Pinks All Out at O'Reilly Raceway Park

Hey everyone! Let me introduce myself…My name is Katie Gammon and I am the new Communications Intern at O’Reilly Raceway Park. I’ll have to start off by saying “wow” to an amazing start of the drag-racing season. As you may be aware, PINKS All Out (Speed TVs hit television show) has been touring the country and are visiting Indy’s own O’Reilly Raceway Park this weekend. I guess you could say as an intern, I’m in the right place at the right time. What luck for my second week on the job!

So as today’s drivers make their way to the track to test and tune for tomorrow’s show, I was fortunate enough to walk around, take in and capture the exciting and energetic atmosphere of the track this weekend. While some spectators anxious to see the cars on the strip, others more interested in the show (Seriously, I was asked about ten times if I was a PINKS crew member…ha!) But, as for the drag-race enthusiast, you couldn’t ask for a better event… the weather: beautiful, the crowd: massive and more importantly, the cars: wicked (and for those who don’t own a Katie-Glossary, wicked =awesome)

… I must be in intern heaven. Just take a look for yourself.















Intense, right? Well, there’s certainly more to come, but that’s it from me for now. I’m sure by tomorrow morning I’ll have plenty of more exciting info., updates and stories as I continue my experience at the O’Reilly Raceway Park. Oh, and don’t forget to stop by the O’Reilly Raceway Tent tomorrow from 12-8PM, and come say hi! Until then…

I’m out!
~Katie



(And now for a shameless plug: O’Reilly Raceway Park tomorrow. You’ll wanna be there. ) Details:
Gates open at 9:00 AM
Time Trials start at 11:00 AM
Main feature will begin at 8:00 PM
And don’t forget…food, drinks and exhibition run makes for an all-day event.

Bobby East looks towards TourHendricksCounty.com Night Before the 500

Bobby East completed a two day test leading up to the TourHendricksCounty.com Night Before the 500, presented by Comfort Suites of Brownsburg, and we were able to catch up with him before the test.

What are you working on and looking forward to?
We are just fine tuning a couple of things on our Ford racing Esslinger and looking forward to having a good car on a long run that is what we are going to focus on.

What are the keys to running well and winning at O’Reilly Raceway Park?
You got to handle really well because you are in the corners so long and you got to not be hard on your tires which sounds really easy to do but it’s not.

What is your best memory from racing here?
Last year was a really good year one, winning the Night Before the 500. I loved winning the Silver Crown race out here but so far last year was a pretty good one.

How has the season been going?
It has been going pretty good so far. We have two wins so far and second in the points and down a bit there but we are happy. We have a lot of confidence in our stuff and have a lot of racing left and things have been going pretty good so far.

How was being on the Bob and Tom show?
That was fun it was a cool experience those guys are cool and funny. It was just a cool deal.

First oval race of the season

The first oval race of the 2009 racing season is taking place tonight, Saturday, as the Advance Racing Association returns for another year. These racers are people that truly enjoy the sport of racing and spend countless hours getting their equipment to perform to peak level. These people might be your co-workers, neighbors, friends, family, and if they invite you out to the track for a night of racing take them up on it. They always put on great races and would enjoy people seeing you in the stands.

The oval is a busy place during the month of May as we have another ARA race on the 16th and on the 23rd we have the TourHendricksCounty.com Night Before the 500, presented by Comfort Suites of Brownsburg, USAC Midget Series race. This is the 64th running of the race and driver such as A. J. Foyt, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon have all found victory lane during this event.

All of these events are very affordable for families and many take advantage of our hill outside of Turn 1. People bring blankets, chairs and picnics and make memories with friends and family during the course of the night. As I child I spent many a night watching racing at the track and now I enjoy watching families take advantage of this during the course of the year.

IMSTEA High Mileage Challenge

On Monday the Indiana Mathematics Science and Technology Education Alliance (IMSTEA) made their yearly visit to O’Reilly Raceway Park with the running of the High Mileage Challenge. On the left is a shot of two Nationwide cars during the race in 2007 and on the right is one of the IMSTEA cars that were here. Just looking at the two you can tell it is something that is out of the norm for us. Seeing all the hard work these students put into their cars is truly amazing.

Also the competitors and their families are so nice and appreciative of what we do. I had four or five different parents and students stop me and say thanks for letting them hold the event at the facility.

President Jim Thompson took a few minutes out of his day to explain the event.

I was very curious with an event like this what is the biggest thing he hopes the students walk away with?

“I want the students to get the knowledge of how to weld together math science and technology and how to get something done. Also they learn how to get things done in their community because they have to go out and get sponsors and raise the money to build the cars. Those two things are the most critical.”

Some of the schools have been involved in this event for a handful of year and I also wanted to know how long it took to complete the cars?
“The schools that have done a previous event can get there cars done is a school year they usually start in September and get it ready to go here in April. First year schools actually won’t make it the first year because they will try to get their car together and won’t get it done but they will bring the kids out here and they will get motivated and then they will come back the next year and they will be able to come back year after year.

Jim has been involved with this event for a handful of years and has seen it grow and the cars change through the years.
“The development of the cars from the first year we had this we had a car made of 2x4s, needless to say it didn’t do very good on mileage. Now we have several carbon fiber cars and seeing that progression over the year is neat. We also started at 270mpg and last year we were at nearly 1200mpg and this is pretty neat.”

The last thing we talked about was if students had taken what they learned and have they applied it to their careers.

“We have a few kids who go on into technology education they will say they learned how to do technology education by doing this. I have had a couple of kids who went into engineering schools and they say it was a big help because it helped me learn how to do something practical because you don’t need to know a lot of thermal dynamics to do this. It helped them to learn something practical.”

Winners were Greenfield Central High School in Stock in the car they created that got 1048.79 mpg.

Mater Dei High School won the Unlimited Class with a car that got 1293.09mpg.

More photos can be found on our Flickr page

NHRA Lucas Oil race coming to a close

The NHRA North Central Lucas Oil race is rapidly coming to a close and only a few cars remain to take to the track.  It has been a great weekend of racing with temperatures in the mid-80's and a great car count. 

The track has been in great condition and much of the credit goes to a great drag crew we have.  Chuck D. and John D. inspect the track after each run and sweep off any debris or clean up any fluid that has gotten onto the racing surface.  

Also remember early in the season when I showed you all this picture and we talked about how rubber was yet to get onto the track?  

Well take a look at it now!  You can see where each tire track heads down the track and the rubber that it lays down.  This helps the driver have the best traction possible and helps them remain 'In the Groove.'

The IMSTEA High Mileage challenge will be at the track in the morning and you will be surprised about what cars are on the oval in the morning. 

NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing series at O'Reilly Raceway Park

The NHRA Lucas Oil drag racing series is at O'Reilly Raceway Park and we will be putting up photos and information up from the event as the weekend progresses.

Today was a test session and let racers from across the area get valuable track time leading up to the race.

Video from the test can be found on our You Tube channel.

NHRA North Central division Lucas Oil Race at the track

The 2nd annual Season Kick Off Celebration comes to O'Reilly Raceway Park and will be a perfect way to kick start the racing season. We have had racing events this season but this event will be one of the biggest to date and will feature two great groups that will visit the track.

Taking place on Friday will be a special tribute to former division photographer, Bob Hesser who passed suddenly early this month. No matter how busy Bob was during an event he would always take a second to say hello and was genuinely a nice guy. Be sure to join us as we honor him.

Racers For Christ Family Fun day will take place on Saturday. They will do tours of the pits, arts and crafts and teach the sport of NHRA drag racing. Also on Saturday, Boy Scouts from across central Indiana will be at the track during the day during the Circuit of Fun Event.

The NHRA North Central division Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series features screaming fast Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny cars and both are some of the fastest cars that race at the track during the course of the year.