Event Coverage The INDY 500 == 2024

I just checked the lineup for this years INDY 500, and recognized the names of seven drivers from former years. My true interest in the INDY 500 covers the years up to 1941, the Golden Years of Cars & Drivers. Sure, there are a few post WWII cars & drivers I followed on Radio and TV coverage, and I'll watch again this year. Best wishes to Kyle Larson in the #17, time for another Rookie to win the 500! Bob

 

Being an Aussie, supporting Scott McLaughlin here, wish Indy cars would come back to Australia - I loved when they raced in Queensland, used to go with my brother, great memories.

 

In the 50's either my dad or my step father had it on the radio in the car when we were headed to a family picnic on Memorial day. I pretty well lost interest in it for a number of years when they went to rear engine cars but try to watch it now or record it for later watching.

 

Back in the 60's, these race cars, maybe were not as fast or as safe as the modern day cars, but they had the look of a real race car and the drivers were highly competitive.

 

When I was growing up, Indy was a magical place. Tales from Gasoline Alley, the characters, the cars they drove , it was all pure Americana. They the powers that be starting taking away the incentive to be different, like the Granatellis, the Smokey Yunicks, the dude from Cali , was it Lil John Buttera?, that built street rods who then built a stock Chevy block powered car and stood a decent chance of winning. Like in so many kinds of racing, they said this won’t do, we must have parity, we must not have anyone with an advantage. So they did away with the odd balls, the stock blocks, the turbines, anything that didn’t fit their vision of equality, we must all run the same power train. No, you can’t modify it, that wouldn’t be fair.
Kiss off.
I haven’t cared anything about Indycar since.

 

The days of "run what you brung" are pretty much over.

 

Twice I have visited the track.
As a kid my tiny transistor radio would pick up the exitement of this holiday event.
Can never forget the folks reaction to Vucavich (sp?)
The history books tell of great feats in olden days of personal desires to win.
So now we have the differences of group financial powers being the influence.
It is still RACING.

 

I haven't been to Indy in over 20 years but went for quite a few years in a row starting back in the late 70's. In the sea of what I believe were screaming Cosworths back then there were still a few stock blocks roaring past, and that's what my friends and I cheered on. If memory serves one of our favorites was Eddy Cheever. We referred to him as Over-E-Cheever (over achiever). I still can hear the sound of the stock block winding up down the back straight from our seats in turn 2.

Lynn

 

I'll be watching... Wishing Good Luck to Kyle Larson in the "500" and the "600" ! !

 

im going to Indy for the 2nd time . Went 2 years ago and stayed with an old buddy from the service that has been to 74 500s in his life. He is 80 and started going when he was 3 years old. Born and raised in Indianapolis and now living in California. That has to be some sort of record. Im trying to get in touch with the news media and see if i can get some recognition over the loud speaker for him. That would be so cool to have him hear his name over the loudspeaker.

 

While I have been detached from the Indy cars for years this year's race holds special interest for me on a few levels.

It is on my bucket list to do some laps in my avatar replica car at some point in the future

 

I went to Indy in 2001 to watch Formula 1 race there. The sound of those 10 cyl. screaming 18,000rpm was incredible. I have been to 8 F1 traces down thru the years.

 

For one of our anniversaries my wife gave me a choice of either going to Indy or the Daytona 500. That was hard, I sure loved those stockers (this was 91) and the good 'ole boy drivers, but I chose Indy just because of the history and fame. It was a correct choice, we had a guided tour and got to go to the garage driver meeting, VIP seating at the big parade they have, and on and on, plus great seats for the race. This was right after the Gulf War and General Schwarzkopf and about a thousand troops passed in review in the parade, plus a flyover of about 3 flights of fighter jets. I thought if you can't be the most proud person of the U.S. in the world, catch the next spacecraft outbound. Bless those brave souls who gave it all this Memorial Day.


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" Way Back Story"
Love Indy 500,from a little kid,I'd even go out to Dads car in the yard to hear over the radio=it got the race much better with car radio in the 1950s,then in house radio. In Miami Fla.
I built,drove n raced a lot of types of cars ,oval and sports,from the 1960's on,just not INDY cars.
In the mid 1980s,Dupont put up $10,000 prize, for the fastest human powered vehicle*,event at the INDY 500 Track.
Well that sounded like,the only way I'd ever get to race the INDY 500 track,in my own vehicle ! So I designed one for the contest,and went. Turned out nearly all the top engineering tech schools an university's all around the world,had also planed on trying to win the Dupont Prize. 85 vehicle's showed up,from 5 countries. Most had hired ,to be there power,Olympic cycling team members !
My " Team Strange",,had Carlos n me, Carlos was kid that lived around the block ,who hung out, watching me work on race cars a lot.{ He was a fairly good local 10speed bike racer ] who knew a lot more then me about bike* racing. but loved cars too}

When the event was over, we were 10th fastest in the world,not a win for $,,,but I though of it as a super win for our little race car shop vs the big boys an super $ of ,like MIT,and other tech schools =Who had used wind tunnels an computers with big staff,with power from pro riders.
Even Carlos,said after' ""If I'd known,,we could out run that many,with our vehicle,I would of practice a lot more !""

The longer story of that;;
http://recumbents.com/wisil/misc/teamstrange/default.htm

 

Last time we went to the race was about '93 when they raised the walls for NASCAR. We had what should have been really good seats right across from the pits. Front rows couldn't see over the wall so they stood up so everybody had to stand up. Part way through the race they started standing on their seats so everybody had to stand on their seats. Won't go back for the race but have been in the museum many times. NOTHING compares to when they release all the balloons at the beginning. Oh yea, they don't do that anymore.

 

@dana barlow , hot rod ingenuity beats a lot of higher education engineering.
Thanks for sharing the memory.

 

Tues 28 May would be our 48th anniversary if my wife had not passed away in 2022. Our honeymoon in 1976 was the Indy 500. My wife worked for a law firm that had free tickets......real cheapskate groom ! Went again in 1978 with friends. Fast forward to 1987 to 1991. I was working for GM in our Naperville Ill. office. We had great access to behind the scenes stuff leading up to the race. One of my best friends was formally in the Indianapolis Zone office before it closed. He would invite me to accompany him for practice and qualifying. It was not unusual for people to walk up and say...."Bob how the hell are you doing".......Smokey Yunich......Foyt.....Rick Mears.....Roger Penske etc etc. The most memorable was Miss Hurst Linda Vaughn......she hugged Bob and then grabbed me in a big bear hug and we both grinned from ear to ear !! Also memorable was standing and talking with Chuck Yeager when he drove the pace car.
I began my love for the 500 when local dirt tracker and USAC guy Lee Kunzman worked his way up to Indy. We had been friends in the dirt track days and he was always a great window into the ups downs and sideways of Indy car racing. Was watching in Iowa with extended family in 1996 when Buddy Lazier won for Hemelgarn with Kunzman as Team Manager. In the old days, my brothers and I would gather around a radio that was on top of a fence post in the garden and listen while our parents told us where to dig and plant ......would take a rest and lay in the grass under a big tree.....priceless.
Will be watching for Kyle Larson to continue my traditional love of dirt to Indy

 

I just finished watching the 1951 Indy 500 on YouTube, Lee Wallard the 1951 winner was from Altamont NY, a little over an hour northeast of me in Albany County NY.

Last year was the first time I hadn't watched the 500 live since 1982 when I was 5 months old!
I learned my lesson if a woman on can only go on a first date during the Indy 500 pass!

 

Weather forecast does not look great!

 

Hey @tractorguy
Purely in recognition of your Honeymoon in 1976, at the INDY 500, I thought I would post this picture of the car and winner from 1976.
I hope this brings a positive smile to your face.
Enjoy from Dennis.

 

That's a great video, here is a better look at the wining car, check out the two " NOVI'S".
Thanks from Dennis.

 

The sad thing is outside of people who know and care about racing history Lee Wallard is all but forgotten in this aera, but the local sports reporters will tell us about every half ass girls varsity high school tiddlywinks game!

 

I went every year through the eighties. Most people got the same tickets every year so you get to know some of the people that sat around you. There was a fellow that set in front of me and the story was. He was training some of the Indy firemen and how to scuba dive. Mrs. Holman and Mrs Shaw (wife of Driver Wilber Shaw) interviewed him on a radio program. . He was going to be a Navy frogman ( before the seals ). They gave him his first tickets to the Indy 500. and he had the same seats all these years. He said nothing sounded as good as when they ran Novi's.

 

I wonder if anyone ever recorded a NOVI running at INDY, I'd like to know how the sound differed.

 

I didn't have any way to record them off the radio but you could tell the difference when they passed the microphones placed around the track or the announcers mikes.

Right now at 10:41 Pacific time the race today is on rain delay while a storm passes over indy. It looks like they are thinking 5 pm Indy time start right now.

 

Getting ready to watch the delayed start of the iconic Indy 500. Sorry Kyle Larson will not be able to complete the double.

 

back home again in Indiana always chokes me up

 

This video is pretty long, but you can hear the NOVI running by a couple times during a qualifying attempt. From the way Granatelli used to talk about, it was just twice as loud as anything else. A lot of spectators used to say a NOVI snarled.

"WITH A TREMENDOUS ROAR !": 1963 Indy 500 NOVI succesful qual. attempt. (youtube.com)

 

Amazing for as powerful, as the NOVI engine was, none of the NOVI powered cars, ever won at INDY!

 

I would make a visit to Lee's grave every year before Indy and place a checkered flag in front of his grave to honor him. In recent years someone else has been doing it and removed my larger flag. So I am bowing out for a while. I also put a checkered flag on Pop's Gritzback's resting spot too in Schenectady. Both were and are our local hero's.