Originally Posted by TQ97:
It is a dangerous area. We used to sit around our campers after the qm races at night, and you’d hear gunshots in nearby neighborhoods. We used to joke that the chain link fences were bullet proof to make ourselves feel better.
The last Hoosier 100 that I shot in 2019, I remember leaving and using my GPS to head back where I was staying. Uh, yeah. . . .
This was all done to subsidize the gambling industry. (As if all the welfare they receive isn't enough) IT is being used for a training facility. I am surprised the grandstand hasn't already been torn down. State of Indiana, not just the fair board, sold racing history down the river. Very sad.
Come on you people act like the race was sold out year after year. Cars and fans everywhere. I went to 6 races. The first 3 were snooze fest. Flat out terrible racing with very few people in the stands. The last 2 were were good. But years of terrible racing and cancelation killed Indy.
Unpopular opinion but the racing on the Indy mile peaked in the 70s and were very fortunate it stayed as long as it did. I loved going there on my trips to Indy in May and it’s not the same since it closed but like was said before it’s not like the show was at its peak when it closed.
Originally Posted by 767:
Come on you people act like the race was sold out year after year. Cars and fans everywhere. I went to 6 races. The first 3 were snooze fest. Flat out terrible racing with very few people in the stands. The last 2 were were good. But years of terrible racing and cancelation killed Indy.
Is there such a thing as terrible racing??? Maybe these peeps aren't REAL race fans? A real race fan can appreciate when a team works hard and is so fast that they "stink up the show"...
On the track itself. Yes it was all sand for the most part. I know for a fact that several very prominent men associated with the race's history were in touch with the fairboard in effort to make the surface more racy for automobiles. They wanted nothing to do with it as the horse racing scenario has been cooking for quite a while. The relationship between USAC and the Fairboard became a thing of the past.
I was party to several meetings at the Working Man's Friend were two men who actually won the "Hoosier 100" had proposed repairing the surface. Folders, charts, projected expense, the works.
They (the Fairboard) wanted no part of it.
AJ Foyt himself spent a ton of money on this event in the late 90's. You can still pick up a poster and program as they printed THOUSANDS of them.... it was not for lack of trying. There was no draw at the gate. The track was not racy and the show's normally ran very late into the night.
I took a carload of texans out there once, somebody hit the pitstand late and that race went on forever. I think Chuck Leary won the darn thing? A zombie trip to Mid Ohio for the CART race the next day happened a couple of times! Those were the days! It would kill me now!
