99th running of the INDY 500

[Greg Myers]

Didn't realize it was the 99th running.

[Art Anderson]

Hard to believe, I know! But, consider this: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was opened in 1909, an oiled dirt track surface. After a disastrous debut due to the breakup of the surface, the track was paved with 3.5 million brick pavers in time for racing in 1910.

The first "International 500 Mile Sweepstakes" race was held on May 30, 1911, and with the exception of 6 years during both World Wars (1917-18, and 1942-45) has been held every year since 1911.

I am pretty sure that no other closed-course racing event has ever matched this record of continuity.

Art

[Greg Myers]

I have one of those bricks.

[Greg Myers]

What's this ? http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1060544_indy-500-now-goldbricking-is-no-insult

[Longbox55]

Many of the original bricks used came from Western Brick and Danville Brick, both of which were in my hometown of Danville, Illinois.

[Greg Wann]

I think a lot of the brick were "VEEDERSBURG PAVERS" from Veedersburg, Indiana. A town somewhat close to Danville, IL.

[Longbox55]

Veedersburg is about 1/2 way between Danville and Speedway along Rt.136, and they were one of the other sources of brick for it. Those 3 companies were known worldwide for making the best paving bricks, with Western being considered the best overall. Rt. 136 was originally plotted as a route to bring brick directly to the track.

A little OT, but Veedersburg has a very cool old salvage yard, Carters Salvage. They very rarely crush vintage iron, and make pretty good deals on the parts.

[Rob Hall]

Looking forward to watching it..I went to the 100th anniversary one in '11, and plan to go to the 100th race next year.

Tomorrow's going to be a good day for motorsports on TV...Monaco GP, then Indy, then the Charlotte 600..got to stock up on snacks.

Edited May 23, 2015 by Rob Hall

[bbowser]

I'm really looking forward to the race tomorrow. I have always had a soft spot for Indy, having grown up less than 100 miles from there in Dayton. My dad, grandpa, and uncle used to go tt time trials every year back in the '60s, and when I got old enough they took me along. Will never forget the sounds and sights.

[peter31a]

Too bad Hinchcliffe won't be there. Glad he survived that accident.

[Greg Myers]

I remember listening to the race on the radio in the sixties. " Brought to our armed forces over seas on the AFN". Boy was I surprised to get there in the seventies and find out it WASN"T on the Armed Forces Network. Bob Hope wasn't very funny either.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Greg Myers

[Edsel-Dan]

I won't get to see it.

I live too close to the regional Network city

"Salisbury, Md." to be able to add them to Direct!!

Indoor Antenna only picks up the CBS/Fox affiliate

WBOC 16/21

The ABC/CW/M.E. TV has their tower too far north

for that to pick up

Not sure a Large Outdoor antenna would be any better!!

Also won't see Monaco till it repeats on NBC-Sports

Not sure where that "Local" station is!!

Is there a way to watch "On-Line"??

[gbdolfans]

Tomorrow's going to be a good day for motorsports on TV...Monaco GP, then Indy, then the Charlotte 600..got to stock up on snacks.

Don't forget the NHRA at Topeka today!!!

[Art Anderson]

According to my books on the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there were several brick factories involved, given the sheer size of the project, and the relative speed at which the track was paved.

Fortunately, delivery of all that brick was fairly easy--most don't know that until the 1950's, the Peoria & Eastern Railroad (part of the New York Central System btw) tracks ran alongside Crawfordsville Road from the west, down to the intersection of that road with West 16th Street & Georgetown road (now a newly built roundabout). That made it possible for freight car loads of bricks to be unloaded right at the original main gate of the track.

A few specifications for IMS: The track is exactly as laid out in 1909--only the racing surface, and the concrete walls have changed over time, along with entrance and egress to and from the pits (the pits were open to the racing surface from 1909 until they were walled off from the front stretch in time for the 1957 500. The track is 2 1/2 miles around, as most know, with the front and back straightaways each 5/8 miles long, each turn is 1/4 mile, the north and south short "chutes" (straightaways) each 1/8 mile in length. The straights are, as they have always been, 55 feet wide, each turn is 60 feet wide. With the exception of where underpasses have been built over the years, all the bricks are still there! They are, however, buried under more than a foot of asphalt, the first layer having been put down in the four turns for 1933--the front and back straights were the original brick through the 1961 race. Today, if you stand along the fence behind the pits, south of the timing and scoring pylon, watch and listen as an Indy car comes down the front stretch, you will not really hear the cars coming (turbochargers make wonderful mufflers!), but when any race car crosses that "yard of bricks", it will startle you, as sounding very much like a cannon going off!

All the bricks, save for where they were removed for the 5 underpasses built to handle infield traffic (in earlier days, spectator's cars drove OVER the brick surface with there being gates in the wall on the front stretch and the south short chute!), pedestrians crossed over the track on foot bridges. one on the front stretch, one on the backstretch (I've walked over the old front stretch bridge many times years ago).

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the only superspeedway that is completely enclosed by a major city: It was laid out, in 1909 on a 500 acre farm purchased from a Lemuel Trotter, who apparently wanted to retire, get out of farming, by a partnership of Carl Fisher and James Allison (he of Allison Engineering fame, Fisher the entrepreneur behind Prest-O-Lite, later the linchpin of Union Carbide, who also wound up owning AMT/Ertl for a time!) Carl Fisher is also known as the developer of Miami Beach FL, along with being the spearhead of the first transcontinental US highway, the Lincoln Highway.

Down through the past 106 years, IMS has had just three owners: First was Carl Fisher & James Allison and a couple of their partners, then in the 1920's, the legendary WW-I flying ace, Eddie Rickenbacker (who himself had been a race car driver prior to WW-I--his 1915 Duesenberg Indianapolis race car is one of the star exhibits in the Speedway Museum!--and then in 1945, the track was bought from Rickenbacker (who was then the President of Eastern Airlines) by Anton Hulman Jr, of Terre Haute IN, and owner of Hulman & Sons Grocery Wholesalers, their star product being "Clabber Girl Baking Powder"--known throughout rural eastern USA for decades. Today, the Speedway is still owned by the Hulman Companies.

IMS also holds the all-time record for being the largest stadium every built anywhere in the World. Speedway management never publicized the number of seats, so Curt Cavin, sportswriter for the Indianapolis Star set out, back in 2009 to count every one of them: Slightly over 257,000 seats! Prior to the addition of the Grand Prix track, along with a couple of holes of the Brickyard Crossing golf course, the spectator berms in the infield along the back stretch, and the elimination of the infamous 1st turn "Snakepit", it was regularly estimated that race day crowds approached a half-million spectators (many in the infield never really saw much racing--more like the bottoms of their beer bottles!)

Most people are unaware today, that from 1935-the late 1950's, Indianapolis also paid World Driving Championship points. European cars have competed at Indianapolis from the very beginning in 1911--three early winning cars were from Europe: 1913 Peugeot (which engine was the inspiration for every Miller and Offenhauser engine for another 60 some years!), 1914 Delage, and 1915's winning car, a 1914 Mercedes. For 1919, Speedway management had the Premier Automobile Company build several copies of the 1914-1916 Delage winning cars in order to ensure a complete, and reliably competitive field. (While listed as a complete race, the 1916 "500" was reduced to 300 miles, the Speedway worried that there would not be enough durable cars for a full 500 miles, due to the disappearance of cars from France, Italy and Germany during WW-I).

While there was no "ban" on motorsports, officially during our participation in WW-I (1917-18), racing was suspended at Indianapolis, and the infield turned into an airfield for the then fledgling US Army Air Service--the ancestor of USAF). Of course, with the onset of US involvement in WW-II, the Speedway was closed for the duration, BUT there was one 500 mile race! Legendary 3-time Indy winner Wilbur Shaw, then working for Firestone, drove a solo 500 mile race, at racing speeds, in 1944, to prove that Firestone's newly developed synthetic rubber passenger car tires would pass muster--they did! That experience inspired Shaw to go on a crusade, as the war wound down in 1945, to search for someone to take over the Speedway (Rickenbacker was by then too busy with Eastern Airlines, to be interested in continuing the 500), and was steered to meeting Anton "Tony" Hulman Jr--who turned out to be VERY interested. Hulman, BTW, was one of the founders of Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA), amassing a nice collection of now extremely rare antique cars, Hulman Old Wheels Museum, now part of the IMS Hall of Fame collection.

Anyway, enough of my drivel! Next year, on May 29, 2016, if the Good Lord wills it, and the crick don't rise, there will be the 100th Indianapolis International 500 Mile Sweepstakes. What will the Speedway's second century bring?

Art

[Junkman]

Any good live streams?

[Edsel-Dan]

If you are Willing to PAY for it then Yes,

Otherwise.

You have to wait till it is re-run, or posted to Youtube, Etc!!

I just did a Search

Even tried from ABC.com

Have to Download an App from microcrap And Supply

a Membership ID & pass!!!!

Since I was Given this CRAPtop I Don't have access to the

email the microcrap account is tied to,

If anyone else finds a FREE Stream let us know

Though, Likely it will already be Full

and since the Tower does Not SEE the wireless signal, I can't try from that one

without a pass, etc!!

[Rob Hall]

Last 10 laps were incredible..great finish to the 99th 500. 2 races down for the day, time to break for lunch and chill before the NASCAR race...

[Greg Myers]

Do all of the drivers in todays race compete year round in the Indy Car Series ?

[Rob Hall]

Do all of the drivers in todays race compete year round in the Indy Car Series ?

There are a number--maybe 1/2 dozen--that only drive the 500 and not the rest of the season, as it is every year.

[Danno]

This year (2015) is the 93rd running of the Pikes Peak Auto Hillclimb.