INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Many tent campers are ready to ride out the bad weather coming towards Speedway this race weekend.

They say that camping is a crucial part of the 500 experience.

“The camping experience is part of the Indy experience as far as I am concerned,” said Paul Zube, an IndyCar fan from Big Rapids, Michigan.

Dave Schrock, Zube’s friend from Big Rapids, agreed with the sentiment.

“We’re right next to the track,” Schrock said. “I can hear race cars right now. Exciting. I can just walk right over to the track and not have to deal with traffic.”

“Just the atmosphere,” said Chris Benjamin, a Pennsylvania fan. “You see so much here that you wouldn’t see if you stayed in a hotel.”

These campers are experienced with a few decades of experience between them.

They said they plan to stay but will just grab their stuff and bail if the weather gets unsafe.

“Well the plan is, I think we have a good setup,” Schrock said. “This little tent has a big canopy over it so that’s cool, but we can jump in my car if we have to.”

“I really don’t worry about it too much,” Benjamin said. “If it happens, it happens. I mean, there’s ditches around. I’ll go hide in a ditch.”

“If it gets real bad, we’ll make a game-time decision, but in the past, we have tented in the rain before so we will see it through,” Zube said.

Ultimately, these guys said they enjoy making friends and memories while camping race weekend.

“We’ve met some really great people here from all over the country and internationally, and get to swap some stories of all of our times at the track,” Zube said.