Zoopolis 500 - The Greatest Spectacle in Tortoise Racing

Today, Andrew and I decided to take advantage of the Indianapolis Zoo membership we bought this year to attend their annual Zoopolis 500.  This event is always held the Wednesday before the Indy 500 and this year was the 33rd running of the Zoopolis 500.  We were a little worried about the weather when we were driving through pouring rain on I-69 to get there.   At one point, I even completely lost sight of the road.  But luckily the storm passed and we had perfect weather the whole morning at the zoo.  We had a great time and enjoyed a special day together!

Winners drink milk 

Posing with the 500 Festival princesses

Buttercup, the American Dairy Association mascot 

Kiburi, one of the Indianapolis Zoo mascots 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief announcer Mike King talks to race car driver Tony Kanaan about Sunday's race

The pricesses and mascots parade in before the big race

At last, here come the 5 radiated tortoises that will race

The tortoises in their parade wagon

Loading the tortoises into the starting gate

And they're off!

Go go go!

Will it be Marco or Scott for the win?

Its a tie!  Cheers from the audience pick Marco as the winner

Tortoises don't drink milk, so the pit crew takes on that task for Marco.  (Meanwhile, multiple TV cameras are filming every second of this guy drinking milk.)

The reward for the tortoises is lots of fresh fruit