I want to wish all who read this a happy, enjoyable, healthy and most important of all a safe Memorial Day Weekend. Please reflect for a moment or two throughout you busy Holiday Weekend as to the real reason for this special day set aside for our heroic Fighting Men & Women. In that moment or two give thanks and honor those men and women who have given what Abraham Lincoln described at Gettysburg back on November 19th of 1863 as "the last full measure of devotion".

This holiday is special for myself and my family. We've been attending the Indianapolis 500 for many years in a row now and the honor and respect bestowed upon the memory of those who have served and have been forever changed in one way or another and those who in some cases died tortuously agonizing deaths is as moving today as it was the very first time I attended.

Our shades will be firmly in place during the moments the buglers from the Purdue Marching band blow Taps a few minutes prior to the command to start engines because, just as the first time, this middle aged clod hopper will probably be moved to tears once more. Those emotions will soon give way to the excitement and elation of the start to The Greatest Spectacle In Racing. Then we'll settle in for the 500 mile grind that is the Indy 500 as the drama builds towards the finish.

It isn't always the best race of the year, in fact seldom is it, but it's always special.

Thankfully the underlying theme of Memorial Day has never faded from the Indianapolis 500!