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Have you ever had a vacation with a recurring theme? This is such a story. I used to be a Formula One fan. I know watching 20 cars go round and round a winding track for two hours could be considered torture for some, but I got a real thrill from it. In 2005 I decided to fulfill the fantasy: it was time to see a F1 race in person - to sniff the petrol, smell the rubber and give my eardrums an experience to remember. Time to be track side!

I trolled the internet to see which venue I wanted experience. Monte Carlo? Shanghai? Perhaps stay nearer to home for the British Grand Prix. Of course I wanted good seats for such a motoring extravaganza. All the seats in all the venues were upward of $600. Are you crazy?! Then appeared Indianapolis: best seats in the house - $130. I'll have two of those, thank you very much. I had spent 7 years growing up in Indiana, so this could be a bit of a homecoming. My parents live in Brainerd, Minnesota which allowed me to couple my racing fetish with a back-to-my-roots experience.

My wife and I have a few timeshares. I came across the fact once that there was a timeshare in South Bend, Indiana. "What a stupid place for a timeshare" I thought. But now, ah, we could swap one of our resorts for a week in South Bend and drive down to Indianapolis on race day. And so we did. Cost for the swap? $130.

We booked flights from London to Chicago and up to Minneapolis, but getting from Minneapolis to Brainerd was a bit of a problem. We finally managed to book on separate tickets from our international ticket. Minneapolis to Brainerd tickets? $130.

We arrived in South Bend and spoke to other residents of our excitement about going to the USA Grand Prix. "Oh you folks don't want to drive down to Indy on race day. No sir. You'd best get a hotel down there the night before the race. It's hell getting to the Brickyard on race day". We took the gentleman's advice and booked a hotel nearer to Indy. After all, it was only $130.

Race day and I was all psyched up. We got there early and let the anticipation grow for hours. Finally the cars came out and got into position after giving me a good whiff of petrol and rubber. There we were, at the start/finish line, directly across from pit row, and a good view of turn one (where historically all the wrecks happen). Despite being $780 down in $130 installments, life couldn't get any better. The cars spun out for the parade lap. After they passed turn one, we watched their progress around the track on the giant

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