The IMS Blog is back!
Have you missed us? Have you had trouble sleeping? Wondering where we’ve been, what we’ve been doing? Well we’re back and ready to go! We’re leaner (check out our NEW URL blog.ims.com), meaner and ready to bring you more of the content you’ve loved and a bunch of new stuff too! While the blog did momentarily move to our main website (IMS.com) we’re very happy to be back here in our old home.
We are going to be doing some redecorating around here so please pardon our dust while we’re working!
Donald Davidson and the Ask Donald and Gasoline Alley Unplugged Series returns!
ASK DONALD:
First things first… Donald is ready to get back to answering your questions! So, let’s hear them! We want them all! Post your questions for Donald below in the comments section or email them to us at webmaster@brickyard.com.
Speaking of Donald. Are you aware that we have ALL of the Talk of Gasoline Alley with Donald Davidson on our website for download? Click here to check them out.
Is there a specific topic, driver, team owner, or moment in history that you’d like for Donald to give you all the details about? Send us those comments too and your idea just might be our first Gasoline Alley Unplugged!
We can’t wait to get started so here’s an incredible gallery of ALL of our Flickr images!
Besides Danny Sullivan, are there any other drivers from Louisville who have competed in the Indianapolis 500? While scrolling through newspapers from 65 years ago (for a column I do each week), I saw an advertisement for a race at Salem Speedway, and in the ad it noted a couple of “500 drivers,” one of which was a man by the name of Milt Fankhouser of Louisville. If there are no others from Louisville, can you elaborate a little bit about Mr. Fankhouser and his only appearance in the ’47 race? I know he spun and went into a ditch, but that’s the only information I have.
Thank you very much! You are a true icon of the Speedway!
Alan Stewart
Donald: Welcome back. We recently lost Jerry Grant. Would you surmise that if Jerry held on and won the 1972 ’500 it would have been the most ‘out-of-nowhere’ winner in the history of the speedway, akin to Jigger Sirois winning the pole? What were the circumstances behind Grant’s car being named The Mystery Eagle? Was it basically a car without a sponsor? And, didn’t the deal come about late in the month perhaps on the second week of qualifications? Thanks.
I never understood why IMS did not highlight the celebrity involvement at the Speedway. The footprints in cement the Hollywood stars did in the 1950′s would be such a tourist draw and I wonder why they don’t still do it and why they stopped and didn’t showcase what they had.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1515225575218&set=o.125814777434955&type=3&theater
Welcome back! Was wondering your thoughts on Scott Brayton
Glad the Blog is Back!
Hey, Donald, here’s a guy you can tell us more about: the man who always carried the Borg-Warner to victory lane from the 50′s to the 80′s(?). I think his name was Jack McKenzie (or something close to that), and I know he was a teacher, but not much else. Tell us more about him, how he got the job of carrying the trophy, and who were his successors up to the present day?
Mr. D: On 3 Sept. 2012, I Was in the Museum lobby and saw a lighted picture of the 47 or 48 Lou Moore car driven to wins in 47 and 48. I went upstairs and bought that photo from the photo shop. The image is of the Mauri Rose car sitting in a garage with another car in the background. My questions about the photo are these:
1. Was that garage in Gasoline Alley or was it an off-site Lou Moore garage?
2. I have not been able to trace the second car in the background. It isn’t their team car driven by Bill Holland. Don’t think it’s even a Deidt car that the Moore team was using back in 47 and 48.
3. Was this photo taken in 47 or 48?
Glad you are back!
Donald,
Do you have any information on the flowers that we see near the fourth turn on race day? They are part of those iconic shots we get from ABC every year, and I have always wondered if there was any significance to them. They are close to where the Sacks/MacDonald crash occurred, are they related?
Thanks,
Pat
Dear Donald Davidson,
I am a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) researcher. Currently I am researching CCC artists from the 1930′s. One of these New Deal artists was Ernest Roose.
Unfortunately, Ernest Roose died in a 1954 plane crash that also took the life of Wilber Shaw, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president and three time winner in addition to the life of pilot Ray Grimes.
Ernest Roose was an accomplished portrait painter and artist, my understanding is that he created several pieces of Indianapolis Motor Speedway winners. Perhaps, even one of Wilbur Shaw?
Are these paintings or any other art, by Ernest Roose, in the museum collection?
Thank you for your time.
Katheen Duxbury