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!
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Historian Donald Davidson has been the expert on the history of the Racing Capital of the World since he arrived in Central Indiana in the mid-1960s. Now 2010 Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee Davidson is answering your questions periodically in this blog!
Q: Is there any truth that the late Ayrton Senna had a test run with Penske at the Speedway, back in November 1993?
—Michael Brucker Jr. via email
A: Senna did in fact test with Penske, but it was the week of Christmas 1992 and it took place at Firebird Raceway (a road course) in Phoenix, rather than IMS. The situation was that Senna was not at all happy with his current lot in Formula One and was undecided as to whether or not to stay with McLaren (which he did), especially in view of the fact that Honda would not be returning for 1993. Largely through the efforts of fellow Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi, Senna showed up at Firebird, and under Emmo’s tutelage, took a number laps in a Marlboro-liveried Penske car.
Not surprisingly, everyone involved was extremely impressed with his runs, and Emmo pushed for Senna to come on as teammate to Paul Tracy and himself, Rick Mears having just announced his retirement at the Penske Christmas party a couple of weeks earlier. There are several minutes of footage of that day available on YouTube, including an interview (in Portuguese) conducted with Senna and Emmo during which time Senna comes over as even a little bashful, the two of them clearly having great affection for each other.
With Nigel Mansell already confirmed as joining Mario Andretti at Newman/Haas and Nelson Piquet expected to return with John Menard (which he did), Emmo was fantasizing that there could be at least five World Champions at Indianapolis in 1993. There would only be four. The next step was to get Senna on an oval, which never happened, and it wasn’t before he was re-signed with McLaren for another year of F1.
In the meantime, longtime Penske engineer Chuck Sprague, who had been somewhat apprehensive as what Senna might be like to work with, was absolutely amazed that he showed up at Firebird as the lone passenger in Fittipaldi’s rental car. No handlers, no entourage, just himself. He was extremely polite, very complimentary about the car and gave tons of feedback after very few laps.
The following day, Senna accompanied the team over for a test on the other side of town at PIR’s oval with Fittipaldi and Tracy, and he paid plenty of attention but declined to take any laps. He shook hands with everyone involved when he left and a year later, Chuck was flabbergasted to receive a Senna Christmas card.
Q: I recently visited a signage business in Indianapolis, located at the southern tip of a road called Gasoline Alley. When I looked at the map, although there are northern sections of this road that bear other names, it might have originally led right up to the track itself? So is there a historical connection between the lower stretch of this road and the track?
—Mel Francis, Oconomowoc, Wis.
A: We know it well, and we’ll hazard a guess that the signage business you visited was Freelance Lettering. Prior to 1985—the year in which that stretch was officially re-named Gasoline Alley—it had always been Roena Street. It did cause some confusion at the time—and since—one having to specify precisely which “Gasoline Alley” was being referenced, that of course, having been the nickname applied to the Garage Area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway a mile to the north as far back as the 1920s. And yes, it did lead directly to IMS until quite recently, in spite of it going by three different names during the 1.5-mile trip.
We can remember when the Roena stretch (from Vermont Street down to where it dead-ends into Rockville Road) was pretty much out in the country, much of it being occupied by row upon row of fruits and vegetables and several large greenhouses. The sweeping left- and right-hander just south of Vermont Street where Bob East and Steve Lewis had their operation for several years used to be lined with so much foliage overgrowth that to drive through there was almost as if one was travelling through a winding carwash with the brushes on but no water! That’s all gone now.
A longtime “500″ crew member named Charlie Patterson purchased some property along Roena in 1978, with a view to relocating his driveshaft business there, but after clearing out a bunch of shrubbery, one thing led to another. He began purchasing more and more property and pretty soon was putting up buildings for the purpose of housing race teams, accessory companies and a variety of racing-related businesses. It has been a height of activity for the last 30-odd years, and at the risk of leaving somebody out, we recall at various times over the years Bignotti-Cotter being down there, along with Vince Granatelli, Ron Hemelgarn, Newman/Haas, Riley & Scott, Chris Paulsen’s C & R Racing, several drag racing teams, including Don “The Snake” Prudhomme’s, Herb Porter’s HP Performance (now Speedway Engines run by Rick Long), Rick Hendrick’s IMSA GTP team, Dan Gurney, Jud Phillips, Tony Bettenhausen, PacWest, Jackie Howerton, Steve Lewis and Bob East, Alex Morales and Johnny Capels, Elouisa Garza, Mike Fanning, Frank Weiss, Donnie Ray Everett, Jeff Sinden and Joe Kennedy, Gordon Barrett, Bob Lazier, Adrian Fernandez, Pagan Racing (with John Barnes), HVM Racing (driver Simona de Silvestro), J. J. Yeley, Steve Long, Dan Drinan, Jason Leffler, Bud Kaeding, Joe Devin, Gambler, Earl’s Supply, Van’s Metalcraft and countless others. Over this last winter, Hinchman Uniforms moved in there.
For many years, as you suggest, the journey from IMS down to Gasoline Alley was a direct route, specifically Polco Street running from West 16th Street south to West 10th Street, followed by Grande Avenue from 10th to Vermont Street and finally Roena/Gasoline Alley down to Rockville Road where it dead-ends. Polco and Grande have retained their names, but the very handy direct route to IMS did come to an end a few months ago when the Town of Speedway closed a portion of Grande Avenue in a transaction made with Allison Transmission.
The name Polco, by the way, has an Allison connection. Now approximately 100 years old, the name is derived from using five letters out of “Prest-O-Lite Company,” the firm underwritten in 1904 by Carl Fisher and Jim Allison for about $5,000 and then sold in 1917 to Union Carbide for $9 million!
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Historian Donald Davidson has been the expert on the history of the Racing Capital of the World since he arrived in Central Indiana in the mid-1960s. Now 2010 Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee Davidson is answering your questions periodically in this blog!
Q: With the Red Bull Indianapolis GP MotoGP race approaching, I find myself wondering if any Indiana-built (or even Indianapolis-built) motorcycles ever raced or were tested at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
—Scott Smith, Brownsburg, Ind.
A: It turns out that there were actually several motorcycle companies in Indiana in the early days, but as with the majority of the automobile firms, they were short-lived, typically lasting only a year or two. Certainly none ever was tested at the track in the early days, the only makes participating in the seven events held during the one and only day of actual competition—Aug, 14, 1909—being Indian, Harley-Davidson, NSU, Excelsior, Reading Standard, Peugeot, Merkel, Minneapolis and Thor.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Historian Donald Davidson has been the expert on the history of the Racing Capital of the World since he arrived in Central Indiana in the mid-1960s. Now 2010 Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee Davidson is answering your questions periodically in this blog!
Q: How many times has the race been “red-flagged” for reasons other than rain, i.e., for accidents?
—Rick Johnson, Lynnwood, Wash.
A: Other than for rain, I can only think of six times total, a mere three of which were after the race was off and running. Those would be for the second-lap accident in 1964, which took the lives of Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald; the Lap 58 accident in 1973 which ultimately resulted in the demise of Swede Savage; and the final lap of 1967, when A.J. Foyt had to pick his way through the debris of a multi-car accident to reach Pat Vidan’s simultaneous checker and red. The other three would be due to accidents right at the start of the 1966 and 1973 events, plus a stoppage on the 1970 pace lap when ninth-starting Jim Malloy spun out of Turn 4 (due to a suspension failure, miraculously to be missed by everyone) just as the field was heading down for the start. All of the other red flags were due to weather-related issues, plus of course to wave in all other cars at a race conclusion. In 1974, when the policy was still to let the cars run for five more minutes after the winner had completed the distance, the red came out after only three and a half minutes when infield fans began running out onto the track to salute winner Johnny Rutherford.
Q: I believe the first “500″ was started with the wave of a RED flag, which at the time signified a clear track?
—Racenutdon
A: True. In fact it was not until a revamping of virtually all of the flag meanings in 1930 that green took the place of red. Prior to that, green had meant one lap to go.
Q: I have heard that Tommy Milton had no sight in his right eye, which makes winning two “500s” even more amazing?
—Dave Watts
A: That was the word. You’ll note that in virtually all photographs of the cagey and even secretive 1921 and 1923 winner, he usually has a pronounced squint. The late Charles Lytle, perhaps the most eminent of all the historians on early American racing, once asked a Milton contemporary, “Do you think he really only had one eye?” to which the contemporary fired back, “One? Hell, he had at least five in the back of his head!”
Q: Was it Kosuke Matsuura in 2004 or 2005 who was shocked to learn that the start was three abreast and that he had not had that particular experience before?
—PatTheIceman
A: Actually, that was Tora Takagi in 2003. The Indianapolis Star had a studio set up on the grounds, for taking head shots of all the drivers for the starting lineup in its race souvenir edition, designed in such a way that each head shot would have precisely the same lighting and so forth. Over to one side of the room there was a “mock-up” to show what the finished page was going to look like. The word is that Takagi, a “rookie,” causally strolled over for a look, and that after a few seconds his eyes slowly grew as wide as saucers when it dawned on him what the design implied. He then turned to his interpreter and, with a look of great concern, subtly held up three fingers and raised his eyebrows. When the interpreter nodded in the affirmative, Takagi, who went on to finish fifth and win the Rookie of the Year award, is said to have spent the next many seconds staring at the floor with a look of astonishment on his face. Apparently, he had not been previously aware that the “500″ employs three-abreast starts.
Click here to ask your questions to Donald about the people and races that have formed a century of rich history at IMS. Include your complete name and city and state/country of residence.
Send us your questions, and keep your eyes on this blog for answers to selected questions from Donald!
Throughout the year, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway plays host to many special guests and tour groups. On Thursday, Nov. 4, we met with and showed around several journalists from the Chicago bureau of China’s state news agency, Xinhua. The journalists moved to Chicago in January and had never been to a racetrack before they visited the Racing Capital of the World.
The first order of business was to get them quickly up to speed on the Speedway’s history. After condensing 100 years into about 30 minutes, we were off for a tour of the infield.
Most of the tour was spent in the Media Center, but we drove around to Gasoline Alley, the MotoGP garages, Turn 1 and the various sections of the road course. The highlight of the tour was a guided tour through the IMS Hall of Fame Museum by IMS Historian Donald Davidson.
The Chinese journalists will be back at IMS in May 2011 to report on the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, so we must have impressed them!
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Historian Donald Davidson has been the expert on the history of the Racing Capital of the World since he arrived in Central Indiana in the mid-1960s. Now 2010 Auto Racing Hall of Fame inductee Davidson is answering your questions periodically in this blog!
Q: When did the “500″ first go to the three-abreast start?
– Ted Crawford
A: The answer is 1921. For the first two years—1911 and 1912—the cars lined up five abreast, although in the first year, the Pace Car sat in the spot known as the pole position, with four cars next to it and then five per row behind that. In 1912, five cars were on the front row with the Pace Car out in front. It was then four per row from 1913 until 1920, with the tradition of three abreast having remained unbroken ever since 1921.
Q: I have read in different places that Howdy Wilcox, the 1919 winner, and Howdy Wilcox, the runner-up in 1932, were father and son, that they were uncle/nephew and that they were not related at all. Which is correct?
– Jason Deming
A: As strange as it may seem, they were not related at all. By the time the “other” Howdy Wilcox began to come to the fore in Indiana dirt track racing in the late 1920s, the immediate family of the 1919 winner, Howard Samuel Wilcox, suspected the newcomer might simply be using the name in order to capitalize on the immense popularity of the champion, who by then was deceased. In fact, Howdy Wilcox II, as he was dubbed by the media, was born Howard Omar Wilcox on Feb. 20, 1905, which is before the “original” Howdy had even begun to race. Howard S. Wilcox Jr., the son of the 1919 winner, never did race but was a prominent “500″ and United States Auto Club official. At one time or another serving as the head of the Indianapolis Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Indiana National Guard and the Five Hundred Festival Committee, he is the man who, in 1950, created Indiana University’s Little 500 bicycle race.
Click here to ask your questions to Donald about the people and races that have formed a century of rich history at IMS. Include your complete name and city and state/country of residence.
Send us your questions, and keep your eyes on this blog for answers to selected questions from Donald!
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