In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.

Racing in Indy

hoosierhoosier Member Posts: 1,503 ✭✭✭✭

It's almost Here! The Greatest Spectacle in Racing .. The Indy 500.

I grew up in Indy on the East Side we didnt get to the Races It cost to much, but we put on a good Show of our own.

When we were young we gathered in the backyard, as Dad kept track on a long board marked off in miles 10 ft long, with all the racers, in rows with different colored pens. If you went out you that was it for your like, a crash was a X. Listening to Tom Carnegie on the Radio. Family and friends, all with Hot Dogs and Hamburgers. My first sip of Beer (yuck back then). Those were the days.

Just waiting for the, "Start your Engines".

Magazines, Gun Parts and More. US Army Veteran, VFW, NRA Patron

Comments

  • Nanuq907Nanuq907 Member Posts: 2,552 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021


    Love the old Indy cars!! But for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, it's got to be the Isle of Man TT. See if you can spot our bike #7 in this video.



  • jimdeerejimdeere Member, Moderator Posts: 25,583 ******

    Those guys are just nuts!

  • Ditch-RunnerDitch-Runner Member Posts: 24,450 ✭✭✭✭

    my dad thought any thing but country music or related shows were a a waste so needless to say racing was never watched

    I would watch a little of nascar racing and a few minutes of indy . . serious when i was a kid I thought wow they built and race the indy cars once a year on one track ..😕


    much later in life I watched Indy a bit more as the company i worked for got into it big time with there new indy v8 engine I met most of there drivers ( yes including Danica ) they even brought cars to out plant for show once they had Seneca ( if I remember right) do pedal to the metal runs down the main drive way in the parking lot with people lined up both sides just a couple feet away having a indy car blast by you two feet away was exciting . only once they did that the rest were static displays and meetings . some one I will guess realized doing full on runs in the parking lot main run at high speed lined with people = a major issue . I would guess they still bring in the drivers and cars but its been almost 8 years since I retired .


    side note they use to bring in cars from all there racing classes and there drivers . once we had one of the race car civics some one had got permission to borrow for a display , I got to take it ( unofficial if you catch that meaning ) for a fast run in our container yard . but it was set up for a taller driver so reaching the pedals was a bit odd but still a blast . I got a slight scolding for that one ( by the next higher ranking manager ) then our dept manager (I found out ) later that day really run the crap out of it in the container yard , no more said to me 😁

  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭

    Usually sit on the inside of the 4th turn highest in the bleachers. Throw beer down to the infield crazy's .

  • hoosierhoosier Member Posts: 1,503 ✭✭✭✭

    Earlier Races you could see the cars go by, later on just a flash went by. I did make few of the races, and enjoyed them.

    We've moved to to Southern Ky and Now I watch on the Big Screen. My older son still catches the Race in Person.

    Magazines, Gun Parts and More. US Army Veteran, VFW, NRA Patron
  • savage170savage170 Member Posts: 37,446 ✭✭✭✭

    I remember my dad following Jim Hurtubise because he showed up with the last front engine roadster

  • BikerBobBikerBob Member Posts: 2,748 ✭✭✭

    Used to go down with my dad and some if his friends. I can remember sleeping in the car parked in what used to be the north entrance to the infield on Friday night. Waiting to be among the first few hundred into the infield gor time trials.

    Dad would get the Indianapolis Star delivered for the entire month of May. We went to the race a few times in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Good times!

  • jimdeerejimdeere Member, Moderator Posts: 25,583 ******

    Remember this guy?


  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
  • TANK78ZTANK78Z Member Posts: 1,320 ✭✭✭

    Mr. STP aka Andy Granatelli, he ran some very innovative cars, I loved the sport back then.

  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭

    Racing loses 'rare breed' in Indy car, motorcycle champ Leonard

    By Phillip B. Wilson | Published: Apr 30, 2017


    AVONDALE, Arizona — Mario Andretti had just provided thrills driving a two-seat Indy car Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway when he was informed former racing teammate Joe Leonard had passed away.

    “Joe, what a great guy in many ways,” said Andretti, 77, still processing the news that Leonard had died at 84 on Thursday in San Jose, California. “We had a lot of fun together on top of being teammates.”

    Leonard, a smiling Andretti added, “was a rare breed.”

    Leonard made a name for himself first as a motorcycle racer with three AMA Grand National Championships. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1991 for his motorcycle racing.

    He turned to auto racing and drove for legends Dan Gurney, A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones, as well as with legends as Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing teammates with Andretti and Al Unser from 1972-74.

    Because he was surrounded by greatness, some might have overlooked Leonard. He won just six career Indy car races, half of those at Milwaukee. Andretti won 52 races, including the 1969 Indianapolis 500, to rank second on the all-time list. Unser joined Foyt and Rick Mears as the only four-time winners of the Indy 500 and his 39 career victories rank fifth.

    But it was “Smokin’ Joe” who won Indy car season championships in 1971 and 1972 under USAC sanction.

    “We had a lot of respect for each other,” Andretti said. “Joe, he was the one out of the super team who won the championship. He showed us all. He was the one who was more patient and kept it all together. We were all happy for him. Great memories, no question.”

    Leonard won the pole and was on the verge of his greatest victory in the 1968 Indianapolis 500 when Andy Granatelli’s STP turbine-powered Lotus 56 suffered a broken fuel shaft on Lap 191. He ended up 12th.

    His best Indy 500 finishes in nine starts were a pair of thirds in 1967 and ‘72.

    “I hate to hear he’s gone but, damn, he was a fighter and a tough SOB,” Foyt told Racer.com’s Robin Miller. “He had a helluva run.”

    Andretti remembered Leonard’s fearless nature.

    “He would plow through a mountain to achieve what he wanted to achieve,” Andretti said. “You could not be light-hearted to win as many championships as he did on a dirt bike and in speedway racing. He and (John) Surtees were the only ones to win championships on two and four wheels.”

    Before he became a prominent Indy car co-owner of Panther Racing, John Barnes recalled when he was a wide-eyed, 21-year-old mechanic who joined Vel’s Parnelli Jones Racing in 1973.

    “All of those people were gods,” Barnes said of Andretti, Unser and Leonard. “But Joe, he did so many different types of racing. He was a great motorcycle racer before he came to Indy car, and he drove for so many different people. Everybody knew that whenever he was in the car, he was going to push it to the limit and get everything he could out of it.”

    Barnes, like Andretti, was attending Saturday’s Verizon IndyCar Series Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix and had not heard of Leonard’s passing.

    “I remember him getting hurt at Ontario (Speedway in California),” Barnes said. “He almost passed away that day – severe leg injuries – it was a tough battle for him to get back. For him to last as long as he did with the injuries he had – he had head injuries, leg injuries – you didn’t think he was going to make it.”

    Andretti laughed as he shared stories about how much fun he and Unser had with Leonard. Sometimes, it was at Leonard’s expense.

    “It’s all in fun, but he could be gullible,” Andretti said. “His wife used to tell him, ‘You know, Joe, you’re just not making enough money. Those guys, look at Al and Andretti, they probably make 10 times what you make.’”

    As the story goes, the drivers were having breakfast at a Holiday Inn where the names of the drivers were attached to menu items. A.J. Foyt was steak and eggs, Andretti was sausage and eggs, Cale Yarborough was a short stack of pancakes.

    “I just winked at Al,” Andretti said. “‘Hey, Al, did you get the last payment on this?’ Al said, ‘Well, no.’ I said, ‘Tell you what, last year it was $25,000. This year, they told me it was going to be $35,000. And I didn’t get the check yet.’

    “Joe looked up and says, ‘You mean you guys are getting paid for this?’ ‘Yeah, but it’s frickin’ peanuts, like $35,000.’ Joe slammed his (utensils) down, he ran for the manager, who was a short guy. He had the guy on the floor (and yelled), ‘I want my damn check!’”





  • cbxjeffcbxjeff Member Posts: 17,401 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021

    I can't type it all but I started going in '54. I would fly a DC3 from Peoria to Indy's Weir Cook airport and my grandparents would pick me up and take me to their place on 2127E Washington. I would take a tolley bus to the track. B.T.W., I worked with Weir Cook's son, Pete, a chemist at Allison Gas Turbine, until I retired in '92. When I was old enough to drive I would go every year.

    I was there for the terrible fiery crash of Eddie, I saw the first 150 by Parenelli, I watched Herk lay down on the start/finish line to protest his disqualification of his Mallard.

    Great memories but nothing lasts forever. The innovation is gone just like NASCAR. Andy with his 13" Allstate tired lowrider. The turbine & Novi also. So many rules, engines, etc. Now (for years) NASCAR has their own body. Bill France is probably rolling over to see all the toyotas.

    Sorry, I didn't mean this to be a downer but I remember the good times and miss them.

    It's too late for me, save yourself.
  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021

    I was also there for my first time as a kid to see Dave Mc Donald and Eddie Sachs die in the fiery crash. Swede Savages fiery crash in 1973 was right in front of us.. he died in the hospital.

  • austin20austin20 Member Posts: 34,829 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021

    Did a few Indy 500 in the infield as a young man (mid 80’s). As I got a bit older and tickets were offered I enjoyed a few Indy 500’s in seats about 2/3 the way up in the short chute/ fourth turn. Good times. I actually went to a few of the early Brickyard races too. I think Ricky Rudd won it the first time I attended

  • gruntled2gruntled2 Member Posts: 560 ✭✭✭

    We went several times for the time trials & the races. The last time was 1956 before we moved to California (That was before it became the Demokratik People's Republik of Kalifornia) I remember telling people that all the dining places around Indy were charging FIFTY cents for hamburgers & no one would believe anyone would be crazy enough to pay that much.

  • hoosierhoosier Member Posts: 1,503 ✭✭✭✭

    Problem is I have to watch at my MIL, and she doen't condone drinking anything harder than Mountain Dew,. But there is plenty of Kentucky vittles. I record it at home and round thur the highlights with left overs and a 6 pack.

    Magazines, Gun Parts and More. US Army Veteran, VFW, NRA Patron
  • Nanuq907Nanuq907 Member Posts: 2,552 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021

    I know my experience isn't Indy, but it was a high point of my life. A dear friend in the UK has more money than God and I mentioned one evening that I'd always wanted to see the Isle of Man TT. He perked right up and said he was fielding a team that year... get my sorry butt to Heathrow and I could be part of the team. I got there and he picked me up in his Aston Martin (drool) and we blasted around London a couple days before heading off to Douglas on the Isle.

    I was supposed to ride with the lorry and help set up the pits since I was a mechanic, instead he had me fly over with him. We sat on the plane surrounded by scarred up men in tattered leather coats and I thought it must have been the charity flight or something, I didn't SEE them, I was just looking. I leaned over and whispered it, and he whispered back "These are the Royalty of the TT". I looked closer and my God... Connor Cummings. Harrison, Hickman, Hutchy, Dunlop, McGuinness... I suddenly felt very small.

    We got there and set up, met our driver (Gary Johnson) and started trying to make the bike go fast. We coaxed just under 130bhp from our Triumph Speed Triple and got the suspension and tires dialed in. Practice sessions, up all night reworking the motor, remapping everything, dyno testing, and the more practice sessions.

    The drivers were in their own flashy RVs but they'd come through the pits to see how we were doing... we did have their lives in our hands after all. I got to meet everyone, and they are just normal folks. Plumbers, electricians, men with dirt under their nails. John McGuinness struck me as maybe the most humble of them all, and in my opinion he's the best racer the world has ever seen. Certainly he has the biggest cast iron chrome plated balls.

    We did well, had a couple setbacks, six men died in practice or racing during the 2 weeks we were there, and at the end we had a drawing and gave our rice bikes away, and came back home. I will never forget that. Andy kept encouraging me to come, it was tough putting it all together but he kept telling me YOLO ... You Only Live Once. Boy am I glad I did.



    Life is short, gents. YOLO.

  • select-fireselect-fire Member Posts: 69,453 ✭✭✭✭

    Great finish today...New 4 time Champion

  • cbxjeffcbxjeff Member Posts: 17,401 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021

    Yes, one of the most exciting 500's in quite a while for me. Happy to see Elio win #4.

    It's too late for me, save yourself.
  • austin20austin20 Member Posts: 34,829 ✭✭✭✭
    edited May 2021

    Congrats to Spiderman for his 4th.

    Jeff, did he climb the fence?

  • cbxjeffcbxjeff Member Posts: 17,401 ✭✭✭✭

    Yes austin20, as did some team mates. I was a little concerned that someone might fall and hurt themselves.

    It's too late for me, save yourself.
  • hoosierhoosier Member Posts: 1,503 ✭✭✭✭

    As always I enjoyed the Race, another 4 time winner.

    Magazines, Gun Parts and More. US Army Veteran, VFW, NRA Patron
Sign In or Register to comment.