Indy 500 Revelations

I always wanted to take a trip to the famous Indianapolis 500 Race since I was a youngster. My Father went a few times when he was alive. I wanted to take him after I finished college, but he passed away shortly after my graduation. Since it never happened, I decided to go this year(2007), just to see what it was all about. Let me be among the many who can say to you: it is the "greatest spectacle in racing". It is fast and loud. It has surpassed my attendance at the Olympics, the Masters, the World Series, the NCAA Final Four, the US Open Tennis and Golf.

The famous "oval" is 2.5 miles around, basically a rectangle with rounded corners and not alot of banking. Only a small strip of bricks remain near the Start/Finish line, since the course was covered with asphalt years ago. You cannot see the entire course from any location, except maybe the famous Pagoda, now sponsored by Bombardier (Learjet). The infield contains the famous "Gasoline Alley" where they work on the cars, the Indy 500 Museum, four holes of the Brickyard Landing Golf Course, and lots of roads and buildings.

The museum houses many milestone racers from years past, including the famous #14 driven by Bill Vukovich from my hometown in Fresno. During my Mom's childhood, she remembered the Russian kid down the road, who regularly ran out of gas in front of their family farm. He would get a mayonaise jar of gas from my Mom's family and tear off into town. She said he would never amount to anything!!! He won the race twice in a row!!!!

I had purchased a box seat in the main Paddock area on the main straightaway. It is directly across the pit areas, so you can see all the pit action throughout the race. But it is equally fun to wander the infield by walking through an under track tunnel. The sponsor and VIP tents, merchandise trailers and buildings, VIP parking are located here. They do a red carpet treatment here like Hollywood for the celebrities: Payton Manning, the Grand Marshall and honorary Starter, Patrick Dempsey (pace car driver), the King (Richard Petty), Greg Oden from Ohio State, Apollo Anton Ohno, Florence Henderson, and the hateful FBI agent from Prison Break were part of the show.

They say that about 250,000 people attend this race, making it the single largest attended sporting event in the world. The track is located in a non descript town called, of course, Speedway, Indiana. It is still owned by the Hulman Family, who made their fortune selling Clabber Girl baking powder. The track is about a 20 minute bus ride from downtown. The shuttle bus costs $15 for the roundtrip, and was certainly easier than driving, and trying to park.

The Speedway allows spectators to bring coolers full of beer, and other drinks into the area. The result is a big party atmosphere, but generally fans are fairly well behaved. These people are serious about their racing, and seem pretty true to their midwestern values. The same event in California would be chaos or mayhem.

The excitement builds as it gets closer to 1pm. The IRL race officials are still trying to dry out the track from the morning showers. They use all the support and emergency vehicles, along with propane powered blowers to dry the track. It builds again when the 33 million dollar cars are slowly pushed out onto the track from the pit area along the main straightaway. It also looks like it needed about a thousand people to perform this task!!!

When the cars are set, we all sing "Back Home Again in Indiana" sans Jim Nabors, whose illness did not allow him to attend. Florence Henderson sang America the Beautiful, and I forget who sang the National Anthem. But the 4 jets flying over reminded us of the excitement to come. Then thousands of balloons are released and a big cheer begins. It is race time. The moment is here. Mari Hulman George says: "Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!"

You hear the engines coming to life, and then cannot hear anything else, even the person sitting next to you. The 33 Honda engines shake your body and soul, and the excitement continues to build. The deafening sound requires you to wear ear plugs, which they also sell at the track vending trailers and booths.

I would never have imagined the thrill of listening to a Honda engine. Back in racing's famous heyday, the engines were Offenhauser, then Ford, then Cosworth with an occasional Chevy. Racing has changed, and new technologies from racing have become part of our personal auto safety.

The cars begin to circle the track, the pit crews ready themselves behind the safety wall, and the pace car begins to get them lined up. The 33 cars are 11 rows of 3, with the fastest in front. In fact, the pole sitter, Helio Castroneves, had some problems getting his car started. He is one of the last to leave and gets a big cheer. Finally, they are all going and more excitement builds.

After about 4 practice laps, they are finally ready. The pace car pulls off the track, the green lights and green starter's flag are ready. Everybody is standing, almost jumping up and down with excitement. As they come around turn 4 to the home stretch, the speed has built to over 220 mph, and Helio leads the 33 cars to the start. Peyton waves the green flag, and off they go. It seems you never get tired of watching the cars zoom by. You can also see race progress on several large screens throughout the track. The groan of the crowd also indicates when an accident has occured.

It seems most of the crowd roots for the favorites, like Helio, Tony Kanaan, the Andrettis, and of course Danica Patrick. Other famous people owning cars are AJ Foyt, Roger Penske, the Andretti family, and David Letterman. There are also alot of low budget teams that barely get into the race. A few even mortgaged their homes to afford a chance to race.

The race results can be found in the paper. But the experience of attending, the excitement, and the noise, those are my memories of the Indy 500 Race. Even the 3 hour rain delay near the middle of the race did not send people home. It was a great trip and a lifelong desire to attend. I can see now why my Dad loved racing so much. I can see why 250,000 people love racing so much.

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