Cathedral of Speed

Greetings Family and Friends,

The Indianapolis 500 is known as the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” while its venue, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the “Racing Capital of the World”. The onsite museum, I believe should well be referred to as the “Cathedral of Speed”. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) Museum was the primary reason for my stay in Indianapolis, Indiana. And yes, it was very much worth the stop!

A tour of the IMS Museum begins with a walk down the Gasoline Alley Gallery which presents seven garage scenes with Indy cars from different eras of racing at the speedway. Across from the garages are exhibit cases with artifacts from these eras. Further into the museum is an interactive area known as the Qualifying Zone which included the dissected Indy car captured in the photos below. And then there is the Indianapolis 500 Winners Gallery where some special winning cars are displayed – some at a 45-degree angle to better enable viewing of the driver seats.

There are also a couple of docents who are more than willing to bend your ear with additional information. For instance, I was aware that in the early days of the Indy 500, in addition to a driver, a mechanic also rode along – look for a two seater as an example of such in the photos. What I didn’t know was that these mechanics didn’t primarily focus on in-race repairs but rather on helping the driver navigate the race. Also, learned that there are a couple of cases where two sculpted faces of winning drivers appear on the Borg-Warner Trophy for an Indy 500. Apparently, back in the day it was allowed to replace a driver mid-race, and thus two drivers of the same car were considered winners of the race.

In the Mezzanine above the Winners Gallery are various displays of artifacts relating to the speedway including those related to other non-Indy races hosted by the speedway. And then there is the Penske Gallery which showcases the successes of Team Penske. Why Team Penske? A few years ago Roger Penske, owner of Team Penske, bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and thus Team Penske has its own gallery within the museum. Given that Team Penske has quite the pedigree, there are a lot of interesting artifacts – see the engines and helmets in the photos below. Also, photographed a couple of endurance race cars of Penske winners of the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Daytona 24-Hour, respectively.

Lastly, when visiting you can normally schedule a track tour. Unfortunately I visited on the day before a race weekend – a four day event of GT endurance cars if I remember correctly. Thus the track tours were unavailable. But as I walked out of the museum before closing had a chance to glimpse and hear the cars getting in some unexpected early practice the day before scheduled events of the race.

Also, visited downtown Indianapolis to grab a few pics of the state capitol and other buildings nearby. As you can see from the photos, the structure is undergoing some sprucing up. Just a short stroll from the front of the capitol building is the Soldiers & Sailors Monument. Quite an impressive and beautiful memorial from all sides. What I did not realize at the time is that there is access within via stairs or elevator/stairs to an observation deck. Dang – a missed opportunity on my part.

That’s it for now. As always, feel free to share this link with anyone who expresses an interest. Next stop will be where the last museum ship of this trip will be found.

Until later,

Papi