The Centennial Era Balloon Festival took place May 1-3, 2009 in honor of the first competitive event in IMS history, more than two months before the famed 2.5-mile oval was completed. In June of 1909 a gas balloon race was actually the first competition to take place at the then under-construction speedway. Now 100 years later balloons have returned to the speedway for another history making competition. Thirty-three balloons participated in the 100 year race commemorating the 100th anniversary of racing at the World Famous Motor Speedway.
Team entrees included United Van Lines, Mayflower Transit, Energizer, AVocal ON, Target, Post Cereals, Jasper Engines & Transmissions, Farmers Insurance Group, Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, Oliver Winery, Applebee’s International, AT&T, IMTS, and ReMax. All competed for the famed trophy from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The remainder of the field was made up of private entries from across the country.
The 100 Year Race, flown on Sunday, May 3, was won by Paul Petrehn flying a Cameron Racer with a 12.5 inch drop, second place was Travis Vencel flying the Oliver Winery Lindstrand 105 with a drop of 13.5 inches, and third place was David Jaques flying the Post Cereal entry with a 3 feet 3 inch drop. Competition was close with 26 of 32 competing balloons making drops within the scoring area.
The Founders Race, a pre-race held on Saturday, May 2nd was won by Al Hansen of Winamac, Indiana with a drop of 26 feet. Saturday’s Founders Race took place over the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon with 30,000 participates running and walking through Downtown Indianapolis with the balloons over head.
The weekend balloon festival also included two balloon glows that were free to the public and drew large family crowds to the infield of the Speedway. Early in the week the weather conditions had heavy rain which threatened to ground the events but the rain lifted late afternoon on Friday just in time for the first glow.
Balloons and spectators ventured through the wet ground for a closer look at the glowing balloon spectacle. These events gave the public a chance to walk among the balloons and talk with pilots and crews.
Photos provided by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
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