Daily Takes

People keep confusing the two.

The internet killed the person whose entire value was access to inventory and a booking engine. If your job is “I can book the hotel you already picked,” the internet does that now, for free, instantly.

What the internet cannot do is the part that was never about booking. Knowing which Tower Terrace seats are worth the premium and which are not. Knowing the hotel that turns a 20-minute drive into a 50-minute race-morning crawl. Knowing your group well enough to build the trip they did not know how to ask for.

That is what I do.

I grew up in Oregon. Two thousand miles from Indianapolis. I had never been to a race.

But every May my grandfather would tune in the IMS Radio Network broadcast on a small transistor radio. We would listen to the Indianapolis 500 together. No picture. Just the call, the engines behind it, and him explaining what was happening.

That is where it started.

My first 500 in person was 2000. Every year since.

What I do at Racing Passport is take an event that feels far away and make it feel like yours. The way my grandfather did for me on that radio.

The trips are open for 2027.

The most contrarian thing I tell first-time Indianapolis 500 buyers: race day is not the best day to experience it.

Race day is the cathedral. 300,000 people. The command to start engines. The most electric moment in motorsport. Go once in your life, go on race day.

But the people who really understand the place go for the whole month.

Qualifying weekend, when the cars run on the edge and the grid gets decided. Carb Day, the best ticket on the calendar. The quiet weekday practice sessions when you can hear yourself think and still feel the cars.

The casual fan buys the headline. The 27-year veteran buys the month around it.

Why is the Monaco Grand Prix the most coveted ticket in Formula 1 when overtaking barely happens?

Because Monaco does not sell racing. It sells glamour. Yachts in the harbour. Belle Époque architecture. The one weekend a year the whole sport puts on a tuxedo.

The racing is the excuse to show up.

That is true of every great venue. The headline event is the reason guests come. The surrounding moments are why they come back.

If a 2027 Monaco trip is on the list, the booking window is wider open right now than it will be in November.