[hray33]

My paternal grandfather, Ralph Ray, picked #33 for his cars in recognition of the 33starters in the Indy 500. It has been in the Ray family for years....my father, Dave ran it and my brother Davey runs it when he is in the family owned car.

My maternal grandfather, John Heisdorf, had #2 on his midgets in recognition of the black deuce sprint car he used to work on.

[Todd Kimmel]

I got both my number and colors from Danny Drinan. My dad's shop is on Gasoline Alley so I grew up around Danny. As a kid I always looked up to him. It just seemed right to use his numer and colors. When I first started Danny was Red and White number 33 so I was red and white number 33. When Danny started driving for Kelly Racing he came red and yellow and had 33 and 333. We then changed my cars to red and yellow and ran one quarter midget as 33 and one as 333. Now we are back to one car and still carrying the 33 and red and yellow. The colors and number have been in my career for so long that it is just hard to change. I have thought about changing my number to lucky number 13, but feel there is no need for change at this point.

Todd Kimmel

[cmakin]

Originally Posted by Todd Kimmel I got both my number and colors from Danny Drinan. My dad's shop is on Gasoline Alley so I grew up around Danny. As a kid I always looked up to him. It just seemed right to use his numer and colors. When I first started Danny was Red and White number 33 so I was red and white number 33. When Danny started driving for Kelly Racing he came red and yellow and had 33 and 333. We then changed my cars to red and yellow and ran one quarter midget as 33 and one as 333. Now we are back to one car and still carrying the 33 and red and yellow. The colors and number have been in my career for so long that it is just hard to change. I have thought about changing my number to lucky number 13, but feel there is no need for change at this point. Todd Kimmel

A lot of us look up to Danny. He IS kind of tall.

[MIDGETRACER11]

well when dad raced go karts he ran #11 because if the numbers got knocked off it was the easiest number to back on.... with two stripes of black tape... so when he got into midget racing he ran #11.... so i just decided to carry on the tradition of the #11...

[racing_77u]

I was born on the 7th day of the 7th month and weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces so i have always ran the # 77 on my cars.

[JoshCunningham]

When my car owners started racing they tried to think of a successful number and what they came up with was 6s. (If you sound it out, it sounds like "success")

[openwheelKT]

Originally Posted by Seadog I also remember when USAC car numbers 1 through 10 meant where you finished in the points from the previous year.

I sure would like to see a return of running the #1 if you are the champion in all series. To me it means something and is something to be proud of. I remember in the 80's in IndyCar (probably happened before that, but remember when I was a kid). The champion would take #1. However, if you didn't win Indy, you didn't get to run #1 in May. You had to change your number to something else and the previous Indy champion ran #1 for the month. I always thought that was a cool way to honor both champions.

[cmakin]

Originally Posted by openwheelKT I sure would like to see a return of running the #1 if you are the champion in all series. To me it means something and is something to be proud of. I remember in the 80's in IndyCar (probably happened before that, but remember when I was a kid). The champion would take #1. However, if you didn't win Indy, you didn't get to run #1 in May. You had to change your number to something else and the previous Indy champion ran #1 for the month. I always thought that was a cool way to honor both champions.

Someone correct my if I am wrong, but if you are talking about the 70's, the reason the car with the No. 1 had to change was because the season championship was for CART. The Indy 500 being the USAC Gold Crown division would, of course be a separate series (with CART points awarded, however).

[openwheelKT]

Originally Posted by cmakin Someone correct my if I am wrong, but if you are talking about the 70's, the reason the car with the No. 1 had to change was because the season championship was for CART. The Indy 500 being the USAC Gold Crown division would, of course be a separate series (with CART points awarded, however).

That more than likely was the main reason. CART started in '79 so it would have mostly been in the 80's. I still thought it was cool even if it may have been for political reasons.

My dads # was 3B it stood for me and my 2 brothers. 3 boys.