There is apparently some manner of automobiling sporting event going on here this month. From all the excitement amongst the locals, you'd think it was a UT home game or something. The city's maybe not as riled as Knoxville before the Vols play, say, Alabama or Florida, but I'd say we're at at least a Kentucky or South Carolina pitch here.
It's the harbinger of summer, like a robin. Us native hoosiers can't get all summery until we hear Jim Nabors sing "back Home Again in Indiana" When the old bugger dies, we're gonna be in a world of shit.
ReplyDeleteWhat about Nascar at the brickyard? That ought to generate a bit of excitement.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching indy years back but lost interest. Hard to relate to a bunch of foreigners and little cars for a redneck when we have Nascar and Dale and Terry at the same time.
Don't diss THE 500, as there is no other.
ReplyDeleteForeigners or not, open wheel racing at 200+ mph next to a hard concrete wall is still a game of flat-out, hang up your coat, bring your best game and roll up your sleeves GUTS, BRAVERY, or any other term you want to use for DEEP COURAGE.
And unlike the taxi-cabs when these cars touch each other at speed the infractions involve weeks and months of sheet time and NOT a tongue lashing from the officials.
All The Best,
Frank W. James
Formula 1 anyone?
ReplyDeleteI honestly forgot all about it. Is the Indy 500 this weekend? I thought it was at the end of May for some reason.
ReplyDeleteI don't follow the racing, really, but I have a father-in-law who's more or less a Jeff Foxworthy joke.
"If you're contemplating tattoo removal services because Dale Earnhardt, Jr. changed his number, you might be a redneck."
That doesn't cover his "NASCAR Room" . . . . but I'm still the hayseed in the family.
Zendo, not here, not any more. Y'know Uncle Bernie would not even spend the night in Indianapolis? The man commuting by helicopter from Chi. Seems us bucolic rednecks haven't any accomodations worty of the name. Besides, we all carry guns...
ReplyDeleteAll I know about the Indy 500 is that it comes after the Monaco GP and before the Le Mans 24-hour and steals attention from both.
ReplyDeleteBut F1 has gone to hell in a handbasket. It has apparently been purchased, lock-stock-and-barrel, by one B. Ecclestone. So I get out old copies of Autocourse from the 1960's and read about Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Chris Amon, Denis Hulme, Lorenzo Bandini, Dan Gurney, Jochen Rindt, etc. They used to print the lap charts, so you could follow the race and "watch" as the second-placed car tried to cut the lead by a half-second per lap until he was in the leader's mirrors.
I got a wonderful coffee-table book of photographs not long ago by Rainer Schlegelmilch, who was very active in the 60's. Fantastic stuff.
I'm not dissin' the 500, as the Brits mourn Brooklands and the Italians miss the banking at Monza. So I think that the Euros may be kinda jealous that the Yanks still have such an old race going on the same track. Can you name another? The Mille Miglia? Targa Florio? Nurburgring?
"Hard to relate to a bunch of foreigners and little cars..."
ReplyDeleteHey -- open wheels, man. Get it? On that track -- originally designed a century ago for cars going ninety miles an hour. And they're still out there, going twice that fast.
Don't be hatin' on Indy. It's the greatest spectacle in motor sports, bar none.
Z-Deb: F-1 can go hang. Open wheels ain't all there is to it. It's about that track at Indy. There is nothing else like it, anywhere in the world.