The Brickyard

What more can I say?  The iconic racing track known as The Racing Capital of the World, has been hosting racing events since June 5, 1909.  Best known for the Indianapolis 500, but also home to NASCAR's Brickyard 400 and the Red Bull Indianapolis GP motorcycle race (using the road course formerly used by Formula 1 cars from 2000 to 2007), the track was originally built by a partnership as a testing ground for the rapidly improving automobile industry.  Carl Fisher, a native Indianan who would eventually develop Miami Beach from swamplands to an exotic resort, and who would form the Lincoln Highway Commission to build the first drivable highway across the United States was the spearhead of the partnership that included Arthur Newby, head of the National Motor Vehicle Company, Frank Wheeler of the Wheeler-Schebler Carburetor company, and James Allison who would later start up the firm destined to become the massive Allison Engineering Company.  These men joined forces to build a "motor parkway" on which long straightaways and gradual turns would permit any automobile to be stretched to it's limits.

Ironically, the first competition held at the track was the National Championship for gas-filled balloons, and took weeks to complete, as the winning distance took the "airship" deep into the southeast.  A year later, the Wright Brothers brought several biplanes to the track and the pilot Walter Brookins took one to the unheard of, record setting, height of 4,938 feet!

The first automobile race was held on August 19-21, 1909, on a track made from crushed and powdered rock, which lasted only through that first weekend.  Shortly thereafter, 3,200,000 ten-pound street paving bricks were laid in a bed of sand and mortar.  The entire job took only 63 days of round the clock work and served well for the next 25 years.  Eventually, starting in 1936, paving of the track with asphalt was started. Completed in 1961 (except for a three foot wide strip at the start/finish line), the track has been maintained with occasional repaving since then.

The inaugural Indianapolis 500 was held on May 30, 1911, with a total purse of $25,000!  It was won by Ray Harroun, driving a racing version of a Marmon passenger car, at a speed of 76.6 mph in six hours and forty two minutes. Harroun's car had the first ever rear-view mirror because he believed that he would be in the lead!  Carl Fisher determined that the 40 qualifying cars would be too many for the traditional standing start, so he decided to lead the race cars one lap around the track with his passenger car and then release them to the flagman.  It is believed to have been the first mass rolling start for any automobile race anywhere in the world!

The track survived WWI, the Depression, and, though shut down and almost demolished, survived WWII.  Track ownership has changed twice, from the Fisher consortium to Capt Eddie Rickenbacker of WWI flying fame, and then to the famous Anton Hulman, Jr, who effectively rebuilt the track from scratch to get it ready for the 1946 race. The Hulman era gave rise to the "Gentlemen, start your engines!" phrase that had to be modified to "Drivers, start your engines!" with the entrance of women drivers.

Enough with the trivia.  We returned to the Speedway this morning in time for a Grounds and Museum Tour that took us on a bus around the track and into the media and timing buildings. It turns out that a 2.5 mile oval track is huge!

From the back stretch, the "Pagoda" looks like a toy, but it's 130 feet tall!

This is the building where race officials check timing, positions, and all track and pit operations during a race. 

We had to continue the tradition of "kissing the bricks"!

The entire track surface is grooved for safety, as you can see on the bricks.

We went up into the timing tower where we could see the start/finish line and the entire front straightaway.  An interesting tidbit is that the camera photographing the finish can take 10,000 pictures a second!  No cheating here!

In the museum, race cars and engines from all eras are on display.  From the Offenhauser days to the Turbines of the 70's and the Honda's of later years, the engine area is fascinating.

Most of the Indy 500 winning cars are on display, at least the cars still in existence.  Many have crashed, and some are still owned by the enterprises that sponsored them.  One car that struck a cord with me is the car driven by Barney Oldfield in the 1914 and 1916 races.  He didn't win, but in 1916 averaged 78 miles per hour.  That's including fuel stops and tires, so he was racing at about 100 mph when on the track.

A number of cars are on display that have some nostalgic feelings.  Craig Breedlove's Spirit of America is there, Danika Patrick's "Rookie" car, when she started 4th and finished 4th in 2005 with an average speed of 227 mph, and the 1969 winner driven by Mario Andretti and owned by Andy Granatelli of STP fame.

A picture on the wall shows the effort and stress involved with racing in the 50's. It's a picture of Bill Vukovich after winning the 500 for the 2nd consecutive time in 1954, having won the first time in 1953. 

Our last stop at the Hall of Heros was at the Borg-Warner trophy, where each year the 500 winner's name and face is fixed to the trophy.

A quick stop at the Mug 'n Bun down the street from the Speedway for a lunch of grilled cheeseburgers (a hamburger grilled in butter like a grilled cheese sandwich), root beer, vanilla malt (with extra malt!), and an order of onion rings that was a meal in itself, led us to the highway home.  On the way past the Speedway we passed the Allison transmission plant.  Covering at least 4 city blocks, the plant is huge.  This is the descendant of the firm started by one of the original builders of the Speedway!

Sorry to go on and on, but the history and pageantry of this racetrack is enormous.  It has been a part of our Memorial Day activities for years, and to see it up close and personal is awesome! Thanks for bearing with me!