Like seriously, its a summers day in England!

To the important thing, the events around the Month of May in Indy, it's more than just a race and you really get the feeling of a community spirit and pleasure in Speedway towards the event as a whole and one of the events is the Festival on Main Street. The Road shuts down, bars, live music, games, slides, zip-wires and throwing a bag in a hole game. It is also a great chance to sample the local brewery's and beverages...

Roll on Saturday morning, Race Day! Bright, not so much, breezy, very. nippy. A huge shout out to Dan from Honda HPD, your hospitality has been gratefully appreciated, especially the proper sausages, not those flat things!

So race wise today, all four series are on track, Pro Mazda first, USF2000, Indy Lights and finally the Angie's List GP of Indianapolis. It is something of  mixed up grid, combined with the long fast straight going into the ridiculous bottle neck of turn one, just a suggestion, open it up a little to give an opportunity for cars to at least complete lap one.

Just a side note, qualifying for the 500 will be live on BT Sport next weekend, details on times and channels to follow, again, thank you to everyone who gave their time and input into our survey a while back, again our coverage keeps getting better!

First race of the day, Pro Mazda, if you have been following the series so far this year, you won't need me to tell you who won... 

Pato O'Ward.

Enjoy the sights, sound and, well not the smells of a practice pit stop from Scott Dixon

Will be having a car unveiling for Andretti Autosport and Townsend Bell shortly, pics to follow, meanwhile USF2000 starts race two. A win for Parker Thompson who in is second season  looking like a good bet for the title. Onto Indy Lights, Ed Jones on pole but suffered and early setback, which led to Dean Stoneman taking the lead and battled hard with Serralles and Urritia. This series is top notch and no reason not to watch in the UK, highlights are on BT ESPN during the week after the race. So it continued all the way to the closing laps when Serralles made a mistake went off the track allowing Kaiser to jump into third place. Stoneman took the chequered flag making it a double British success in Indy Lights this weekend, chances of adding another victory in Indycar? Maybe?

And the moment Dean Stoneman took the victory...

Today's main event, the GP of Indianapolis, Pagenaud was on pole and was the class apart today. There was a brief moment when you held onto this dream of an Indianapolis boy winning at the Speedway when Conor Daly lead after the long (shock) caution for a spinning car and a flappy bit of sponsor banner on the main straight. I was fortunate to have been at the top on level 10 in the Pagoda, man them views! Man, them winds! But a cracking race, so much passing around the course that the TV cameras missed, it must have been the Menards bright yellow! So Simon's great form continues and we move onto the 500, let the fun begin.

If you are going to pick to have at least two Drivers in any press conference, you want James and Helio, they did not fail to deliver! 

There will be no diary for the next few days, I'm in Chicago watching some Cubs, listening to some blues and being a good tourist going up the towers!

​Out.

'.. Yes fine thank you', followed by me failing to properly pick up my (overly condensed by the way) glass of coke spilling it everywhere, over everything. Here's a racing related restaurant review, the 1911 Grill located at the new SI Karting indoor track owned by former driver and team owner, Sarah Fisher. I can happily recommend the pulled pork sandwich, and using a napkin to dry the glass beofre making an idiot of yourself.

So to today, Friday, I think, on track action picks ups with a few more practice sessions and qualifying for all four series racing this weekend. Qualifying for Indycar is late in the day, followed by the Indy Lights race one.

​Early stirrings behind the scenes and in the garages are interrupted by the lucky souls taking two seater rides around the track, maybe, one day...

Time for a Chevy and Penkse press conference, talking about the history and the connection with Chevy and the speedway. Chevy choose who will drive the pace car, it was the obvious choice for them being 100th race and 50th for Team Penske, it took him one minute to confirm, then worked out how he could use it to his advantage! The strategist never sleeps...

Finally caught up with more people, namely this time the three from the IndySportcarPodcast, its available on iTunes and a multitude of other places and Frank, Missy and Jay will be recording some shows from the track this weekend. Now, there is an upcoming press conference at 1:30, something with a major announcement, I wonder.....

Indycar is to return to Watkins Glen on Labor Day weekend in September as a replacement for the doomed Boston GP event. The deal was struck out over two weeks, Michael Pintrup, track President of WGI challenged someone to beat that! Scott Dixon also at the press conference, also a three time winner at the track was happy with the return, saying he just loves the 'old school road courses', who doesn't Scott, who doesn't.

Onto qualifying and the fast six shoot out wasn't the top six as you may have expected, a good mix of teams and engines, from a British perspective we had Jack Hawksworth in with a shout of taking the pole, but no one in the end could stop Simon Pagenaud who set a new lap record on the road course. Simon's form this season has been irresistible, sumptuous and all the other words.In the end, with only one set of used reds, jack will start tomorrow in sixth, but he was really happy with the result.

Quickly followed by the first Indy Lights race of the weekend. DuBrit Ed Jones started on pole and lead from the start being chased down by Dean Stoneman. Then there was a restart, then chaos ensued. Jones lost the lead, dropped to third, nearly fourth, but Urritia and Stoneman made mistakes and within a few corners was back in the lead, further back in the field we saw a huge amount of overtaking, and a few near misses. But to the chequered flag, Jones won, Urritia in second and Dean Stoneman in third, who despite the podium still felt frustrated, but with this race feels to be in a better position to progress in race two tomorrow. A pictures from the pitlane from race one.

And the winning driver at the crossing the Yard of Bricks

... It would be fun they said...

Had my first Mug n Bun, yeah nice, not quite sure why the slice of bread in the middle but hey ho! And then while sitting quietly enjoying the onion rings, hat tip to @HalfShaftBlues, bloody nice too, and then I had my first proper Spring time mid west weather experience! The rain was like herds of wildebeest sweeping across the plain, to quote Basil Fawlty. And the onion rings were blown away. Any, to the track...

Naturally waking up at 5am is not a thing for me, but thanks to 24 hours of travelling it helped. And why not spend the morning the best way you can in Indianapolis, no not at Charlie Brown's, but at the track. Nothing like a triple unveiling to get things moving at 8:30! To SPM, where we saw Aleshin with his new Doom livery, promting me to recall the Private Fraser quote. If you don't know, youtube...

So the unveiling of the New Mikhail ALeshin car, plus the SPM Marotti Racing Servia #77 happened, plus one very cool pimp my garage effort by SPM, even more open for the fans to see the action in the garage. 

On the way back to the Pagoda, saw a little British presence, Jack Harvey won the Freedom 100 last year and has been honoured with a picture on the IMS wall of Fame. 

The cars hit the track at 11 for practice, I hit AT&T for a SIM, more later!

Being a furriner, as some say, the best way to follow Indycar is connecting with people on social media, it's been a great day so far actually putting handles to faces and 'real' names, so to Shay, Jason, James, Mike, John, Matt, Eric et al... nice to finally meet you!

So the afternoon rolls around, and the temperature drops, clouds gathers, and it deposits in fine style forcing an early end to on track a close for the day.

Tonight will be my first AirBnB experience, and I'll be back with more from the track and beyond tomorrow!

Hello and welcome to my first update from the 100th Indianapolis 500. This first update comes from England, and will probably not make sense given I have been awake since 9am yesterday morning and for those who follow me on twitter overnight would have seen first hand evidence! 

Anyway, it's cold, wet and foggy here at Heathrow, something I am expecting when I land in the US, yep, shoulda brought a brolly. Due to land in Newark sometime this afternoon, evening, morning? Then onto Indianapolis, I am not a sleeper on coaches planes, or even trains to come to it, thankfully it will be a short rive from the airport... the airport hotel! For those reading this in the US, you know my details and how to get hold on me I will have a US cell number so if you want it just shout. My love of America has been influenced by Indycar and Man v Food so if you want to share that, let me know.

So for the next three weeks I will bring you the stories, news, moments, sights, sounds and cultural highlights (not including Carb Day) from the Speedway and around Indianapolis, hey, I may even throw in a little Chicago and St Louis for good measure, particularly if the Cubs keep winning, if they start loosing, call me Billy.

Over the coming weeks I will have the opportunity to sit down and chat with a number of drivers and well, a Scottish-Italian named legend too so if there is anything you would like to know about the race, the events, ongoings just let me know and I can share it all with you. I will also attempt periscope around the track so give me a follow there (find it by searching @indycaruk), like the Facebook page and on Twitter too. The cars hit the track early tomorrow so assuming I wake up, I'll catch you there, on on here, somewhere, let the month begin.