Indianapolis 500

Tony Stewart owned the All Star Circuit of Champions series.

 

All of the above and more!

And yes I’m familiar with the scaffolding. That shit was nuts and rickety AF! Even the rain days were cool as it just raised the party to a whole new level.

Remember the mud football games where you could only see the person’s eyes because they were completely covered in mud head to toe? I don’t think anyone was keeping score. It was just about playing in the mud drunk. And the off-roading with your truck in the mud sliding sideways and slinging mud on anyone who didn’t take cover

We knew several crews who never bought a ticket or watched the race and just went to the infield to party for days on end. It was their personal Woodstock.

 

I'll bet 70% of the people in the infield back then didn't even know who won the race.
A guy I went to school with was killed in the infield around 1980. His lifted Jeep hit a curb and threw him out, a rollbar across the forehead killed him instantly.
The Coke lot across the street always had a good party atmosphere. Plus you didn't have to leave at the end of every day like the infield.

 

It was just a name change when Larson took over correct? It's cool they try to schedule races during the week.

 

I think the last time I had that much party energy is when I was 17.

This reminds me I need to go to Knoxville for a sprint car show. I need to take my kid this year.

I grew up going to the races at Ascot

 

McLarens looking good.

 

Speed is touching 240 for a moment according to the broadcast. Even if it's off a bit, DAMN THAT'S FAST

 

And not lifting in the corners.
It was awesome when Foyt gave a little smile when his driver Ferrucci had a 4 wheel drift in the corner at 230 mph.

Ericsson had a brain fart. He thought he was over qualifying but he had one more lap! The Andretti team always seems to fuck something up. No wonder they can't keep drivers.

 

Katherine Legge has big balls!

 

That was a good one. Team Penske locks out the front row.

 

Me and my high school pals went to the Indy 500 every year in the late '80's to late 90's.

I remember the peep holes in the womens outhouses in the infield. We grew out of that heathen activity by the time we were 22 or so.

All i remember come race day, was laying in the infield, sitting up every now and again, and just seeing flashes of colors going by. Good times.

 

Larson qualified 5th at Indy, now he's in North Wilkesboro getting ready to run the Nascar All Star race.
I'm not sure what kind of jet Hendricks Motorsports has, but it took the 1 hour to get there. The jet looked huge. It was a cool looking helicopter he got out of.

 

We used to camp in peoples’ yards just down the street from Hook’s drug store at 16th & Georgetown. Back then they charged $10 for a tent space and $10 for a parking space and we all rode there in my truck crammed with 5 guys and all our gear and supplies for a weekend. And we did all the weekends in May back when it was a month long thing. Talk about affordable lodging!

The party just moved from the infield to there at the end of the day and raged on all night.

Ahhhh to be young and invincible.

One of the great memories was the bottle rocket wars with the campers across the street depending on which flags they were flying and drivers they were rooting for.

 

And the Indy cops were actually pretty cool and as long as you weren’t beating or stabbing or shooting anyone they pretty much left you alone. I saw a guy smoking a joint walk right past a cop and the cop didn’t even blink. Same for public urination. They just looked the other way.

 

Have you been to the track within the last 24 years, since F1 came to town? It looks and feels completely different. Even 16th and Georgetown is different. They removed 250k seats during that renovation.
You can now bring your wife, daughter and grandma and not get heckled. They added all kind of family areas. It's really a nice place!

 

Yes. I went to two MotoGP races there and you are correct. It was a totally different atmosphere from when I went there in my younger days and all kinds of debauchery ensued.

It was kinda like going back to Times Square in NYC as an adult after hanging out there for years in my late teens experiencing the true grit of the city.

Hence my comment about the infield at Indy being turned into Disneyland. Same deal wiff TS in NYC as an adult. Just not the same as I remembered.

 

So back in 2007 I had an idea to market the inaugural 2008 Indy GP…

a buddy connected me as he did PR for the track and I pitched it to the top floor corner office… the one that ran the track with a micromanagement style…

They loved the idea and I’m the only one to ever carry the logo and holy shit were they picky…

you should’ve seen his face when I explained that in my 36 years on earth, mostly in Indiana that I’d never even been into the speedway… I had to explain that there are many of me in our sport and they needed me to reach them… they did and I did

I put up numbers over triple anything they had ever seen 62% of the fans at my Superbike races that signed up for info actually bought tickets and attended… and they begged me for years to do it again… I told them I want half of their profits for every ticket I sold… I knew exactly what their margin was, as they told me, and it was ten times what they paid me the first year… they balked… and went from 92k fans on race day, the biggest motorcycle race ever in the western hemisphere, to cancelled in a short time… I always take care of those that do you right and expect the same

I had to walk my contract to three offices on New Year’s Eve to get paid, the race was in August… I wasn’t impressed…

the snake pit sounds like I missed out on good times… that wasn’t the end of my Indy events though… I’ll post more…

 

Yeah, she's had some big shunts in the past, too, so she knows how bad it can be. And yet she STILL kept her foot in it.

I liked Nolan Siegel's comments after crashing out, too. Basically said he was gonna keep it flat whether it got him to grid or not. Unfortunatelyfor him it didn't work out.

 

She was a little shaken after that. Not many racers stay in the throttle while brushing the wall.

I was hoping Rahal wouldn't make the race, can't stand that guy. I knew when Siegel crashed and they starting to interview Rahal, he would give some giant long winded interview about all of his triumphs and tragedies. And he did. He's not even the best racer in his own family!

 

That was my exact reaction, lol! "Christ, now we have to listen to Rahal whine about something."