IMS - Day # 13 - Traffic Control - 8th Day, aka: Pole Day!

Saturday was Pole Day, or Qualifying Day at IMS.  Our clock in time Saturday read 5 am on our schedule.......the alarm drove us from blissful slumber around 2:50 am....truly iniquitous as I wrote earlier.

I cranked out Friday's blog entry whilst sipping a couple cups of coffee, then ate breakfast and started getting ready for another day on the traffic line.  Saturday the gates opened to the general public at 6:30 am, but workers and other related traffic were already streaming through Gate # 2 when we were dropped off at 5 am to begin our day.  It was, of course, still dark.  By 9 am we had already been on the job 4 hours, and I needed a NAP as I took my 30 minute break.......suddenly TLE was waking me up....I had fallen asleep sitting in the folding chair.

At 9 am began 60 minutes of practice laps by those contending for Pole Position.....I walked up the ramp around 9:30 on my next break to watch, and saw a 229.808 mph lap posted....that's about as close to 230 mph as you can get.  Within another 30 minutes it started gently raining, and practice had to be stopped.  Even though it was raining traffic still continued to poor into the infield area of  the IMS.  By 2 pm the infield parking was full, and we had to start turning away traffic.  Only those with reserved parking, and, of course those working for race teams could enter for the rest of our shift.  I think it was harder work turning away people, and explaining to them that the infield parking area was full.  Of course, there are a number of parking lots all around the perimeter of the track.

We continued our 30 minute shifts, and eventually the rain stopped, but left behind high humidity.....one of my favorite things. That coupled with the sun coming out again made for a sticky afternoon to be sure.

TLE and I finished our last shift on the line at 5:30 and headed home for the evening.   It was a very busy day, and our first 12.5 hour day, and we are both starting to feel the fatigue of 8 straight days......we are now half way through our 16 straight days of work.   Starting Sunday our check in time is 5:45 am each day, and 3:15 am on Race Day...May 26th, and then we will be free once again.  We both were in bed a little after 8 pm.

I'm sure you are wondering...."who won the Pole?"......to answer that question in two words.....Ed Carpenter with a four lap average speed of 228.762.  The Andretti team won the next 3 positions.....they have 5 drivers.

Thanks for stopping by