***Indianapolis 500 thread *** (official or otherwise)

[A HERETIC I AM]

Here's the starting grid;
http://www.indy500.com/grid

I haven't missed this race in over 30 years, either by being there as a participant or watching it on TV.

Weather looks good, field looks competitive.

Let's go!

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. The command has been given, the grid starts to roll. n/t

[alfredo]

2. Loved the vintage aircraft flyover. B 25 Mitchell

[A HERETIC I AM]

4. Yup. Pretty cool.

[jehovas_waitress]

24. That slow fly-by made my day. Gotta love the Mitchell.

I actually took a ride on a B-17 a few years ago. Best money I ever spent.

[alfredo]

35. Love the old planes. Used to love to go to the airport to watch the planes

take off and land. That was back in the days of the Constellation and other cool planes.



I used to see these at the Ohio River in Louisville.

[FSogol]

3. As a kid I loved Formula racing. Ive never understood the appeal of stock car racing.

Enjoy the race.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. It's a good thing this isn't a Stock Car race, then.

Did you watch Monaco this morning?

[elocs]

13. Frankly, I don't understand the appeal of any kind of car racing.

Just cars going very fast around ovals. For me it's kind of like watching paint dry with the outside chance that the paint might explode.

[A HERETIC I AM]

14. You can consider it an engineering exercise...

(which it is, in large part) coupled with a mechanical endurance test with a lengthy strategy session thrown in.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. No start. Starter didn't like the way they looked.

[konnichi wa]

7. 2 crash on 1st lap, Morias and Andretti

...

[flvegan]

8. Andretti is REALLY displeased.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. He should have lifted.

It sucks, but Andretti should have lifted. It's a damned long race.

[Nitrogenica]

10. That was a disturbing Danica Boost Mobile commercial.

[zbird]

12. All of the Danica commercials are disturbing.

She's a talented driver, she doesn't need to stoop to the sleaze.

[A HERETIC I AM]

11. Yellow. Ryan Hunter Ray crashes out of turn four...

ends up in pit lane.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Yellow, lap 56. Graham Rahal crashes, turn 4.

[givemebackmycountry]

16. When they cut to that cockpit view and you see the track rushing at you-

Awesome.
220 mph plus down the stretch and 210 in the corners.
They are FLYING.
And a feather could throw them into the wall.

I'd like to see Danica win this race.
I'm thinking it would be a BIG thing for racing.

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. Yellow. Davey Hamilton - same place.

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. Has there ever been three women on the starting grid?

Paul Tracy is my favorite, but wouldn't it be cool to see Danica, Sarah, and Milka finish 1-2-3?

I was lucky to be there to see Tracy win the LBGP after falling a full lap behind. Maybe two.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Yes. The last three years ('07, '08 and this year)

5 different women have started the race;
Janet Guthrie, Lyn St. James, Sarah Fisher, Danica Patrick and Milka Duno.

Desire Wilson passed her driving test (also known as the "Rookie Test") but failed to qualify for the 1982 event.

http://www.indy500.com/images/stats/pdfs/women.pdf

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. Yellow. Tony Kanaan this time.

He was running pretty well, too.

[jehovas_waitress]

26. He sure was.

The view from the car behind him was scary. Whatever it was that broke loose, it sent him instantly into the wall.

[flvegan]

21. The Rahal/Letterman car is now out. Dammit.

There goes the one I was hoping for.

[A HERETIC I AM]

22. Yeah, bummer. I'm kind of surprised they only entered one driver.

[Stinky The Clown]

31. They had no sponsorship.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. Me too .... they've had a tough year ......

.... they didn't even have a full year's sponsorship.

And the two principals are just plain nice guys.

[Bluzmann57]

23. I predicted a Rahal win

Another prediction by the wayside. Franchitti is running strong and that's ok. But it would be nice if Patrick can win this thing.

[A HERETIC I AM]

25. LOL ! Wow. One of the drivers wives is pregnant and having contractions...

IN PIT LANE! That HAS to be a first!

She just said she hasn't told him!

[jehovas_waitress]

27. Fortunate yellow for Danica NT

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. Welcome to DU, BTW.

Thanks for joining the thread!

[jehovas_waitress]

29. Thanks. I spent many months of May at that track. NT

[A HERETIC I AM]

32. Me too. Credential holder from 1990 thru 1995.

Drove the support truck in the CART/Indy Car circuit for Ilmor Engineering. They built the Chevrolet Indy V8 and the Mercedes that won in 1994 (Al Jr.).

[jehovas_waitress]

33. Not that glamorous for me . I was just an Indy kid and we went to the track a lot. NT

[A HERETIC I AM]

34. LOL...Trust me, the glamor wears off!

By my third year of "The 90 days of May" it started to get pretty tedious. The best days were opening day, the first day of qualifying, bump day, carb day and race day. The rest of the time was repetitive, tedious, long hours and at times, miserably boring.


But I loved every minute of it. (mostly)

Going to Long Beach, Surfers Paradise, Australia, Elkhart Lake and Laguna Seca was always a blast. The whole season had it's fun moments but the road courses hold special memories. The Speedway is unique, if nothing else. I worked for a company that, as an engine manufacturer won 7 consecutive Indy 500's of which I participated in 5.

It was an experience I'll never forget.

[katanalori]

48. did you work for cosorth? n/t

[A HERETIC I AM]

52. Not Cosworth. Ilmor, though Cosworth was their primary competitor in those days.

Ilmor was formed by two former Cosworth engineers, Mario Illien and Paul Morgan. Like many English companies, the name comes from parts of the principals names. ILlien and MORgan.

Cosworth name relates to the two founders, Mike Costin and Keith Duckworth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosworth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmor

Paul Morgan was killed while attempting to land one of his vintage Military Airplanes (A Hawker Sea Fury) - on a grass field Aerodrome in Sywell, England in May of 2001.

This is the very aircraft in which my former boss lost his life.

[XOKCowboy]

36. Come on Danica!!!

Nice pit stop.

[A HERETIC I AM]

37. Yellow, lap 175. Vito Miera & Rafael Matos at the end of the front stretch.

[spanone]

38. a bad one there

[A HERETIC I AM]

39. 10 laps to go. Helio leading, Danica 3rd.

She is running one hell of a strong race.

[A HERETIC I AM]

40. White flag. Castroneves is running away with it

[Stinky The Clown]

41. Helio!

[A HERETIC I AM]

42. Castroneves wins it! 15th Indy 500 win for Penske Racing

[Stinky The Clown]

43. Team Helio ... ON THE FENCE!

[A HERETIC I AM]

44. Rick Rinaman, Chief Mechanic. Well done, Rick.

Rinaman has been with Penske for 20 years at least. If I'm not mistaken, he was chief mechanic on 2 of Rick Mears wins.

Congratulations Rick and Helio.

[cherokeeprogressive]

45. Congrats Castroneves!!!! Why did that idiot try to keep him in the car?

Congrats to Danica too!

[A HERETIC I AM]

46. "That Idiot" was Brian Barnhart, Chief Steward and COO of the IRL

The Speedway undoubtedly has a problem with him climbing the fence (for whatever reason) and Barnhart was probably trying to talk him out of doing it.

I'll bet anything he will be fined something for climbing the fence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Barnhart



Edited to add the link and pic

On edit again to add that in 1993, Emerson Fittipaldi was fined heavily for initially refusing the "traditional" drink of milk when his wife was standing by with a bottle of Orange Juice (Fittipaldi owns orange groves in Brazil) and he pushed away the milk bottle and took a sip of OJ first. Emerson is a vegetarian and does not drink milk. This pissed off the Speedway management in a big way and it cost the team at least $100,000 in fines and rescinded awards. The Milk Producers of Indiana are sponsors and they got their noses seriously bent out of shape as well.

[cherokeeprogressive]

47. I remember the Orange Juice Incident, but didn't know Fittipaldi was a vegetarian.

The only part I knew was that Fittipaldi owned orange groves.

I'd sure Castroneves will gladly pay whatever the IRL fines him. Heck, maybe Penske will pay it for him. I thought it was hilarious that Barnhart tried to put the steering wheel back on after Castroneves had taken it off, then tried to physically restrain him from getting out of the car. All in all, it didn't come off as too professional IMO. Even Eddie Cheever commented on it.

What did you do at the speedway?

Last question, I promise... What do you think of Tony George? I hated him for a long time after the IRL/CART split, now I'm just indifferent.

[A HERETIC I AM]

49. Tony George is the perfect example of an asshole member of the "Lucky Sperm Club"

Here's an entry from my DU Journal that was a post to the 2007 Indy 500 thread;

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/A%20HERETIC%20I%20AM/2

It talks about what I did and some background on one of the catalysts of the formation of the IRL.

I drove tractor trailers for 20 years and 12 of those 20 were involved in motor sports. One gig I had was working for Ilmor Engineering, an engine manufacturer on the CART/Indy Car circuit (they currently do all the rebuilds for all the Honda engines. Their US operation is based in Canton, MI). I did that from the 1989 season thru 1995. I worked for Lola Cars during the 1996 season. 1996 you might remember was the year the "US 500" ran on the same day as the 500, as a protest against Tony George, the stupid qualifying rules he imposed that year and the IRL. So I had a 500 credential for 1990, 91, 92, 93, & 94. I had a CART "hard card" or annual credential for all the rest of the races on the schedule from 1989 thru 1996.

As far as any fines, it won't be that Penske would pay for it, rather that the Speedway will withhold prize money otherwise due. The teams never know what the total purse of the race will be (at least the never used to, anyway) until it is awarded at the awards banquet, Monday night. The Speedway can withhold all sorts of cash Penske Racing might be entitled to for any number of punitive reasons. They've done it before.

Tony George single handedly fucked over open wheel racing in the USA. His attitude that he knew what was best for the sport and his childish desire to simply be in charge split what was an incredibly successful racing series that had, at the time (1995 & 1996) increasing attendance, increasing TV popularity and viewership and an expanding international audience. By forming the IRL, he caused confusion with the casual fan and forced the TV networks to make deals that proved unprofitable because people didn't really know what they were looking at and engine manufacturers to choose between a series that had been building up in success (CART) and a fledgling series that had only the 500 as it's primary jewel. "Why are the cars and teams that ran at Cleveland in 1998 not running at the 500?" etc. Several incredibly popular events were subsequently canceled (Road America, Cleveland, Surfers Paradise, etc.) or suffered massive attendance drop-offs because fans were simply pissed.

I could go on for hours!

I am happy to note that this year, for the first time in several years, the stands looked completely full at the Speedway today. It used to be that next years race sold out by the next weekend. It is my understanding that has not been the case for several years now. I could be wrong.

[cherokeeprogressive]

51. Killer Journal entry. Thank you very much! You are a wealth of knowledge.

Yes, the stands DID seem to be full today. I'd love to see the Indy 500 some day. I still remember when I was a kid and ABC broadcast it on a delay. I never got to watch it.

Have A Great Day. Thanks for the responses!

[Blue_Tires]

50. how fitting is it that in 2009 a tax cheat wins it?

i really hope that someday Chevrolet or some other U.S. automaker get back into it...an all-Honda field is the suck...

[Blue_Tires]

53. forgot to mention:

I want one of those pace carsB-)

[tuckessee]

54. Fuck the 500.

My family had attended religiously from 1966 to 2002 (4th turn - NW Vista EE).

In 2003 my mother had a massive heart attack which required immediate life saving surgery which happened to coincide with Memorial Day weekend.

Since we would be unable to attend the race we sold the tickets on ebay and the Indianapolis 500 a-holes saw the listing and accused us of "scalping".

They sent us a nasty letter saying they were revoking our ticket priveliges and that we shouldn't bother to apply again in the future.

[Blue_Tires]

55. wow...that ticket office was a bunch of dicks...