We were invited by Ray Skillman Chevrolet for the opening day festivities. Over 125 5th gen. cars were there for the 2 laps around the track to open up practice and hand over the keys to the new pace car.

There was 2 '09 festival cars and 1 Centennial Indy car there.

Here's another pic...hope we aren't taking your job away from you Lee!!

We found the festival cars in the car lot.

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing & posting them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: IPC 93,

Very nice!

WOW! Look at all of the 5th Gens! I doubt that many were ever in one place before

2 weeks!!!!!

Thanks for putting up those photos Sarah! I had to work so I missed the event. Don't worry about taking away my Job, my goal is to get lots of people to put as many photos as possible of the Pace Cars.

What number was the other Festival car from 2009?

I saw this one on Facebook from the 500 festival. If anyone here is on Facebook I would recommended becoming a fan of the festival, Chevy Camaro, the different drivers and IMS. So many updates it's hard to keep up with. A smart phone will help.

Lee it was car #3, was that the one they gave away at the Colts game? He said he bought it from Estes, I got his name and phone #. He also has the Indy Edition, Indy-Brickyard #6/#38,two 93's, Three 82's, and one 1969 Pace cars. He does not have any license plates for his 09 festival cars, I told him about this site, he does not use the internet his wife does a little. He is a farmer like us.

Yes, that's the one from the colts game. The guy that won loved Camaro Pace Cars but wanted the money and traded. Glad we learned who has it. We need him here on the 2010 Page! In Indianapolis I do all my farming on the internet.

Yeah we had a pretty good day as well. Andy is in Florida tending his father so his friend Tom drove his '69. I had to lead the pack as we drove from the museum at 10:55 (my '67, Andy's '69 and the museums '82 and '93) out on the track in the south short-chute and drove around to park against the outer pit wall just north of the yard of bricks in front of the pagoda. I heard somone honking from inside turn four as we were headed for pit road (I later learned it was Hairston). We then ended up standing around with Mayor Ballard and his wife, IMS CEO Jeff Belskus and his wife, and IMS Commercial CEO Terry Angstadt among a few other big-wigs (my son Matthew had a nice convo with Terry) while we waited for the 125 Camaros to do their two laps. Then the '09 and '10 pace cars came into the pits for the key presentation ceremony. When that wrapped up we had to get the cars off of pit road quickly as the track opened for pratice in about 10-15 minutes. The highlight and a first for me, and I wish I'd though about it since I'd turned off my camera, was we had to drive down pit lane to exit the track and most all the race cars were on pit lane warming up their engines and mounting up their drivers. I was freaking out a little not wanting to run over anyone as there were lots of people and activity out there, and by the time my camera powered up we were off of pit lane entering turn one. DOHHHH! My wife had the other highlight, Brian from the museum drove the '82 pace car out, but the guy that drove the '09 stayed out on pit road, so Brian drove the '09 and my wife Kim got to drive the '82 back to the museum.
For some reason the speedway didn't put any pictures/video of the key presentation up this year, there were photogs all over. Lee did see my car (@ 2:09)in some interview footage of Jeff Belskus though. I was standing on his left while that was shot.
LINK
We then had to get to the volunteers lucheon for my son. We never did run into Dennis or his family, but did run into Jim Hairston in the garage area later in the day before we left. As you can see he brought his '69 not realizing they had wanted all 2010s in the track laps, but they let him go anyway!
I do have some picture I could post if anyone wants to see them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: MLakin,

Thats real cool Mike. I'm getting real jealous of all you guys going this year.. Next year for me for sure hopefully

Post away Mike!!!

What a great experiences for you Mike, and your wife and son. All this talk about the festivities, and all the plans, makes those of us not able to go wish we were!

It is great to be able to read about it and see all the pictures, and hopefully some video if possibly. I've never been there. But the Texas Motor Speedway amazed me the first time I went there. And that doesn't compare to Indy.