My sister in law scored me some tickets for Mid Ohio for the Indy and PWC races. I'm super psyched. I've been to a few Indy races but never a road course, and I've recently been watching the PWC on tv and I've really been enjoying it. I'm thinking of camping there, bringing the grill, all of that, but I have to clear that with the wife. (Shes not as big of a fan of sleeping on the ground as I am) This is my first time at Mid Ohio, does anyone have any tips for me to get the most out of my experience there?
It's a nice track. You'll be camping outside but once you're inside you can walk all over the place. The track layout is conducive to getting a good look at all the corners with a short hike between them. I've never been for the Indy race so I have no idea how big the crowd gets. We went for the Rolex series up until this year and that was a nice, manageable size of crowd. We set up our van in the treed area of the infield, complete with lawn chairs and coolers. It's handy to stop by the van for refreshments and food as we travel to and from various corners.
Take ear plugs or muffs. Thunder Valley has that name for a reason. Small cooler bags that hold 4 drinks are handy. Freeze some water bottles and put one in with three cold ones and take them with you as you walk.Lightweight lawn chairs are handy.The Indy race has reserved seating in the grandstands,so you won't be able to just park your butt anywhere like you can on other race weekends.
It's a thoroughly enjoyable facility, especially if this is your first visit to a road course.
Mid-Ohio is an awesome facility, and a few years ago I did the Indy/ALMS/World Challenge weekend. Yeah, bring earplugs. Also, check the schedule as World Challenge might be the first and/or last group of the day.
Lots of great places to watch there, too. The hill that fronts Turns 6-7 is good.
My two boys and I will be there on Saturday if you want a guided tour. The crowd for the Indy weekend is big but there is plenty of space as long as you stay away from the place David is talking about. That hill will be covered with people fairly early in the morning.
We also park in the infield under the trees and just walk around. I would suggest getting a Pit Pass, I think they are $15 or so. Walking around there is one of my favorite things about going to a race live.
We made it there and back. Saturday it poured rain. The girls I had with me were pretty good sports about it until the lightning came, then they were ready to go. We ended up staying at the Knights Inn in Mt Gilead. It wasn't too bad, the rooms are nicer on the inside than they look on the outside. Sunday was a much better day. Beautiful weather. We got there early, about 8:30, and drove right in with no delays. Not much later there were cars lined up with long waits to get in and it stayed that way all day, so I recommend getting there early. We started off roaming around the pits/ paddock area which was awesome. The PWC cars were out in the open where you could walk right up to check them out and take pictures. There wasn't much access to the indy cars. I saw Michael Andretti, which I thought was pretty cool. They had five races that day starting at 9:00 am. Three road to indy classes, the pwc gt cars, then the indy race. The pirelli race was awesome to watch, and even more awesome to listen to. We spent most of the day watching from the end of the keyhole, which was a decent spot. We actually left early, once the indy race got going the drivers pretty fell in line and there wasn't much action we left. I could foresee a two hour wait to get out of the parking lot, another two hours to get home, then kids to pick up from grandmas, so we split while we still could. Overall I had a great time, and I will be back next year.
Glad you had a good time. We made it up on Saturday just prior to the PWC race. We stayed until the rain let up some, by then all three of the kids were wet and cold so we called it a day. My oldest and I were really looking forward to the PWC races so we were bummed about the weather but oh well, there is always next year.
