About Us

hurryinhoosier62 · 06-09-2024, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

This looks like an adjacent dirt track for midgets. One looks like the lights are on some maybe an evening/night race, or maybe a different exposure on one they are not as visible.
35 mm I think his Argus camera.

That is what became Indianapolis Raceway Park in Avon, IN. It was a dirt track decades before it was paved.

mgarblik · 06-09-2024, 07:44 PM

Thanks for those great pics. I just love the Indy 500. The history, the size, the pageantry, the memorial remembrances for our military,the entire month of May. I have been to over 20 races and they all have highlights, even this year. A few tidbits about the 1949 race. Race won by Bill Holland, car #7, starting from the inside of row 2. Blue Crown Spark Plug special. Offenhauser engine. qualifying speed 128.67 mph. Race speed ave: 121.327 mph. Laps led: 146, (200) Margin of victory 3m 11 sec. Winning driver Holland had finished each of the two previous years in second to Mauri Rose. Offy roadsters dominated Indy in this period for 15+ years. Finally, in 1965, Jim Clark broke the incredible streak with a rear engine car and as they say, the rest is history. Thanks again for the first hand pictures.

Keith Seymore · 06-11-2024, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Thanks for those great pics. I just love the Indy 500. The history, the size, the pageantry, the memorial remembrances for our military,the entire month of May. I have been to over 20 races and they all have highlights, even this year. A few tidbits about the 1949 race. Race won by Bill Holland, car #7, starting from the inside of row 2. Blue Crown Spark Plug special. Offenhauser engine. qualifying speed 128.67 mph. Race speed ave: 121.327 mph. Laps led: 146, (200) Margin of victory 3m 11 sec. Winning driver Holland had finished each of the two previous years in second to Mauri Rose. Offy roadsters dominated Indy in this period for 15+ years. Finally, in 1965, Jim Clark broke the incredible streak with a rear engine car and as they say, the rest is history. Thanks again for the first hand pictures.

Ok - "Donald Davidson"...

K

mgarblik · 06-11-2024, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

Ok - "Donald Davidson"...

K

I am a little embarrassed to say I had to look up Donald Davidson in the IMS musuem page!. I do have a couple coffee table books about the Indy 500. The book I got that info from has about 3 pages of highlights from every Indy 500 run to the time the book was published which was 2016 I think. When those 33 cars come down the front stretch for the green flag to start the race, it's the most exciting 2 minutes in motorsports IMO. The only other thing that comes close for me is night qualifying for the US Nationals in the fuel classes in front of a packed house. Thanks to Arnie Beswick, we were able to run in front of that same crowd a couple times in our Pontiac powered race cars. A gift I can never repay.

Keith Seymore · 06-11-2024, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgarblik

I am a little embarrassed to say I had to look up Donald Davidson in the IMS musuem page!. I do have a couple coffee table books about the Indy 500. The book I got that info from has about 3 pages of highlights from every Indy 500 run to the time the book was published which was 2016 I think. When those 33 cars come down the front stretch for the green flag to start the race, it's the most exciting 2 minutes in motorsports IMO. The only other thing that comes close for me is night qualifying for the US Nationals in the fuel classes in front of a packed house. Thanks to Arnie Beswick, we were able to run in front of that same crowd a couple times in our Pontiac powered race cars. A gift I can never repay.

He was a savant when it came to Indy history. He would do the color commentary with all those type of arcane factoids and details, just off the cuff and completely from memory. Simply amazing.

Now - we have Google.

K

promptcritical · 06-11-2024, 08:25 PM

I really like the way the early cars look.

mgarblik · 06-11-2024, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by promptcritical

I really like the way the early cars look.

One of the really cool things about the pageantry of race day is the laps they take with old cars from the IMS Museum. Most of the cars are kept in running condition and each year a dozen or so make a lap. This year one was super early pre 1920. Several from each decade moving up from there. It's great to see and hear these cars running again. And they don't creep around the track. Some will accelerate through the gears a little and may reach 80-100 for a short period.