Community Day pickups

[ajwest92]

This past Wednesday, I went to IMS for Community Day. It was stellar as usual...

After some traffic delays and getting rerouted, I got to the cathedral of speed and did the usual sights; the obligatory museum visit, check out the souvenir stands and garages for driver handouts. I did get my ticket for the Penske hauler signing for AJ Allmendinger, Will Power, and Helio Castroneves. I did get these items signed:

2002 Indy 500 program signed by Helio Castroneves--race winner



2012 1:24 AAA diecast signed by AJ Allmendinger



I also got a signed handout of Will Power, but I didn't realize I forgot to pick it up because me and AJ was giving each other fits--"We don't give autographs to Franchitti fans", "You know, I should sign this (windshield) in black", etc. Oh well, it's just a handout. Then I made my way to the three hour-long driver signings at the Pagoda Plaza.

The first session was very chaotic as it was headlined by the Target Racing team of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. They even mentioned as soon as I got into the room that their line was closed, I got in knowing it was all-or-nothing since they were the big names there. It took forty minutes, but I did get both their signed handouts and this beauty:

Dario Franchitti signed 2012 1:18 Indy 500 win diecast



I still had enough time to get six more drivers' handouts as well: Ryan Briscoe, Charlie Kimball, Conor Daly, Pippa Mann, Josef Newgarden and Takuma Sato. The only table I missed was Buddy Lazier, Justin Wilson, and Ana Beatriz, but the time ran out just as I got Pippa and Conor's cards in my hands.

The second session was headlined by the Penske team, so I skipped the Power/Castroneves line and got the other nine drivers' handouts; Ed Carpenter, JR Hildebrand, Graham Rahal, James Jakes, Katherine Legge, Tristan Vautier, Simon Pagenaud, Townsend Bell and AJ Allmendinger (again).

This session had a lot of fun; Blue III, Butler University's mascot, tried to plant a wet one the Indy polesitter--he is a Butler alum--and almost succeeded. Simon told me I needed a new hat. I played along and said "Yeah, it's time to get a new Dario hat." He mouthed "NOOOOOO!" and pointed to his hat instead. Townsend's fedora was stealing the show--it was one of the few pics that I took during the session. And AJ and I renewed our BS session again.

The final session was headlined by Andretti Autosport. I was able to get the first four tables done in 45 minutes; Tony Kanaan, Simona De Silvestro, Sebastian Saavedra, Sebastien Bourdais, Oriol Servia, Alex Tagliani, EJ Viso, James Hinchcliffe, and Carlos Munoz. I got all their handouts and a photo of me and Simona signed by Simona.

As I got into the line of Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay, but they closed the line right in front of me because they reached the time limit on taking fans. Ten minutes later, Marco signs for the last fan and sees me at the start of the line. He motions to me and tells me to come on down. He was giving the line boss a little bit of grief because they shouldn't close the line that early. After getting their handouts signed, I thanked Marco for thinking about the fans and headed out the door.

The final tally:

2 signed diecasts
1 signed program
1 signed photo
31 signed handouts from 28 drivers (if I remembered Power it would have been 32/29) and the signed handout from the honored National Guard soldier for this weekend's race via Panther Racing.

And everybody wants to know why I look towards Indy in May when everyone looks at Charlotte...

Thanks for looking, Alex

[bouncer]

Nice pickups.

[Ripken8fan55]

AWESOME lookin goodies Alex!!! Congrats my friend!!