Fans tighten belts to feed the Indy habit

May 25, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — For retired auto mechanic Dennis Hiemstra, it’s become a tradition: Packing up the family, making the 240-mile drive south and attending the Indianapolis 500.

To save money in tight times, their 20th trip was a bit different.

Hiemstra, his daughter and four grandchildren ages nine to 16 slept three to a bed in two double beds at a $130 hotel room more than 30 miles from the track. They brought plenty of food from Kalamazoo, Mich., and planned to scale back on race-day mementos.

“We just can’t afford souvenirs, and we’re eating off the dollar menu at McDonald’s and packing our own food,” said Hiemstra’s daughter Chantel, 33, who is a year out of college and still searching for a job as a dental hygienist.

“We ended up all crammed up into the same hotel room. But you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to get here,” she said.

Signs of the recession were evident in Indianapolis long before Sunday’s race.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway laid off employees, lopped two days off practice time and closed a hotel just outside the track’s second turn.

Downtown Indianapolis hotels that typically sell out during race weekend dropped their three-night minimum stay requirements for the weekend.

Still, many fans said they wouldn’t miss the race but conceded they were making different choices about the frills.

For Chad Platt, that meant his 10-year-old son, Zachary, would get only one souvenir from his first 500 — a $20 model of New Zealander Scott Dixon’s No. 9 car.

Father and son rose Sunday at 6 a.m. so they could make the drive from nearby Plainfield, Ind., to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in time to get free parking in the infield.

To save on the costs of vendor food, they packed their own lunch and sat eating M&Ms and potato chips in the shade of a tree before the race started.

“We’re going to buy one sandwich for ourselves — the rest we brought,” said Platt, 43.

Speedway spokesman Ron Green said the track stuck with its basic advertising campaign but emphasized the race’s value for families. Reserved seats for Sunday’s race ranged from $40 to $150, he said, and unlike most sporting events, the track allows fans to bring in coolers and picnic baskets.

“You compare it to the Super Bowl, the Masters, it’s one of the most affordable major league events in the world,” Green said.