Little know facts about this year's Indy 500

[Stinky The Clown]

(If you don't like motorsports, that's okay. BUT GO START YOUR OWN THREAD IF YOU WANT TO TRASH IT. You even have my permission to call me out about it.)

There will be three women starting.

Many of us already know Danica Patrick. She drove a Rahal/(Dave)Letterman car in her rookie drive a few years ago.

Then there's Sarah Fisher. She owns her own car (a very big deal). She was the first woman to win the pole position. She was the youngest driver to ever have competed in the race.

The third woman is Venezuelan Milka Duno, the first Latina to race at Indy and the first woman from her native Venezuela to ever make a career of international motorsports.

There are actually two Venezuelans in the race, Milka Duno and E J Viso. Viso is starting in position #29 and Duno is in #30. I wonder if they're using Citgo branded ethanol. :)

Dave Letterman's and partner Bobby Rahal's Car 17 is being driven by Oriol Servia. The team was unable to find a full year's sponsorship, so I guess Dave is writing a few checks this week.

Meanwhile, two racing family scions are on other than the family teams. Bobby Rahal's son Graham is racing for Newman-Haas this year (Paul Newman's old team) and Marco Andretti is driving Richard Petty's first Indy ride.


Anyway, this race is such an American tradition and icon, it seemed appropriate to mention it and try to keep it interesting but apolitical ...... mostly.

[spanone]

1. i grew up in indy...sold newspapers on raceday as a kid....love it

[ewagner]

2. Indy was always

the place for innovation...experimentation in the auto industry...now it's only a slightly more sophisticated NASCAR.

[madrchsod]

3. i grew up listening to the indy 500 on the radio.

my dad and i would go out in the "barn" and work on his latest car. i was the tool man handing him the wrenches....

now it brings a tear to my eyes

during one of our vacations in the 50`s we stopped at the track..the gate was open so we walked around the track for a few minutes and left...

[Stinky The Clown]

4. The race is iconic ......

.... in the truest sense of the word.

[spanone]

7. the town the track is located in is actually called 'speedway' indiana

[Stump]

5. I'm looking forward to it...

and then the Coke 600 in Charlotte...that should provide my racing fix for at least a few weeks.

[spanone]

6. sarah fisher did not win the pole at indy.....

she won the pole in Kentucky indy car race in 02

[Mika]

8. Milka Duno is racing for the CITGO team.

[bumblebee1]

20. Look out, Danica!

Milka will be giving you a run for your money, if she isn't already. As for the first woman to compete in the Indy 500, does the name Janet Guthrie eing a bell?

[madokie]

9. I grew up rooting for Jack Zink

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sports/article.aspx?subjectid=203&articleid=20090524_203_B3_JohnSJ353163

Jack Zink wasn't in racing for the competition. He was in it to win it.

And win it he did.

Zink, the late Tulsa businessman and adventurer, is one of the legends of the Indianapolis 500.

He was the team owner and car designer of the Indy 500 winner in 1955 and 1956.

"To be honest, they probably were the team to beat for about five straight years," said Bob Blackburn, author of the recently released book "To Indy and Beyond: The Life of Racing Legend Jack Zink."

"I don't think there's any question that Jack Zink was the leading team owner and car designer in the 1950s. He was setting the standard.

"He had a perfect blend of a gregarious personality with a very social nature. Plus, because of his engineering background, he had a great mind for tinkering with things and making them better. Plus, he raced because he wanted to win. He was not in it just to run races. He wanted to win."

[asteroid2003QQ47]

19. The Pink Zink won in '55

[alfredo]

22. I guess it was powered by an Offy. Now they are all Hondas. Charlotte

was postponed until Monday Noon EST.

[tom_paine]

10. How many gallons of gasoline will be burned? How many tires will be used?

How many quarts/gallons of oil will be used to lubricate the absurdly overpowered engine blocks and overbuilt chassis?

How many plastic bags of Cheetos will be consumed and how may will eventually make their way to the great floating "islands" of plastic in all the world's oceans?

How many plastic bottles containing nothing more than WATER will be drunk and discarded? How many of them will reach the Great Garbage Gyres?

THESE are facts that are little known and even less cared about.

Sorry to crap on your thread, Stinky.

I think I am going to buy a brick of individually-wrapped "cheese" slices and let each piece of plastic float away on a gossamer breeze.

:rofl:

[NeedleCast]

13. In Comparison to that used on a daily basis in Indianapolis?

So little that it will hardly go noticed on any scale.

[HooptieWagon]

14. How much electricity did you waste on your self-righteous post? n/t

[tom_paine]

15. About the same as you with your nonensical, ad hominem, knee-jerk response.

It never ceases to amazed my the uiniversality of human response.

You could have been a Freeper, and I could have made a quip about torture.

Your response, of course, would be the same.

Maybe a little misspelled and with a few more curses.

For all the differences among us jumped-up primates, in so many ways we are all the same. Which is why the Bushies and the M$M have such an easy time with us.

How's that for self-righteous?

:rofl:

Oh, by the way, I'm as stupid a primate as anyone else...

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. Not a single gallon of gasoline. They run on Ethanol.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. .....

:eyes:

[Ocracoker16]

11. I always watch it every year

My dad is from Indianapolis so he went to the race as a kid. He has been back a dozen times to watch the race. He always told me stories about some of the biggest crashes in Indy history.

[HooptieWagon]

12. Not the first time for 3 women competing

Danica, Sarah, and Milka all competed last year; and a few years ago Danica, Sarah, and another woman (Lynn St. James was it?) all competed, if I recall correctly.

Also, as noted above, Sarah Fisher did not win the pole at Indy, she won the pole at an Indy car race at Kentucky Speedway. Still a notable accomplishment.

[5thGenDemocrat]

16. Here's my contribution as an old sportswriter

In all the runnings of the Indy 500 since its inception, the field has never included a driver named "Smith."
John
Attended in 1986(? -- the year Bobby Rahal won). It's a great time, especially if you like getting very drunk and very sunburned -- which I do.

[spanone]

21. i was in the stands in 64 when dave macdonald and eddie sachs were killed

it was a horrific accident. i was selling papers in the third turn where the crash occurred

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ9RaX5rBgU

[alfredo]

23. Panoz Indy car roadster. Artist conception.