The Official Blog of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

1983 Steve Chassey

He drove a car called the Genesee Beer Wagon. He drove for a rookie woman car owner. He is one of two Vietnam War veterans to make a “500” field. He sold insurance to teams for on-track crash damage.

Steve Chassey made his mark at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with three starts in the hallowed Indianapolis 500 and has stayed involved in different ways through the years.

He had a best finish of 11th in 1983, but he took a lot of different cars to the line, innovations, like the two-tone blue Jet Engineering Eagle, one of arguably the prettiest race cars ever to run on the 2 ½-mile oval.

“I was pretty proud of that,” he said of his ’83 finish. “In ’83, we finished the race with a stock block (engine).”

That was the Genesee Beer Wagon, fielded by Dick Hammond.

The whole experience at the Speedway is something Chassey treasures.

“Growing up in open-wheel  racing, that was the pinnacle of racing,” Chassey said of the Indianapolis 500. “In our careers, it’s what we all looked for. I love the Speedway. They treat me nice.”

Chassey built stock cars, then went into the service. He was scheduled to go to Vietnam as a communications specialist, but that changed and he became part of a howitzer battalion as a sergeant E-5. Pete Halsmer is the only other Vietnam War veteran to make the show at Indy. He was a helicopter pilot.

When Chassey returned to the United States from the war, he started racing sprinters, on his way toward the Midwest and Indy. In 1981, he drove for female car owner Lydia Loughery, but they failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

Chassey started the “500” in 1983, 1987 and 1988. After he retired as a driver, he went into the racing insurance business for on-track physical damage. Generally, at that time in the late 1980s, teams figured about a crash and a half per season in their budgets.

“At one time, we had 16 to 18 cars insured,” Chassey said. “There’s not one of the teams now that I know of that is insured for on-track crash damage now. They look at the premium and say, ‘I can buy a whole car for that.’ But what if you knock off the same corner four or five times during the season?”

Chassey moved from Indianapolis to Glendale, Ariz., in October. He was elected a year ago to serve on the Board of Directors of the Indianapolis 500 Oldtimers organization.

He would get back into insurance if he found a company that wanted to get involved in motorsports. And he’ll certainly be at the Speedway this month.

Many people believe that during the period between the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911 and the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994, Speedway was host to only one race a year.  Although this may be true for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, it is not true for the Town of Speedway.  From 1946 until 1959, races were held at the 16th Street Speedway which was located on the south side of 16th Street directly across from the second turn of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The track was a quarter-mile paved oval that was best known for its midget racing. For many years, the biggest event at the track was the annual night before the 500 midget race. Many of the Indy 500 stars of that era raced at 16th Street Speedway.  The list of winners at the 16th Street Speedway midget races includes Indy 500 veterans like Duane Carter (winner of the first midget race at the track on May 29, 1946), Johnnie Parsons, Gene Hartley, Mike Nazaruk, Manuel Ayulo, Johnny McDowell, Johnnie Tolan, Art Cross, Shorty Templeman, Eddie Sachs, and Len Sutton.  The track closed down in 1959 and was torn down to make room for a shopping center.

Poster promoting the 16th Street Speedway

1952 Program from the 16th Street Speedway

There was a second 16th Street Speedway that operated from 1997 through 1999, but it was located a few miles outside of Speedway’s town borders.  Similar to the original 16th Street Speedway it was a quarter mile oval, but the new track had a dirt surface.  The track was built inside of Bush Stadium, the former home field for the Indianapolis Indians minor league baseball team. Although a number of different series competed at the track, similar to the original 16th Street Speedway the main draw was the midget series.  The list of participants at the track includes a number of drivers who have also raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway including Tony Stewart, Ed Carpenter, Billy Boat, Jack Hewitt, Jason Leffler, Robbie Buhl, Mel Kenyon, Donnie Beechler, Rick Treadway, Johnny Parsons, Jr., Andy Michner, Bruce Walkup and Jay Drake.

Tony Stewart races at the 16th Street Speedway in 1998

Even though the Town of Speedway has been home to only one track since 1959, there are more than 15 short tracks within an hour and a half of central Indiana that feature open-wheel racing.  This includes tracks in Bloomington, Clermont, Gas City, Terre Haute, Anderson (home of the Little 500 Sprint Car race the night before the Indy 500), Winchester, Salem, Kokomo, Lawrenceburg, Putnamville, Paragon, and North Vernon.  As visitors make their plans for the Indy 500, the Brickyard 400 or the Redbull Indianapolis GP, they should consider making a trip to one of the short tracks in central Indiana to experience grass-roots racing at its best.

Ed Carpenter races at the 16th Street Speedway in June 1999

The first race where I was a credentialed photographer was at the 16th Street Speedway in 1997.  During that event, I shot the picture below of Johnny Heydenreich when he had a vicious accident during qualifying.  Shooting at the track that day and this photograph in particular would prove to be the first of many steps that eventually resulted in me becoming a member of the IMS Photo Staff in 2002.

Johnny Heydenreich races at the 16h Street Speedway in August 1997

With all apologies to Led Zeppelin, it’s been a long time since we’ve rocked and rolled at “Splash And Go.” There has been plenty of news since the North American season officially ended with the NASCAR Sprint Cup season finale Nov. 21, so it would be a bit tedious to review all of that.

Let’s just pick up with the last week or so, shall we?

The IZOD IndyCar Series season ended two months ago, but it seems that no series in America has more mojo right now than Randy Bernard and Co. The good news keeps coming and coming, putting more than a decade’s worth of acrimony due to “The Split” deeper and deeper into the rear-view mirror.

Mazda joins the party!

The Road To Indy ladder system for INDYCAR, consisting of Firestone Indy Lights, Star Mazda and USF2000, received a major boost this week when Mazda announced its title sponsorship of the program. The Mazda Road to Indy will provide scholarships to the champion of all three developmental classes to jump to the next level the next season.

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. There’s no other way to describe this, on so many levels. The scholarships provide a legitimate carrot for aspiring open-wheel racers at all levels, and the addition of another manufacturer bullish on the future of INDYCAR racing is fantastic.

Combine the Mazda Road to Indy with the recently announced program to grant a Firestone Indy Lights oval program to the USAC National Drivers Championship winner, and few — if any — sanctioning bodies in the world have such a clearly defined road to the pinnacle as INDYCAR.

Team Penske continued to add sponsors to its stable, as series sponsor IZOD came on board this week. IZOD will use Penske driver Ryan Briscoe as its new poster boy, and the best series sponsor in INDYCAR history — by about 1,000 miles — already is activating both its series sponsorship and support of Briscoe through new TV commercials filmed in the desert with a live soundtrack provided by rock band Weezer. No more racing to the party, I guess. I shed no tears.

The addition of IZOD continued a hell of a capitalistic run for Penske, which also snared Shell/Pennzoil as an Indianapolis 500 primary sponsor for three-time Indy winner Helio Castroneves, AAA of Southern California as a primary sponsor for Castroneves at Long Beach and Texas and Midwestern grocery store chain Meijer as an associate sponsor for all three of its cars.

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Have you ever played poker and held a hand you know can’t be topped? Just sat there quietly while everyone else showed their cards and then blew them away with your straight flush or four of a kind?

That’s how I felt while reviewing the Interwebs today before writing this edition of Splash And Go. I knew it would be highly unlikely that I’d find anything in NASCAR, MotoGP, Formula One or anywhere else in racing that would top the seismic impact of THE news of the day in worldwide motorsport on a date that will be circled in red for a long, long time in INDYCAR annals: Chevrolet is returning to the IZOD IndyCar Series as an engine manufacturer starting in 2012.

The Bowtie is back, baby!

The Bowtie is back. Roll that off your tongue as many times as you’d like, open-wheel racing fans. Manufacturer competition is back in IndyCar, and Chevy’s return to take on Honda hopefully will tip another fence-sitter or two among car manufacturers into the IZOD IndyCar Series as an engine builder.

It’s impossible to overestimate how huge this announcement is for the IZOD IndyCar Series. Competition. An iconic American manufacturer with deep, successful roots in IndyCar racing. Penske Racing as Chevy’s first customer. And most importantly, a validation from the colossus known as General Motors that the technical package created for 2012 by the ICONIC committee is attractive to auto manufacturers.

This wasn’t just a home run or a knockout. This was Reggie Jackson taking Dock Ellis more than 500 feet deep and out of Tiger Stadium in the 1971 All-Star Game. This was Manny Pacquiao transporting Ricky Hatton into la-la land with one left hook in the second round.

This was big. But the announcement was important for more than just engine competition. Chevy officials also indicated they are interested in building an aero package, a significant development.

If Chevy builds aero kits for the new Dallara Safety Cell, can Honda be far behind? After all, if Chevy builds a very efficient aero kit, will Honda want cars powered by its engine to wear Chevy clothing? I think not. Lotus has expressed interest in building an aero kit, and you have to figure Dallara will offer one, too.

So we have at least two engines and at least three body kits — with Honda as a probable fourth — for 2012. The series still has plenty of hurdles to jump, but rays from that proverbial light toward the back of the tunnel are burning more brightly today.

Full compliments to INDYCAR CEO Randy Bernard, who listens and then gets things done. Full compliments to Roger Penske, whose influence, wisdom and business and racing wizardry got the IndyCar door re-opened with Chevy. Full compliments to the ICONIC committee, which was validated big-time today. Full compliments to Honda, which requested competition and welcomes it. And full compliments to Chevrolet and GM, which showed great vision to see IndyCar racing as a place for growth, relevant technological development and strong marketing of its passenger vehicles.

It’s a damn good day to be an IndyCar fan.