IndyCar drivers meet fans at Woodfield
Hundreds of IndyCar fans flocked to the parking lot of Woodfield in Schaumburg Thursday afternoon to meet their favorite drivers.
For some it was a lively preview to their attendance of this Saturday's Peak Antifreeze and Motor Oil Indy 300 Race at Joliet's Chicagoland Speedway, while for others it was a good enough replacement.
Mike Masters came over from Lyons to see all 29 drivers because he's going to be working on Saturday. But he hopes to DVR the race and get home to see it before the outcome is spoiled.
Most of those who came to the promotional event co-sponsored by Izod and Macy's were lifelong fans of motorcar racing. And many brought along children destined to become lifelong fans themselves.
Mike Hammond brought his whole family, including his daughter after her first day of kindergarten. Living in Shorewood, they had a longer trip to Schaumburg then they will to Saturday's race.
Hammond said he really wanted to make his daughter's experience of her first race complete by taking her to meet the drivers she already looks up to, like Danica Patrick and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Patrick, who came to the event from another at the Boost Mobile Exclusive Retail store in Mount Prospect, will join the ranks of a record five female drivers in Saturday's race.
Among them is Sarah Fisher, who at 29 is already a legendary pioneer in the sport.
"When I started, I was the only one," she said of her early races a decade ago.
Today, she's delighted to see the number of fathers bringing their daughters to the races.
Fisher was only the third woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and has since become good friends with one of her inspirations, a much earlier pioneer, Janet Guthrie.
She said Guthrie's example was one of the reasons she felt able to pursue her dreams in a male-dominated sport.
"I didn't feel like the pressure was from my peers but from within me," Fisher said.
She remains a standout as the woman with the most starts in the Indy 500 and the first woman driver to also own her team in the IndyCar series.
Fisher said she very much enjoyed events like Thursday's in which the drivers can mingle easily with their fans and each other.
Also there, gleaming under the late afternoon sun, were six historic race cars from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
These included the bright yellow Marmon "Wasp" that won the first Indy 500 in 1911, 1950s "Green Hornet," the 1961 Bowes Seal Fast Special which A.J. Foyt drove in his first Indy 500 win, and the blue and yellow Sunoco Special from 1972.
Fans were also invited to take turns as the "lollipop man" and cheer on their favorite team in a series of IndyCar pit stop challenges while waiting for the majority of drivers to arrive.
Pit crew leader Jeff Sinden said fans appreciate the more upclose look at the job of these essential team members.