The Official Blog of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Every Memorial Day a flood of memories comes back to me.

I grew up on the west side of Indianapolis. In high school we would skip school and go to Carb Day and have a blast. We really didn’t watch much of the track action to be honest. There was too much to watch in the infield!

I remember walking through the infield and seeing Mario Andretti’s transporter and watching them load it.   We started talking towards the guy standing by the transporter and realized it was Michael Andretti himself!  This was before he raced at Indy and he was working for his dad. He was a very nice guy, he answered all our questions. You would have never guessed he was racing royalty. It was just like talking to my neighbor. This was back when the Coca Cola field was filled to capacity days before the race.  In the mid to late 80′s.

Balloons on Indianapolis 500 Race Day

A few years after high school I met my girlfriend,  her grandfather was a car owner. Most of her family was involved with the team. Her brother and dad were members of the pit crew.  It was also interesting to hear the gossip going on behind the scenes. They would always chat about what they were struggling with to get the car setup and ready to compete. The guys basically lived at the track the whole month, sometimes working around the clock. It was pretty intense. A few times when I was at the shop I was asked to help them load the transporter before they headed out to a race. I remember bracing myself to pick up a rear wheel as if I was picking up something heavy and the wheel practically flew up in the air. I was amazed something that big could be so light.

The whole month of May was special. Lots of energy in the city, tons of nightlife, race parties etc.  Nonstop fun.  It wasn’t uncommon to see celebrities out on the town during the month of May.

Years later I was forced to move from Indianapolis after being laid-off from my job. Since then I have traveled all over the country as a computer consultant for the last 12 years. I try to make it back to the 500 every chance I get. It always reminds me of all the great times I had when I was younger. When the balloons fly and the fighters fly over – there is no way you can resist being proud to be American. To this day, the spectacle of the Indianapolis 500 is one of the most electric things I have ever witnessed.

I’ve been to the 500 several times since I left Indy. I always park in the same complex that I lived in back in the day and walk the same path I did back then. I love taking in the sights and sounds of the race. Of course I have to pick up some White Castles and some King Ribs to make my trip complete. I can’t explain it, but my eyes always tear up during the invocation. I will always miss it. Sitting in the stands, getting burnt to a crisp. And having not a care in the world.

When I am unable to make it back to Indy for the 500, Memorial Day is filled with mixed emotions.   It’s just not the same watching it from 1000 miles away. I remember when I was a little kid we would sit out in the back yard listening to the cars engines roar in the distance (probably 10 miles away) and listening to the race on the radio.

It was a great time to grow up in Indianapolis. Thank you for the memories and giving me one more thing to be proud to be a Hoosier and most of all, an American.

- Chris

Although I grew up in Alabama, my father was a Hoosier.  In fact, you could say that he was a Hoosier’s Hoosier.  My great uncle once told me that the definition of a Hoosier was a guy dribbling a basketball around the Brickyard looking for mushrooms.  Could have easily been my Dad!  Anyhow, when he and my Uncle returned from WWII, they started attending the Indy 500.  For many years they watched from the infield, because they could not afford bleacher seats.  I remember vividly hearing of one race where they moved around the infield and everywhere they stopped to watch, a wreck happened!  They definitely felt like “The Flying Dutchmen” that day!

1967 Indianapolis 500

For some years they worked on the safety crew because, by this time, my uncle was the fire chief of Bainbridge, IN.  When they finally achieved some affluence they started getting reserved seats.  They basically saw every race between 1946 and 1970, and missed in 1971 only because my sister graduated from high school in Alabama during race week.  They were back again in 1972 but missed again in 1973, when I graduated.  The two of them had practically photographic memories from races and could describe details of individual races with such precision that you’d swear you had been there yourself.

As I was growing up, attending the 500 with my dad and uncle was a rite of passage for all of us kids, and 15 was the magic number.  On May 29, 1967, however, the night before the race, my dad told me that I was going to get to go the next day.  I was only 12!  I didn’t sleep a wink that night and watched the race get called for rain with Parnelli Jones beginning to dominate the field in the #40 STP Turbocar from Sec 20, Row LL, seat 5 in the Paddock.  We were back the next day to watch the race resume and I’ve been hooked ever since.  While I was in college, several times we would leave Chattanooga, Tennessee, drive all night, drive into the line to park, watch the race and then drive back to Chattanooga to go back to school!  For many years, I watched from the infield and even took my new wife to the race on our honeymoon.

For the most part, the only races that I’ve missed since then were because I was stationed overseas with the army, from 1981-84, 1991-1994 and 2000-2003.  I can vividly remember being on duty in Germany and listening to Rick Mears winning his second race on the Armed Forces Radio Network in 1984.  When we returned from Germany in 2003 I took my son to his first race in 2004: Paddock, Box 63, Row H, Seat 1.  I’m now 57, and I hope to see every Indy 500 until I die and when I’m buried, there will be two tickets to the race in my breast pocket.  It runs in my family and it’s in my blood.

-E.J.

The memory that stands out to me most, is meeting Dan Wheldon at Bump Day on Sunday May 23rd 2011.

I had to miss the Indy 500 to attend an out of town wedding. It was the first race I’d missed in about 10 years. Luckily, I had the privilege of obtaining hospitality and suite passes for qualification weekend. I immediately agreed on going since I knew I couldn’t make it to the race that year.

This was the first time I had ever had pit passes for an IndyCar race so it was the first time I got the chance to walk up and down the pits. It was the most incredible experience. I even got to meet drivers Charlie Kimble, J.R. Hillderbrand, and legend Arie Luyendyk that day as well.

A photo in the 2012 Indy 500 program of Andrea hugging Dan Wheldon

But my favorite moment of the day, and of all my time at the IMS, was about to come.

I was sitting on the wall by Helio Castroneves’s pit looking down pit row, and I saw a silhouette of a man standing near the scoring pylon dressed in white. I immediately jumped off the wall and ran down pit lane while yelling to my friends “Oh my god there’s Dan Wheldon!”.  I took off like a bullet leaving my two friends behind me saying “What is going on?”.

I, like so many others, have been a Wheldon fan since his first Indy 500 win in 2005.  It didn’t hurt that he was English and gorgeous as well.  My girl friends and I stood at the entrance of Gasoline Alley trying to say hello to Dan and get his attention.  He smiled and waved. We waited patiently to see if we could get an autograph.

It began to rain and all the drivers and crews started heading for cover, Dan started to walk away, and then stopped, turned, smiled, and headed directly our way. I asked if I could give him a hug, and he said “of course” and he gave me a big hug! It’s sort of fuzzy after that because I believe I briefly lost consciousness for a moment.  My friends and I got our picture with him, wished him luck at the race, and then I proposed marriage to him and he said “you have to talk to my wife about that” and laughed.  He was the nicest, sincerest person.

I listened to the race on the radio and watched the finish on TV, and when Dan won I cried and ran outside screaming that he had won the race!  My favorite driver won the anniversary of the Indy 500!  AND I got to meet him for the first time ever the weekend before!!!

His untimely death broke my heart and many others in the racing community, but I was very fortunate to have met him.  Last year, in the 2012 Indianapolis 500 program was the picture of me hugging Dan. That moment will live forever in my memory and will always resonate within the walls of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

- Andrea

When I was a boy of about 13, my father took us to IMS for the first time. He worked for Colonial bakery in Indianapolis and the bakery sponsored a car in the 500. We went to time trials. I remember not only the speeds of the cars, but the smells and sounds. You could literally feel the cars as they flew down the front straight.  IMS is a literal attack on your senses. Hearing the engines rev and speed down the front straight was like nothing I had ever heard. The smell of the fuel expelled from these rockets on wheels seemed to burn your nostrils. The taste of the bologna sandwich my father brought that day may have been the best bologna sandwich I ever had. Not only the taste of the sandwich, but the promise of a slushy offered on good behavior. At the age of the 13, I discovered what it was like to FEEL the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Every sense of the IMS, coming together to converge, would be permanently inside my heart my whole life. That day set the tone for a passion I would carry with me into adulthood. My father passed away when I was 15 years old. I wasn’t incredibly close to my father. However, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would connect me and my dad forever.

James Proudfoot and his daughter at IMS

In college, I was enrolled in the Photojournalism program at Ball State. Part of the curriculum was to take an internship. My photography professor, Bob Heintzelman, introduced our class to an internship shooting for Reuters International News Service. I immediately showed interest and signed up.  It was in this month of May and 5 more years after that would bring all those childhood dreams back to life. I never imagined I would have ever had this opportunity in life. I was there every day the track was open. Most of the days, it rained. It never washed away my passion for this place. IMS brought me closer to my dad. It reminded me of the time he brought me and my brother to the track, to show us what IMS is all about and why he loved it. What isn’t to love about IMS? It attacks your senses. IMS isn’t just pavement, or bricks, or buildings or even cars. It is a “feeling.” And I never wanted it to go away. I was overwhelmed in the excitement of the history, the rules and the drama that is IMS. I had the opportunity of a lifetime and am forever grateful.  I was able to rub elbows with some of the drivers and mechanics. I was permitted to get so close, one day I inhaled some of the fuel as one of the teams started the car. I nearly passed out. I did not care, although I would not do it again. Being in the pits was a dangerous place to be. Paying attention was not an option. I loved it. I loved every single minute of it. I was sold for life.

In my lifetime, I have had the opportunity to see 15 races with my best friends, my brothers and colleagues. I remember every single race. I remember how I felt. I never had the opportunity to see a race with my dad, but I would like to think he was there with me for every one of them. I imagined him looking down on me with a smile on his face.

A couple years ago, I took my daughter who was 11 at the time, to Pole Day. I was excited. She was excited. For the first time in my life, I was able to pass on what my dad shared with me so many years ago. I had the opportunity to share with her the “feeling” of IMS. The day did not disappoint. She came within inches of meeting Danica Patrick; her hero. We had the best of days together. She was interested in the qualification process, what everything in the pits was. Watching her stand at the fence gazing at the pits, my heart felt happy. My daughter was as amazed as I was when my dad brought me there for the first time. She had the “feeling.” Her senses were attacking her all at once. Everything had come full circle. Like an oval. Like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. For that, I am forever grateful. Once you have the feeling of IMS in your blood, heart and bones, it can never be taken away. Ever. Someday we are going to go see the race together. My hope, is one day, she will take her kids.

– Jim & Autumn

Kevin Paige of Kevin Paige Art walks fans through the creation of an oil painting of MotoGP star Valentino Rossi. New to Kevin Paige Art? Check out all of his posts here.

Kevin Paige of Kevin Paige Art walks fans through the creation of a watercolor print of Marco Andretti. New to Kevin Paige Art? Check out all of his posts here!

Tom Beeler is a lifelong Indianapolis resident and occasional car collector. He is a senior editor with the racing news group, Racing Information Service and is slated to share his Pace Car collection with fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Pace Car Reunion on Saturday, May 21st. Read below to discover more about Tom’s passion for his collection….

Growing up in Indianapolis during May in the 1960s was a special time. Part of that was that excitement was the arrival of the pace cars to the streets of Indy.

I loved it. Powerful cars in garish paint with huge letters painted on the doors and fenders. What’s not to love?

The first pace car to really catch my attention was the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. Sexy, white and “Hugger” orange, cowl induction hood, houndstooth interior, hideaway headlights. To this day, it’s one of the most iconic Indianapolis 500 pace cars, as evidenced by the choice of this year’s pace car.

1969 Camaro

To a child of the ‘60s, growing up in Indy, pace cars were mystic and powerful – emblematic of America’s car culture.

Years later, I understand the marketing, but the appeal of driving a car that looks like it paced the greatest race in the world still makes me smile.

Getting the fans involved in the pace car culture began in 1953, the 50^th anniversary of the Ford Motor Company. The Ford Crestline Sunliner was chosen to pace the 500. Ford anticipated demand for the car and built about 2000 replicas of the actual pace car, the first time this was done.

Two of the most-popular pace cars continue to be the 1969 Camaro and the 1978 Corvette.

It wasn’t until I had the cash to have a “spare” car that I could enter the mystical order of pace car owners. My funds were modest, so I aimed for the 1984 Pontiac Fiero. Pontiac made 2000 replicas of the Fiero pace car. It looked fast sitting still.

1984 Fiero

That year, I bought tickets to the 500 Festival Mayor’s Breakfast, which was then the only way Average Joes like me could drive a lap on the Speedway. Doing that in a pace car made it even better.

Years later, I made the unintended transition into “car collector” when a friend asked me, “Are you still looking for a ’69 Camaro pace car?” Enter my second pace car replica.

In 2006, both cars were parked amongst their brightly-colored, gaudily-lettered brethren along Hulman Boulevard during the first Pace Car Reunion.

Knowing that the centennial running of the 500 would likely bring another reunion at the Speedway, I started hunting for uncommon pace cars to bring.

My third pace car – quite possibly the ACTUAL pace car – was the 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser. This was the pace car given to race winner Sam Hanks and his wife, Alice. “Turnpike Cruiser” – the name screams 1950s America. Parking it is like docking an aircraft carrier.

My 1953 Ford Sunliner pace car joined the herd last year.

The 1992 pace car, which was actually a 1993 model, was the Cadillac Allante. The Allante appealed to me because of its Northstar engine and beautiful Pininfarina body work.

The 1992 Allante

My most-recent pace car is one of the actual 2003 Cheverolet SSR pace vehicles, Vehicle Identification Number 4. Electrical problems the day before the race demoted the car to support on Race Day, but it was the vehicle in which race winner Gil deFerran took his victory lap around the track.

The SSR was missing the strobes, belts and extinguisher, but some detective work and dedicated friends helped get all the requisite pieces reinstalled and running.

2003 SSR

I’ll be bringing four of my pace cars to the Speedway this week. I’m jazzed to see so many pace car owners who share my passion for these cars similarly dedicated to sharing their cars with fans of this great race.

Whether they’re Corvettes, Mustangs, Cutlasses, Challengers, Vipers, Champions, Bonnevilles, Comets, Furies, Adventurers and a host of other model names, they are a big part of the culture of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race.

And a lot of us love keeping them on the road.

Planning to get here early on A.J. Foyt Day (May 28th) to score one of only 100 autograph session wristbands with the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 100th Anniversary Indy 500 Pace Car driver?

To celebrate A.J. getting the keys to the Chevrolet Camaro Pace Car, we’re giving away the very first wristband of A.J. Foyt Day. Avoid the lines, forget camping out the night before to ensure a spot in line at 9:00 am, we’ve got you covered.

It’s simple to win, comment below to share your plans for May. How many days will you be out at the track? Do you come with family, friends, or alone? Do you get tickets in the same spot every year? How many years in a row is this for you?

We’re looking to save a spot in A.J.’s exclusive, 100-person autograph line for the most enthusiastic fan of the Indianapolis 500 — so tell us why you’re it!

This short blog series tells the story of how the Coke Lot event known as Camp and Brew, celebrating it’s 10th year in 2011 at the The Indy 500, began and grew.  It’s alliance with the Brian’s Wish Charity and the $31,900 raised in 9 short years, is in memory and support of a young man who died of ALS. Read the first post from this series here.

My younger brother Jim (yes, he does have a name) had lived in Indianapolis since 1987. When I learned that he would be moving in early 2001 to San Diego, I knew I was too hooked on the 500 to give up. Somehow, I knew staying at a friend’s house would be okay for a year or so, but I had always wondered about the die-hard maniacs we saw every year camping around the Speedway?!? That, to me, looked like something NOT to miss.

Hating to reinvent the wheel, I began to search out advice from those who had actually camped there at previous 500’s. Sometimes I’d look online, but I usually preferred to seek out the personal stories first hand, when I could. The Coke Lot kept coming up as THE place to be.

In Kentucky, on the Saturday before the August 10, 2001 Indy Racing Northern Light Series “Belterra Casino Indy 300″, I met a race fan from Colorado. A fellow IRL CREW Member, Glenn was able to travel to many IRL races that year due in part to his job, and our paths crossed at an interesting point in time.

After we met at the CREW Booth, we sat next to each other that night at a social/dinner at Jillian’s Restaurant in KY and I picked his brain. What to bring while camping in the Coke Lot? What did you wish you had while camping? And so on.

My definitive plan began to take shape from there. We were going to borrow an RV from my parents (Phillis and Bob) and make a go of it in 2002. Glenn was invited and the three of us spent lots of time trying to make it a once in a lifetime trip to remember. Exactly how Glenn, Jim and I figured out the rest of the logistics is at times, a little unclear.

I named it Camp and Brew 2002 simply because it rhymed and I was just glad to finally put that Marketing degree of mine to use. Glenn took off from there and had a banner made, I did up some stickers and we were off and running. We talked it up on TrackForum.com as a friendly place to stop and get a beer and talk some racing. Our official Bail Bondsmen and Camp Nurse was a good friend named Barb, known to thousands of IRL race fans.

The first official year C&B memories included Melissa and her group…The Canadians who camped next to us and, despite having drank all the MOLSEN in the lower 48, they returned and even remembered us in 2003!

A highlight of the first year was the Eureka 4 man tent on top of the RV with a sign next to it on Race-Day morning that read: Sarah Fisher Slept here!  Lots of people took pictures of that.

We were provided freebie Camp and Brew t-shirts from our very good internet friend Rick, aka “Radio”, in Arizona.  An asset that helped us raise $400 for Brian’s Wish, an ALS Charity. We had become familiar with Brian Hall’s fight with ALS and the Brian’s Wish foundation and had plans to meet Brian later that evening. When we met Brian’s parents and his hospice nurse, Barb, at Community Day, we found out that we would have to reschedule as Brian wasn’t having a good day. Unfortunately, we never did get to actually meet Brian because he died early the next morning. The role he would play in the popularity of C&B over the years cannot be underestimated.

Also in 2002, Glenn created, and now maintains the CampAndBrew.com website from Colorado where he lives.   That has allowed us, prior to even the start-up of Facebook, to connect with people and let them know what we are about.

Writer Ralph Kramer grew up on an Indiana farm and saw his first Indianapolis 500 in 1950. In the blog below, Ralph share what the experience of digging through Indy 500 history to create a book was like. Kramer’s books include The Indianapolis Motor Speedway: A 100 Years of Racing and The Indianapolis 500: A Century of Excitement.

The pictures tell the story, upwards of 3 million of them carefully tucked in a vault-like second-floor suite in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Hall of Fame Museum: They are the DNA of 100 years of the Indianapolis 500, and more.

What I learned in months and months of studying the ancient prints, negatives and digital images for two books commemorating the Speedway’s centenary was that there is always more to a story. The archived images proved to be little windows, allowing light on the Speedway’s past. But the light did not always provide a clear picture.

A century ago, what really drove Carl Fisher? And what about his wife Jane? Was she really just 15 when he married her? Or 25, as some say.

We know Barney Oldfield didn’t compete in the first Indianapolis 500 because he had his AAA racing license suspended, but what really kept Louis Chevrolet out of field?

Why were Indy’s official starters through the years such flamboyant dressers?  Why was maestro Harry Miller, whose machinery dominated Indy for much of the 1920s, always wearing a hat? And what’s with Mauri Rose’s ever-present pipe?

Louie Meyer’s mom made sure he had buttermilk to drink after he won the 1936 race. A top gun at the American Milk Foundation who knew opportunity when it was knocking saw the picture, and an Indy tradition was born.  But what about Louie’s mom? Was she at the race?  Not even my friend and Speedway historian Donald Davidson, whose recall of all things Indy is phenomenal, can say yes or no.

There are gaps in the Speedway’s pictorial history. For many years the job was hired out to different photographers whose work is not in the track’s possession. But still, to open a 100-year-old album and place a magnifying glass on the really old stuff in the museum vault is to experience a run of goose-bump moments.

In short, it’s like I was a kid again, listening from a tractor seat to radio’s Sid Collins calling Bill Vukovich’s 1954 win or the late great Speedway chief announcer Tom Carnegie painting brilliant word pictures of the epic lap-after-lap 1960 Rathmann-Ward battle for the checkered flag.

Fans can enter for a chance to win a copy of the Slip Case Edition of Kramer’s book, The Indianapolis Motor Speedway: A Century of Excitement as well as tickets to the Indianapolis 500, Brickyard 400, and other great Indianapolis Motor Speedway items. Find out more and enter to win by visiting the Old Cars Weekly 100th Anniversary Sweepstakes by May 5, 2011.

The Indianapolis 500: A Century of Excitement