In every town, in every place
There’s a boy who’s tryin’ to take a chance and dance
And find a way to runaway with her heart
In the back of an old Ford truck
In the bar just lookin’ for luck
In a pair of oh my blue eyes
Let them fireworks start
That American country love song
Ain’t never gonna quit playin’ on and on and on
-Jake Owen
Thursday 23 May 2024
There are good days. Then there was today.
Whilst Elias worked this morning, I finally watched the superb but incredibly depressing documentary “The Lionheart” about British IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon who was tragically killed in an accident at Las Vegas more than a decade ago. The two-time Indianapolis 500 was one of the brightest stars in the series, and he was taken from us too soon. A bit of a downer to start the day, but I’m glad I watched it nonetheless.
Around 3:00pm, we drove over to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and into the infield where the museum is currently being renovated. That doesn’t stop the fleet of IMS-branded buses from taking people around the track basically every fifteen or so minutes. We piled on with a bunch of other people and entered the track in the short chute between turns 1 and 2. We toured the track, including passing by our Sunday seats high up in turn 3, passing the Borg Warner trophy (awarded annually to the winner of the Indianapolis 500) photo shoot off of turn four and stopped at the famous yard of bricks – the entire track used to be bricks, but was repaved around a century ago, with only one yard left, hence the Speedway’s colloquial name, the Brickyard) so we could kiss the bricks, as the winners traditionally do.
I’ve done this before, but that doesn’t make the experience any less spellbinding. Just amazing to stand on the front straight and look down into turn one, trying to imagine what it must look like to the driver’s eye on Sunday, with a mass of humanity in the grandstands on both sides, turn one going left out of sight thanks to those grandstands.
There is so much history at IMS. So many racecar drivers long gone who made their mark at Indianapolis and thus had their lives changed by this 2.5-mile rectangular oval at the corner of 16th and Georgetown in Speedway, Indiana. On a quiet afternoon such as this, you could almost hear the ghosts of Indianapolis 500’s past. And it made me wonder who would have their life changed on Sunday afternoon by crossing the Yard of Bricks first. It’s racing’s most exclusive club and someone – be they a first timer or a repeat winner – will stake their claim to a piece of racing immortality in around 96 hours’ time. And I’ll be here to witness it.
There are four labelled bricks embedded in the start/finish line for the four 4-time Indianapolis 500 winners: A.J. Foyt, Al Unser Sr, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. The latter is still racing and could win his fifth on Sunday. Imagine that…
Fittingly after visiting IMS, we drove back towards downtown and had dinner at an excellent Greek restaurant with my friend Mark Jaynes (better known to most race fans as The Voice of the Indianapolis 500 – Sunday will be his twenty-ninth 500 broadcast, which says more about his broadcasting talent than I could) and his friend/my friend veteran journalist Lewis Franck, who works for Reuters. A great evening of food, laughs and racing stories and anecdotes from two of the best in the business. It still blows my mind that I get to call Mark and Lewis friends – the power of the internet, I guess, and a mutual passion for this place and this race. I think we might have swamped Elias with information and stories, but he did enjoy the food!
We had a rather interesting experience with the waitress who took our photo. Despite Elias sitting beside Mark, somehow she took five photos – and one video! – and none of them managed to feature Elias. Got his sleeve a couple times, but that’s it. We’ll try again tomorrow.
After dinner, back to near the track, for a few late-evening beers with another IndyCar Radio friend Sam Rumpza, who produces what people worldwide will hear. My first ever Michelob Ultra beers, so that’s a red-letter day!
Hanging out with Sam was a great way to end a sensational day. Tomorrow is final practice at the track, then the pitstop competition and some concerts in the infield – known as Carb Day (a holdover from when cars had carburetors), which is traditionally a BIG party day for the 100,000+ attendees. We’ll try and sneak in some racing as well.
kitchtrips 