Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Show Me The Money! During the 1950’s and 60’s, the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race saw tremendous growth. There are multiple reasons for this, of course, but one part of this was the continuing increase in prize money offered for the event. From 1950 to 1970, the total event purse experiences a five-fold increase! Even accounting for inflation, the purse increased three-fold. Say what you will about teams and drivers competing for the “love of the sport”, if the money isn’t there, the top talent…
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OP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 4 of 5 – Speed
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Getting Up To Speed One thing that drew people not only to the track on race day, but on pole day and every qualifying day thereafter was the thrill of seeing those incredible speeds! People came to see blazingly fast cars, the brave superhuman drivers that piloted them, and to hear track announcers like Tom Carnegie announce, “And it’s a NEEEEWWWW TRAAAACK RECOOORD!” Some of you know what I’m talking about! For those that don’t, please check out this video from IndyCar’s YouTube page:…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 3 of 5 – Creative Engineering
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race The Engines Now what can you allow and not allow beyond the standardized tub and safety features? For one, I think you can open up the engine design. Put a cap on the output power of the engine, but allow teams to achieve that power however they wish. Want to run a four-cylinder twin-turbo engine? Great. Twelve-cylinder normally aspirated? Fantastic. Heck, throw one of those super cool Wankel engines in there! Just make all teams bring their engine to a league-operated dyno to check…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 2 of 5 – Safety First
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race Opening Up The Rules One aspect of the 500 that drew in crowds of fans, competitors, and manufacturers was that the rules were open enough for teams to build their own car and develop their own innovations. If the current culture of IndyCar racing had existed in mid-20th century, we would never have had seen diesel power, turbo chargers, that amazing gas turbine engine, and most amazing of all no wings. We would still be running front-engine, naturally-aspirated, carbureted roadsters all made by the…
Read MoreOP-Ed – Rebuilding the 500 – Part 1 of 5 – Intro
Rebuilding the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race An Introduction A few weeks back, I posted the article, The Role of a Series, arguing that most successful series throughout the history of motorsports, including American open-wheel racing, were successful because they had one marquee race that everyone in the racing world wanted to win. Sportscar racing has the 24-Hours of Le Mans, stockcar racing has the Daytona 500, Formula 1 has Monaco, off-road racing has the Baja 1000, and rally has the Dakar (Da Argentina now?). American open-wheel racing has always had…
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