[Jims5543]

Wow! I had a completely different experience. I went to the inaugural Homestead 500 in Miami I think it was in 2001. The crowd was drunk and rowdy. The start of the race was the best all Thirty something cars roaring past the start/finish on a flying start. From there it was progressively boring. I predicted Tony Stewart would win half way through the race.

The funniest part had to be the fans that would cup their hands over their mouths and yell to the cars as they went by. I never laughed so hard.

I also attended the Indy race there the next year. The crowd was a LOT smaller the stands were basically empty. I noticed the Indy crowd to be a lot more refined. Men in slacks much prettier women as well. The crowd appeared to be more European and Latin than your typical Bud drinking good ‘ol boys at the NASCAR race.

One incident at the Indy race that stays in my mind. There were 2 guys in the stands that were pretty drunk and wearing NASCAR T-shirts. They were pretty obnoxious in general obviously there because they held season tickets. There was a very attractive women sitting about 3 rows in front of them with her boyfriend / Husband. Her thong would peak out of her slacks when she sat. These guys must have taken 30 pictures of her. They were yelling at her and carrying on like fools. It got so bad the couple got up and moved. Most everyone around these guys were flashing dirty looks at them which seemed to tickle them.

One piece of advise if you attend the Indy race. Bring earplugs. Your day will be ruined if you do not. The Indy cars are so loud they hurt.

We were lucky when we attended there was a Rolex race right after the Indy one. We had Pit passes and got to speak with some of the Indy techs after the race. One Magnetti Marrelli tech was really cool and explained to us what he was doing. He was analyzing a car that had blown its tranny. The Rolex crews were cool too. We had 10x more fun watching the Rolex race than the Indy and NASCAR combined. Roundy round doesn’t do it for me.