For the first time since World War II, there will be no Indianapolis 500-Mile Sweepstakes held on Memorial Day weekend.
I, like many other race fans, am disappointed.
Any other year, you’d find me in Stand A on Sunday, just across from the first pit box, picking tiny flecks of Firestone off my arms.
But this is not any other year. For months, we’ve been holed up in our houses and so have our cars; no show-n-shines, no cars and coffee, no long Sunday cruise out in the country.
We’ve all had to make sacrifices, some easy, some hard, but hopefully, in this strange time, you’ve been one of the many who have passed the time by getting out in the garage and doing some wrenching.
Thankfully, our local drag strips and dirt tracks—and Darlington—are rumbling to life, even if we can’t all be there in person.
Someday soon, 33 IndyCars will come barreling down the frontstretch, cross the Yard of Bricks and take the green flag for the start of the 104th Indianapolis 500 in front of 250,000 screaming race fans.
I can’t wait.
In the meantime, wet your Indy whistle with the above audio from 1963, featuring legendary IMS announcer Tom Carnegie, Chuck Bailey and eventual three-time winner Bobby Unser, as the then-rookie, with a tremendous roar, qualifies his Novi-powered No. 6 Hotel Tropicana Special for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
