Today’s Indianapolis 500 self-effacingly bills itself as “the greatest
spectacle in racing”. What’s it all about?
The Indy 500 is fiercely competed over 200 laps of an oval circuit known as
the Brickyard – a total of 500 miles. The original brick track has been
entirely covered with asphalt, apart from a 3ft section at the start/finish
line.
The first Indy 500 was in May 1911 and drew a crowd in excess of 80,000. The
winner was Ray Harroun, who took almost seven hours to finish, with an
average speed of about 74mph.
Today, a good finishing time is less than three hours and the cars hit 100mph
in three seconds and nudge 230mph. At that speed, the total area of all four
tyres in contact with the track surface is about 1 sq ft – barely bigger
than an A4 sheet of paper
The race begins with a rolling start. Drivers are told when to fire up their
steed with the famed instruction: “Gentlemen, start your engines.”
In addition to trousering more than $1.5m (£750,000), the winner is handed the
Borg-Warner trophy – a monstrosity with miniature sculptures of every
previous Indy 500 winner on the base.
Five British drivers have won the Indy 500, including the legendary Jim Clark
and Graham Hill.
