Post by gavkiwi on Nov 14, 2011 15:27:59 GMT -5
I have had an interest, sometimes borderline obsession with the Indy 500 & CART/Indycar racing since 1990. Around xmas of that year I knew I was going to get Papyrus Indianapolis 500 simulation for my commodore amiga for christmas. With anticipation mounting, I wanted to know all i could about the Indy 500, because at that point i really didnt know a whole lot about it.
A week or 2 before xmas, I bought 4 AMT/Monogram Indy car model kits, The Domino's Special, The Kraco Special, The Pennzoil Special, and the Miller Genuine Draft Special. All from the 1988 season. I painted them as best I could, but being 14 or 15 at the time, they didnt turn out the best, but I liked them anyway!
Xmas rolled around, and I played the Indy 500 game from papyrus practically every day for 18 months, I learnt about the history of the speedway, and the past winning drivers from the security 'password' added to the game where you had to enter the avg speed from say the 1961 indy 500, or the last name of the winner from 1919 to get the game to load.
After loading the game soo many times over an 18mth to 2 year period, I got to memorize a lot of the names, winners and years that that driver had won.
Seeing those little black and white pictures that showed winners from Ray Harroun right through to '89 Winner Fittipaldi. The year they won, and the average speed, it was just a little sampling of the Indy 500's history.
Fast forward to May 1991, Living in NZ at the time, it was hard to get coverage of the Indy 500, a friend of the family recorded the 1991 Indy 500 off of cable tv for me, it ended up being about 5-6hrs in length in total. Now This Indy 500, thankfully had a rain delay that morning, which allowed ABC to kill sometime and delve into the history some more of the speedway, of stories of the month of may, close or classic finishes etc, etc, it was for me fascinating having never known up til that time about Mears VS Johncock in '82, or Foyts 4th win in 77 etc. And I have watched the Indy 500 every year since, I hope for the first time to see it in person next may.
The closest I have come to seeing Indy in person, was being in attendance for the 1999 & 2000 Cart Races at Surfers Paradise, Australia, it was nice to meet Juan Pablo Montoya in person, the reigning Indy 500 champ from 2000, and I had a nice chat with Mark Blundell, one of the nicest driver's Ive met.
Also met Dario Franchitti and some other drivers, good memories.
Which brings me back to the present, whilst I am still very much into the Indy 500, I don't really care for the other races during the year, for me the golden days of the sport were the cart years, before the split and IRL/Indycar.
Now I enjoy collecting books about Indy, and the drivers, I recently got the Unser's book, and have many Indycar yearbooks from autocourse, and some Indy 500 bibles, my favorite being the book that had every single Indy 500 starting grid from 1911 - 1998. Just wish the pictures were a little bigger lol.
Thanks
Gavin
A week or 2 before xmas, I bought 4 AMT/Monogram Indy car model kits, The Domino's Special, The Kraco Special, The Pennzoil Special, and the Miller Genuine Draft Special. All from the 1988 season. I painted them as best I could, but being 14 or 15 at the time, they didnt turn out the best, but I liked them anyway!
Xmas rolled around, and I played the Indy 500 game from papyrus practically every day for 18 months, I learnt about the history of the speedway, and the past winning drivers from the security 'password' added to the game where you had to enter the avg speed from say the 1961 indy 500, or the last name of the winner from 1919 to get the game to load.
After loading the game soo many times over an 18mth to 2 year period, I got to memorize a lot of the names, winners and years that that driver had won.
Seeing those little black and white pictures that showed winners from Ray Harroun right through to '89 Winner Fittipaldi. The year they won, and the average speed, it was just a little sampling of the Indy 500's history.
Fast forward to May 1991, Living in NZ at the time, it was hard to get coverage of the Indy 500, a friend of the family recorded the 1991 Indy 500 off of cable tv for me, it ended up being about 5-6hrs in length in total. Now This Indy 500, thankfully had a rain delay that morning, which allowed ABC to kill sometime and delve into the history some more of the speedway, of stories of the month of may, close or classic finishes etc, etc, it was for me fascinating having never known up til that time about Mears VS Johncock in '82, or Foyts 4th win in 77 etc. And I have watched the Indy 500 every year since, I hope for the first time to see it in person next may.
The closest I have come to seeing Indy in person, was being in attendance for the 1999 & 2000 Cart Races at Surfers Paradise, Australia, it was nice to meet Juan Pablo Montoya in person, the reigning Indy 500 champ from 2000, and I had a nice chat with Mark Blundell, one of the nicest driver's Ive met.
Also met Dario Franchitti and some other drivers, good memories.
Which brings me back to the present, whilst I am still very much into the Indy 500, I don't really care for the other races during the year, for me the golden days of the sport were the cart years, before the split and IRL/Indycar.
Now I enjoy collecting books about Indy, and the drivers, I recently got the Unser's book, and have many Indycar yearbooks from autocourse, and some Indy 500 bibles, my favorite being the book that had every single Indy 500 starting grid from 1911 - 1998. Just wish the pictures were a little bigger lol.
Thanks
Gavin
