I don't care what anybody says, The Indy 500 is still the Greatest spectacle in racing! I'm super pumped to hear back home in indiana one last time and glad my 16 year old son will be with me. He will race his 600 at U.S. 24 the night before and Indy on Sunday Morning and straight to Kokomo to finish with the sprints. Come on, Tell me how to get much of a better weekend than that.
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In 1983 I began my association with the Genesee Beer team owned By Dick Hammond from Buffalo, New York and managed by Galen Fox from Indianapolis. I drove all of the "Genesee Beer Wagon" cars for them, Sprint, Champ Dirt, and the Indy cars. I finished the 1983 Indy 500 in 11th position. I had many top ten finishes with our Chevrolet Stock Block powered car. I set the one and four lap qualifying records at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a normally aspirated Push Rod Stock Block in 1985. In 1984 I won the prestigious "Hoosier Hundred" Dirt car race that is considered the Indy 500 for Dirt Cars.
That kind of story is why I paid attention to the 500 and when those days were over, that's when I stopped paying attention. Those days are long gone and they'll probably never be back. I could care less if they run on the oval or road course because the underlying nature of the sport has changed in a way that doesn't connect with me. I suppose I'm in the minority or else things wouldn't have changed.
When dirt tracks were taken off the championship trail back in 71' time started running out for the sprint and midget drivers being the choice of car owners. Then the death of Mr. Hulman, and the creation of CART and road circuits, teams figured you could teach a road course ace to drive an oval easier than you teach a dirt guy to do road courses. Tony George tried to go back, but the media (you know who I mean) wouldn't support a return to the past and the golden era of the Big Cars and just Ovals, dirt or other wise. So here we are wanting to relive the past but sadly it ain't going to happen. I'm 60 now and going to my 35th 500 I started listening as a an 11 year old in 65' went to the track for the 1st time in 69' and I'm grateful for what I've experienced. You don't have to embrace change but you can't live in the past.
