The Indianapolis 500: Rain Poncho Heaven

30th April, 2012 - Posted by admin - 3 Comments

The Rain Poncho works at the Indy 500

The Indianapolis 500 has always been a huge deal to my father. He hasn’t missed a race in who knows how long. Not only does he go to the race, he goes to all of the events leading up to the Indy 500. He goes to the concerts, the qualifiers, the weird little festival days (at least I think they are weird), and everything else that he can possibly attend. Once the race is over, he goes straight home and throws in a tape so he can record the race when it airs in Indiana later on race day (they have it on time delay in Indianapolis and the surrounding area so that people from Indiana actually go).  He typically watches it when it airs on TV, and then at some point during the week he will watch the race AGAIN on the copy that he recorded. We are talking left turns for 3 hours… constantly. Then of course he watches (and records!) the ceremony at the end where all the drivers are awarded their checks and whatnot. Basically my mother becomes a single mom for the month of May (that’s a joke).

As a kid I was always forced to watch races during commercials of football games and became familiar with the sound of the cars flying by the cameras on turns. My dad has always bought two tickets each year for the race, sometimes more than that. So, as I’m sure you can imagine, I have been to the race several times. It’s great, and I am not a racing fan at all. I couldn’t care less which driver is with each car, or who is a rookie, etc. But being at the race is always fun, and it’s the best place in the world to be on that day of the year. It’s really pretty cool to know that you are attending the biggest event in the world on that given day.

So I have established that I think the race is quite the show and entertaining even to non race fans. What I haven’t mentioned is how absolutely miserable it is when it rains. Standing outside in the bleachers, with all these middle aged men with no shirts on, in the pouring rain is not a good time. Not only that, but as soon as it starts raining you know that you might as well get comfortable because you just earned another 3 or 4 hours at the track. The cars can’t drive on any amount of water of course, so everything has to dry up.

I can remember being probably 10 years old, a little annoyed that I was dragged away from my Play Station to see the race, and then the flood gates opened. This was my introduction to the rain poncho (Yes just about every post is going to involve a rain poncho). All I remember is being totally miserable until Mom (she probably went to help Dad keep me under control) handed me the rain poncho. After throwing the incredibly attractive and appealing rain poncho on, I can remember still being irritated, but significantly less miserable. So then began the waiting game of watching asphalt dry. The rain  poncho that kept me sane was only a PE rain poncho (garbage bag material), so it wasn’t like the ones that we sell here at McCampbell Enterprises, but the rain poncho did the trick.

So there you have my first personal experience with a rain poncho, quite the tale really. I am not so sure that my father will appreciate my poking a little fun at racing and its fans. This year I am the lucky family member who gets to go to the race with dad (Go James Hinchcliffe and Takuma Sato!!). I am actually really excited to go, but I am hoping to avoid a repeat of the rain poncho track day. UPDATE: 2012 Indy 500 story

Zoom over to the website: www.rainponchosonline.com

3 Comments

JC

May 3rd, 2012 at 6:44 pm    


Do they make something similar to a poncho, but instead of for rain it’s for irritating younger brothers at the track? Just curious.

admin

May 4th, 2012 at 3:01 pm    


The easiest way to go about it is probably to just punch him out. But you missed your chance, because now he could whoop you.

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May 21st, 2012 at 8:33 pm    


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