will follow.
The minimum donation to ride is $35, but the more money you raise, the more premiums you earn. For each $300 you raise, your name will be entered into a drawing for a brand-new Honda motorcycle! For more information, call 800-253-6530 or visit the Ride for Kids® Web site.
This past Saturday, Dreyer Honda South hosted a bake sale to raise funds for the PBTF. During the course of the day, a delectable assortment of cakes, cookies, pies, cheesecakes and other treats were available for purchase with all the proceeds benefiting the PBTF. Throughout the day, local organizer Steve Kirkendoll shared details for the June 14, 2009 Indianapolis Ride for Kids® event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Keep your eyes peeled for more local fundraising events between now and June 14 here at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com and be sure to put this on your ride calendar.
Greg
Finally got bit!
The week out in Medford, Ore., went pretty good. I had a pretty uneventful flight out from Indianapolis, including the final leg from Portland, Ore., with a spectacular clear flight over the rugged forests and mountains of southwestern Oregon into the Rogue Valley. That sure makes central Indiana look boring.
My business for the week introduced me to some real interesting folks from a company that builds what might be considered the ultimate all-terrain vehicle. If any of you have ever spent any time on ski slopes, you’ve probably seen one of the more famous products to come out of Medford, Ore. Tucker Sno-Cat® Corporation is a fourth-generation, family-run business that designs and manufactures the snow-grooming equipment you may have seen on any given ski slope around the world.
James Allison, one of the founding fathers of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, also was the founder of another Speedway institution, Allison Transmission, Inc. James would have been proud to see the fruits of his original shop hard at work in this very unique vehicle application nearly 100 years after he opened the doors of the Indianapolis Speedway Team Company on Main Street in Speedway, Ind., during 1915.
The late E.M. Tucker Sr. of Tucker Sno-Cat® Corporation was one of 13 children, born in a log cabin on Jump-Off Joe Creek in 1892 near Grants Pass, Ore. He spent his early boyhood near Trail, Ore., in a stone house built by his father in 1901. The house overlooks a broad stretch of the Rogue River and is still a landmark on the Rogue today.
During his youth, E.M. Tucker walked to school through deep snow, and even at this early age he began working on different devices for transportation over snow. This early work eventually led to the development of the world famed Tucker Sno-Cat® vehicle. Mr. Tucker worked in Los Angeles on models, perfecting the idea of over-snow transportation. Eventually moving his business back to Medford fulfilled Mr. Tucker’s long expressed desire to return to his family’s roots in the Rogue River Valley. Mr. Tucker spent 50 years building and improving his snow machines, and his firm is recognized as the oldest successful manufacturer of snow vehicles in the world.
After a fun filled week with the folks at Tucker Sno-Cat® Corporation, my travel plans started off with a bang Friday morning. The first leg of a three-leg trip back to Indianapolis was delayed by over four hours due to equipment problems. That led to a succession of missed flights, long ticket counter rebooking lines and the eventual realization of being stuck somewhere Friday night.
Given the choice of Portland, Minneapolis, Detroit or Atlanta, I picked Portland. Now let’s remember one of my prime directives; good eats and Italian motorcycles. Getting marooned in Portland for an afternoon afforded me the opportunity to visit my friends over at the local Ducati dealership, MotoCorsa, followed by a wonderful gastronomic experience at Serratto Restaurant on the corner of NW Kearney Street and 21st Avenue. If you’re ever in the area, be sure to check them out.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and my flights back to good, ole Indy were uneventful and pretty much on time. The airline even missed a final opportunity to heighten my travel experience by not losing my luggage!
Anyway, it looks like winter has hit us again with frigid temperatures and snow flurries, so it’s back to bench racing and checking out upcoming race activities at www.redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg