2019 INDY 500: WHAT YOU NEED TO SEE AND DO!

Posted on May 21, 2019May 21, 2019 by MartynL

Motorsports Maven Jim Donnelly’s quick and handy Indy 500 survival and 'to-see-and-do' guide for all you road warriors out there. Let’s say you’re making an oft-discussed, long-planned and much-anticipated journey out to Indianapolis for the first time this week, to take in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing on the most hallowed weekend in motorsport. Maybe you were already in town for the big Mecum auction that took place over the past weekend. The point here is there’s a ton to see, do, and eat ...

INDYCAR: SO YOU WANT TO DRIVE THE INDY 500?

Posted on January 5, 2017May 15, 2017 by MartynL

We've suspected this for many years and now it's official. The Indianapolis 500 is no longer a reasonable aspiration for most racing drivers, blogs Stephen Cox. Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) president Doug Boles was kind enough to talk with me briefly at the annual PRI trade show in Indy. I asked him what his plan was to increase the number of entries at the Indianapolis 500. His answer took me by surprise. “We grew up falling in love with the sport when you had that number of ent...

LOST TREASURE: SHASTA SPEEDWAY’S 1951 SEASON TROPHIES!

Posted on January 10, 2016May 15, 2017 by MartynL

You just never know what you'll find in the bottom of your grandmother's closet, blogs Stephen Cox. Northern California's Shasta Speedway held its first full season of competition in 1951. The 3/8-mile former horse racing track had been opened to motor racing the previous summer and immediately attracted the attention of a mechanically-inclined teenager from Indiana. Bud Pedigo had dated my grandmother, Ruth, when they attended high school together in Indianapolis in the mid-1930s. ...

ASSOCIATED PRESS’ PAUL NEWBURY: BAN INDYCAR FOREVER!

Posted on September 21, 2015May 15, 2017 by MartynL

‘After the latest tragedy in Indycar... it's time to shut down this ridiculously dangerous form of racing,’ says Paul Newberry in the wake of the tragic death of Indycar driver Justin Wilson. In making his demand, Newberry is typical of the paternalistic, safety-at-gunpoint class of pundits who seem to have taken over the Land of the Formerly Free. Newberry's rant, which appeared on ABC News on August 28th, goes on to say, “It's time to end a sport that has destroyed too many lives.” Note th...

ROAD RACING AT INDY: GRAND PRIX?

Posted on October 2, 2013May 15, 2017 by MartynL

‘It’s a Band-Aid for a broken arm,’ blogs Stephen Cox about road racing at IMS. I love the idea of adding a road race for Indycars at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. What worries me are the reasons for doing it. In this afternoon's press conference at IMS introducing the new Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles asked, “What if we could jump start May? Ignite May in a way that brings more people here?” “That was the premise. We did a lot of work on it, and we conclude...