How to beat the GAS man!
Finally, a full week of beautiful weather in central Indiana. I was able to park the H3 Hummer for most of the week and make the daily commute with two wheels. It’s still pretty amazing to spend over $10 to fill the tank of a motorcycle, but that really beats the $75 it takes to feed the Hummer its full meal. Starting a typical workday off with a ride definitely gets you in a great state of mind. About the time the joy of the morning ride is starting to wear off, you start thinking of a good, winding route back home for the evening commute. Wow, am I glad the dreariness of winter is finally gone away.
This past weekend a local motorcycle accessory dealer, Adam’s Biker Outlet, hosted an open house at their store in Carmel, Ind. The Brickyard marketing team had asked if I could bring my Honda CBR1000RR Repsol up to Adam’s for this open house event. Sure, what a great way to spend what turned out to be a glorious day of sunshine, good cooking, great music and new friends. If you ever what to get your motorcycle detailed, I can highly recommend Adam’s detailing team. This customer was very satisfied with his motorcycle detail experience! 
I ended up bringing the Honda Repsol Nicky Hayden replica bike and a new ’08 Yamaha YZF R1 Fiat M1 replica I’ve recently added to the stable. I figured what better way to represent this September’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP front grid than putting two former MotoGP world champions, Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, together at Adam’s open house event.
Not to be shown up, Mel Harder from the Brickyard popped in with a very appropriate vehicle to pace this fast crowd, the 2008 Corvette that will be pacing this year’s Indianapolis 500 in May. Now that was quite the display of both two-wheel and four-wheel sports vehicles for Adam’s guests to enjoy.
Well, it’s now the start of another week. The dreary weather is back with both rain and frost. I’m back to the four-wheel commute, wondering once again if spring is ever going to stay around for a while and if the Hummer still likes the GAS man.
See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Gathering Before the Green Flag
Just in case you didn’t know, racing in Indiana is serious business! We Hoosiers take our racing seriously, and our passion for motorsports is historic. This was evident the weekend of Jan. 19-20, 2008 as the Indiana State Museum in the White River State Park located in Indianapolis opened its doors to the Indiana racing community to help kick off the 2008 racing season.
The “Racing in Indiana: Gathering Before the Green Flag” was a great opportunity to bring all forms of racing in Indiana together for the local community to share and experience.
Here’s an excerpt from the Indiana State Museum’s press release: (click here to see it all)
Hosted by Mike King, chief announcer for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, “Gathering Before the Green Flag” invites fans to sit behind the wheel of a variety of racing vehicles, from IndyCars to go-karts and dragsters, and see other great racing vehicles such as motorcycles, boats and vintage race cars. They’ll meet racing insiders Derek Daly, Donald Davidson and some of their favorite drivers, and be able to take part in a rare symposium of experts.
“It’s every race fan’s dream and an opportunity for newcomers to see what racing is all about,” said Mike King of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network. “Hoosiers are the greatest racing fans in the world, so holding this event at the Indiana State Museum is very fitting, especially since the IMAX® is here.”
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway brings a century of racing history to the Hoosier experience. It was only fitting for the IMS exhibit to highlight the upcoming celebration of this historic milestone with the running of the Red Bull Indianapolis GP in September 2008. Since this time of the year in central Indiana is not ideal riding weather, my Honda CBR1000RR Repsol was enlisted out of winter hibernation for show duty in the museum gallery for the weekend.
Wow, for a couple days, I was able to share a little bit of my experience with the local community for the “Racing in Indiana: Gathering Before the Green Flag” celebration of speed.
See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Red Bull Indianapolis GP Media Day
Well, the big day finally came. On Monday, July 16, 2007, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway rolled out the red carpets to the world, announcing the big event to be held on Sept. 14, 2008. The Red Bull Indianapolis GP.
Ralph Sheheen shared with the crowd gathered at the Speedway, to the surprise of many, that the first motorized race of any kind here at the world’s most famous racetrack took place on Aug. 14, 1909, and it was a motorcycle race.
The day’s events actually started earlier with a gathering of over 200 motorcycle enthusiats behind the Murat Centre in downtown Indianapolis. Kenny Roberts Jr. joined the group on a Honda CBR1000RR borrowed from Dreyer Honda. I offered KR Jr. to trade bikes and ride the Hayden Repsol replica. He declined!
It was an awesome, police-escorted ride led by Kenny Roberts Jr. from downtown Indy out to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with everyone corralling into the Tower Terrace area for the big announcement.
Mr. Sheheen then started the press conference, which led into the showing of the video taken at the track earlier in the month, the experience I shared with you all last week.
The highlight of the day had to be the signing of the agreement by Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George to bring MotoGP to Indianapolis.
After the world experiences an Indianapolis Motor Speedway event, this will be just the beginning of a new tradition for the second century of IMS’s history.
Wow, what a day, what a moment, what an experience!
See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com
Greg
Do you wanna be in the movies?
Welcome back to week two of “The Experience.” Last week I mentioned how I became involved with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the upcoming Red Bull Indianapolis GP.
Actually, this goes back to a very special day in November 2006 at the MotoGP finale at The Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana in Valencia, Spain. The 2006 MotoGP championship had come done to this final event. After having lost his lead in points with a series of mishaps late in the season, Nicky Hayden had to finish well ahead of Yamaha’s multi-time champion, Valentino Rossi, to secure his first world championship. The day ended up being his, and Nicky Hayden left Spain that weekend with the 2006 MotoGP world championship in his possession!
Three weeks later, Honda contacted each of their North American dealers, announcing the release of a 2007 CBR1000RR Repsol replica motorcycle in celebration of “The Kentucky Kid’s” world championship. My good friends at Dreyer Honda South accepted their allocation of one unit and immediately gave me a call with the news. Wow, what was I to do? I had to have it as it represented the pinnacle of the dreams of a young, 10-year-old racer I held up in the pits at Indianapolis Raceway Park over a decade ago.
Let’s flash forward to the spring of 2007. After a long, cold Indiana winter, the Repsol replica showed up just as the weather was starting to break. In the meantime, I had acquired a set of replica Repsol race leathers as well as Nicky’s Arai replica helmet from his 2005 victory at the Laguna Seca MotoGP in Monterey, Calif. Are you starting to get the picture? I am a serious Nicky Hayden fan!
Well, anyway, the rumor mill had been brewing pretty long about a possible event coming to Indianapolis when I got a voice mail from somebody at IMS. Again, I’ve got to thank my great friends at Dreyer Motorsports for passing on to the IMS staff member their knowledge of a serious Nicky Hayden fan on the south side with just the motorcycle they were seeking for their media program for an event yet to be confirmed.
Lights, camera, ACTION!
My day on the stage finally came the first of July. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny summer day with the temps in the low 90’s! Not bad if you’re on a beach, but how about on the front straight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in full race leathers with most of the five hours “posing” for the cameras! Indy 500 veteran Stephan Gregoire, the old guy in the video, was clad in 1910 vintage leathers on a very cantankerous old machine for an equally long period of time.
Well, the final product of my experience that day is the Red Bull Indianapolis GP Event Introduction video that opened the official media event on July 16, 2007. Since then, many others have experienced this little piece of my experience as we continue our countdown to Sept. 14, 2008.
See you all next week on redbullindianapolisgp.com.
Greg
Introduction
Hello all, and welcome to my first installment for the redbullindianapolisgp.com blog. Actually this is my first-ever blog, so this should be a lot of fun in the months to come, sharing my activities leading up to the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP.
My name is Greg Sickmeier, and I am a lifelong resident of the Indianapolis area. In fact, I spent my first six weeks in this world across Georgetown Road from the front straight of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a long, long time ago. Maybe this explains my love of racing and my need for speed!
A bit about me: I am a graduate engineer from General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich., now known as Kettering University. I’ve worked for Allison Transmission, another Speedway company, for 33 years in the service, sales, marketing and training organizations. James Allison, our company’s founder, is also one of the founders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1908. I just can’t seem to get to far from my roots on Georgetown Road!
During the early 1980s, I raced a Honda CB750F in AMA Pro Superbike and ran a lot of WERA and CCS events during a 12-year time period. At a few of the later events I attended, the Hayden’s were showing up, with Tommy, Nicky and Roger Lee in tow. They were on 125’s, and the youngest ones couldn’t even reach the ground. Someone had to hold the bikes up to get them started and catch them in the pits when they came back in. Earl’s Race Team was a very shoestring operation, with Earl’s old Ford box van packed to the ceiling. Wow, who would have known that all three of the boys would have turned into such great riders and sportsmen!
Another midlife crisis
I drifted away from motorcycles for a few years and have played a lot of ice hockey over the past 14 years or so. A couple years ago, I bought another street bike, and now this impulse purchase has turned into another serious midlife crisis! Four Honda’s, three Yamaha’s and two Ducati’s later in the past three years, I am thoroughly enjoying this second go-around with the motorcycles and the local sport bike scene.
Do you wanna be in the movies?
My involvement with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Red Bull Indianapolis GP started last summer with a phone call from a senior IMS staff member about borrowing my ’07 Honda CBR1000RR Repsol replica motorcycle for a promotional event. Boy, was I excited when I found out what was in the works! That photo shoot turned into a full-blown video session on the “Yard of Bricks” at the track. Yup, that’s me in the Red Bull Indianapolis GP Event Introduction video on the Repsol with Stephan Gregoire on the 1910 Thor. Check it out!
In future installments, I’ll share some more on that experience, along with many other experiences since then and many more experiences to come as we all count down to the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 14, 2008.
I hope you all stay tuned each week here on redbullindianapolisgp.com for “The Experience.”
Greg