Indianapolis Motor Spedway: 500 Miles to Glory at The Brickyard
The Brickyard: Home of the Indy 500
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ’The Brickyard’, is the most iconic venue in the rich history of US motorsport.
The track is based in Speedway, Indiana - a suburb of Indianapolis - and is home to the prestigious Indy 500 race, which attracts around 400,000 fans on Raceday; the single most attended day of sport on the planet.
The Brickyard - Circuit History
Constructed in 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of the very first purpose-built racetracks in the world.
The circuit is a rectangular oval 2.5 miles long, run anti-clockwise, with four identical banked corners, two smaller straights and two larger straights.
The track’s initial purpose was for testing road cars, but track owner and local entrepreneur Carl Fischer saw an opportunity to race the cars against one another in an area that was not only much safer than the makeshift circuits of the day, but also an opportunity for spectators to view the cars on a regular basis rather than waiting hours to see cars just once.
The track’s dimensions have remained unchanged ever since its construction - instead, the notable changes can be identified in the track’s surface.
Initially built on soil and covered gravel, the speedway was quickly paved with brick in the interests of safety after a number of fatal incidents - and from this point assumed its nickname of ‘The Brickyard’.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway “The Brickyard”, complete with Golf course
From the 1930s the track began to be laid with asphalt and by 1961, the bricks had been covered entirely except for a section at the start/finish lane a yard long - a literal yard of bricks tribute to its much-loved name.
As well as the Indy 500, the track hosts a number of other significant US motorsport events on an annual basis, including the Brickyard 400 (NASCAR series race).
The circuit also has an infield section which is used in various forms for other motorsport events, also using sections of the oval circuit clockwise, and including an Indycar round separate to the Indy 500.
F1 raced here between 2000 and 2007, but sadly it never recovered from the disaster of the 2005 race, where only 6 of the 20 runners took part due to safety concerns over the Michelin tyres that had failed on the banked section during practice.
The Indy 500
First raced in 1911 with a crowd of around 85,000, the Indy 500 is an annual race around the oval circuit of 500 miles - so 200 laps of the track.
The inaugural race was won in just under 7 hours, and back then drivers would sometimes swap out for a number of laps and take a break whilst another driver took over. Drivers would also have riding mechanics in the car with them during the race.
Nowadays each car is only assigned 1 driver and the race normally takes less than 3 hours, as part of the IndyCar Series. Drivers average a speed of around 160 mph, although a single lap can average as much as 230mph.
The Indy 500 is also part of Motorsports ‘Triple Crown’, along with the Monaco Grand Prix and the Le Mans 24 Hours. Graham Hill won the 1966 race en route to becoming the only driver to date to claim the prestigious title. Fernando Alonso only needs the Indy 500 to join Hill and came close in 2017 leading for 27 laps of the race before his engine gave up.
Three drivers hold the record for the most Indy 500 wins, with four apiece - A J Foyt, Al Unser, and Rick Mears.
A number of F1 drivers have won the race - notably world champions Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi (twice), Mario Andretti and Jacques Villeneuve. There is often a perception that F1 drivers move to IndyCar as something of a retirement plan, but Fittipaldi is the only one to have won the Indy 500 after retiring from F1.
The unrelenting speed of an oval circuit has always been hugely dangerous. 73 individuals have lost their lives at the speedway, with 57 of these occurring during the Indy 500, and 42 being drivers
Traditions at Indy - Milk, Kisses and Balloons…
Americans sport is brimming with longstanding traditions, and Indy is no different.
Three-time Indy 500 winner Louis Meyer used to drink buttermilk as a cooling refreshment and did so after winning in 1936. This was captured on camera and the tradition stuck, with milk now on offer to the winner (we’re not sure what happens if a lactose intolerant driver wins…)
Louis Meyer and the milk tradition
Sixty years after the milk tradition began, another ritual was born when Brickyard 400 winner Dale Jarrett kissed the yard of bricks in tribute to the circuit’s history. Winners of both the Brickyard 400 and the Indy 500 have followed suit ever since.
Another Indy tradition is the release of thousands of balloons, which has taken place in the 1940s during the singing of the anthem (Back Home Again In), Indiana. In recent years environmental protests have taken place against the release of so many balloons, and whilst the tradition did not take place in 2020 owing to set up limitations during the ongoing pandemic, it remains to be seen whether it will replace in 2021.
Not all fans come for the cars though, as best described in Indycar and F1 design supremo Adrian Newey’s autobiography:
‘I overheard a TV crew interviewing one of the campers…
“How long have you been coming?”
“I’ve been coming for the last twenty years, haven’t missed one yet…it’s just the best goddamm event in the whole of the USA.”
“What do you think of the cars then?”
He paused, thinking. “You know”, he said, “that’s the damnedest thing. Twenty years, I ain’t seen one yet.”’
Final Thoughts on The Brickyard and the Indy 500
To the naked and uninformed eye, the Indy circuit is quite literally the epitome of cars ‘driving round in circles’. But Indy and its flagship event boast an unrivalled blend of rich global sporting history and typical US spectacle with something for everyone.
There’s never a dull moment at the Brickyard, and the Indy 500 brings a truly American spice to motorsport’s Triple Crown.
