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This past weekend saw the 4th yearly pilgrimage down to Indy. Keen, Sarah, Calvin, and I packed our bags (Kelly had to work) and headed down I-69. What for? The “27th Annual World Figure 8 Championship race (Indianapolis Speedrome)”:http://www.speedrome.com/, of course.

*Note:* I’ll be posting pictures from the race soon in the “photo gallery (photos)”:http://www.kyleandkelly.com/gallery/index.php, and adding in pics to this post where appropriate.

*Another Note:* If you’re familiar with the concept of Figure 8 racing, feel free to skip the next 3 paragraphs.

h4. The Setup

For those not familiar with Figure 8 racing, the concept is simple. Instead of racing in the traditional oval, the racers follow a figure 8 pattern. Yes, this means they cross over in the middle, typically going between 70 and 80 MPH (approx. 110 to 130 KPH for our Canadian friends). No, they don’t crash all the time–only occasionally, and much less than most newbies assume. The cars are able to drive away from many of the crashes, meaning that the racing doesn’t have to stop.

The World Figure 8 Championship is a three hour test of endurance–most Figure 8 races are much shorter, with the longest races in the normal season lasting one hour. I’ve been bringing as many friends as I could drag along from “Calvin (Calvin College)”:http://www.calvin.edu/ down for this racing spectacle since my junior year. My sister began bringing her friends down from “Taylor (Taylor University)”:http://www.taylor.edu, so we usually end up with a full house.

We got in late Friday night, and went out to the race track just after lunch on Saturday. Saturday during the day were practice and qualifying sessions; the hardcore race fans scoped out the best drivers while everyone else relaxed in the field behind the track. Enough already, on to the race!

h4. The Race

The first hour of racing was the best Figure 8 racing I’ve ever seen (Keen, Calvin, Mel and Katie, feel free to agree or disagree in the comments). It was filled with close calls at the cross-over, with two or three cars weaving through an oncoming pack. My feeling is that the skill of the racers involved continues to climb. Used to be that the top five drivers would display daring and skill, crossing through packs of cars unscathed. Now every driver in the starting field seemed willing to take those same risks.

As the race continued, attrition took its toll and after two or three incidents some of the top drivers began leaving the track. One point I should note here for newbies: this race is different from other races, in that when someone drops out of the race, the field (the number of cars on the race track) doesn’t necessarily decrease. Twenty-eight cars make the starting field. When the first car drops out, the twenty-ninth qualifier is allowed on the track. Since the winner is whoever completes the most laps after three hours, you could conceivably win even if you didn’t make the starting field. Additionally, cars that had to leave after an accident are allowed to return if they’re able to repair the damage. So it’s possible to have more than twenty-eight cars on the track.

As good drivers began to drop out, slower cars began to replace them, generally driven by less skillful or experienced drivers, so the second and third hours of racing were generally not as frenetic as the first. Even if the skilled drivers had stayed in, maintaining the pace of the first hour would have been difficult, if not impossible. That being said, the last two hours still had some really good moments, many of them provided courtesy of Jesse James of “West Coast Choppers (West Coast Choppers)”:http://www.westcoastchoppers.com and “Discover Channel: Monster Garage (Discover Channel: Monster Garage)”:http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monstergarage/monstergarage.html fame.

The big news this year was that James would be joining the team of Bobby Douthitt (the 2000 Figure 8 Champion) to help build his car. There was also much speculation as to whether or not James himself would drive in the race. James did indeed drive in his Car #666, but his rookie debut was, well, rookie-ish. He had a good car, and looked like one of the faster cars in the straightaways, but his cornering was not smooth at all during qualification. His qualifying time wasn’t fast enough to make the starting field, so he had to wait until about 45 minutes into the race for his chance.

On the track, his cornering was still problematic, and he ended up making contact with a lot of other drivers. It was not an uncommon sight to see a car spin out in the corner with #666 somewhere near by. One of the funniest moments of the race came when James nailed Douthitt (who’s car James had worked on) at the crossover. At that point Douthitt was one of the top three and regularly challenging for the lead. Both cars drove away from the accident, but Douthitt dropped out of the top three and never climbed back in (he eventually left the race after one too many collisions).

Besides Douthitt, the other two constantly at the top were the Tunny brothers, Bruce and Bill. Bruce was in the lead until a freak accident during a yellow–probably one of the weirdest events of the night. Rodney Sizemore, also one of the top five drivers at that point, was involved in a crossover accident and was driving off the track when his car stalled at the pit entrance. The pace truck was driving out on the track to pick up Bruce and begin leading the field around under the yellow flag. Bruce was coming through the crossover, approaching the first turn and the entrance to the pits. He swung wide on the entrance of the turn to move around some slower moving traffic that was getting untangled and rear-ended Sizemore!

From our seats, the impact didn’t look all that bad, but Bruce’s #1T sat there for awhile. Safety crew members came over as he emerged from the car, looking shaken. He removed his helmet and appeared to be naseous, eventually sitting on the track before an ambulance came over to take him off. According to the “Speedrome’s web site (The Speedrome)”:http://www.speedrome.com/, Tunny was forced out of the race by an electrical fire in the car (though we never saw any flames or indications of a fire).

Bruce’s brother Bill took over the lead and never let up from that point forward. Aside for a short stretch where Douthitt lead the field, the Tunny brothers lead the entire race. Bill took the checkered flag for his first win in 25 years of World Championship Figure 8 races.

And we went home quite happy.

written by Kyle