Before there was Nascar there was Indy

Today the Indy 500 is being run.

Its a little different than it used to be.

In the 60's it was a "pay for view event" even before cable.

People bought tickets at the Circle Star Theater or the Cow Palace to see the broadcast. Today it is run with side by side advertisements on ABC one of the big three TV networks. In that era that was about what you got on TV except for a few high Frequency channels that mostly carried PBS programming.

There were no women drivers. Today there are two.. Can you name them? Danica Patrick, the original Go Daddy Girl, and Sarah Evans, the woman with the most starts at Indy.

There are many safety features built into the track that were not there. Many zero impact barriers. Collapsible axles and impact resistant drivers cockpits. There is some amazing crash technology on display. In the first half of the race, there were 6 very nasty crashes with the wall. All drivers got out alive and were talking to the interviewers within minutes. Most of the reason for the crashes were driver's errors. There is a very sophisticated set of rules about passing and opening lanes for drivers to follow.

The cars are running at top end about 215 miles an hour. This is pretty amazing because I remember when no car could go that fast. Now they all go that fast on corn juice ethanol.

The drafting and the dirty air (air turbulence) that occurs in this race makes it harder to drive from the back of the field to the front.

What can really make a difference it basically three things.

1. A driver that can drive at those speeds and doesn't get too emotionally involved with the other drivers. The driver must hit the mark at 60 mph when coming into the pit.

2. A pit crew that can send the car back earlier than the others during the race. Leads can easily change over this.

3. A cew of spotters and tech people that can determine how much fuel is being burned, who much tire tread is left, and who is passing who as they track the car whizzing around the oval.

The TV folks have great stories to tell about the crews and progress of who is in which team and what they have developed in practice.. but it is pretty lame considering you get to see a 200mph race in high def, in the middle of a beautiful day in Indiana.

: ) Pat