First, I would like to apologize to Jake Query and Mike Thomsen for partially borrowing the name of their Month of May radio show, but I felt it applied in this case.
It’s no secret that I am a sucker for the history and nostalgia of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Since my first race back in 1965, I have seen a lot of changes to the hallowed ground located at 16th & Georgetown. Yes, I’m fully aware that those two iconic streets no longer intersect. Instead, a roundabout sits where those roads once met. That’s one of the many changes that have occurred in and around IMS over the nearly 61 years since I attended my first race there.
The Speedway is an evolving entity. Not only does it require constant maintenance, but there have been major improvements and many facelifts to the facility over the nearly 117 years of its existence. There were pagodas and one Master Control Tower, before the existing Pagoda was erected in 2000. Three scoring pylons have stood between 1959 and now.
In 1957, a wall separating the main straightaway from the pits was built. Prior to that, cars just pulled to the left in a widened part of the track to get to their respective pits. 1957 was the first year for a distinct pit lane. 1993 saw new pit-in and pit-out lanes that began and ended on the backstretch.
The track itself began with a surface of crushed limestone and tar. When that proved unsatisfactory, 3.2 million bricks were ordered and crews began laying them down on top of a bed of sand, that had been placed over the crushed stone and tar. While the bricks were rough, they more than proved worthy for the races run at the new Speedway. Over the next couple of decades, the bricks began to shift, break up and come apart – especially in the turns. At first, they would make temporary fixes with concrete patches; but by 1937 – all four turns had been paved with asphalt. By 1939, all but the front straightaway was asphalt. The front-stretch of The Brickyard was finally paved over in 1961 – all except for what is now affectionally known as The Yard of Bricks that is still in place today after several repaves.
Although there is little resemblance today to when the first Indianapolis 500 was run back in 1911 – it has always been a source of pride that the track is in the exact same spot that it has been since 1909. Modern sporting facilities now get replaced on a regular basis. Super Bowls move around from site to site. Other professional stick and ball sports settle their championships at the home venues of the two teams. But the Indianapolis 500 has never moved and has always taken place on the same patch of earth as it always has.
Although the track has been resurfaced many times since it became all-asphalt in 1961, we always knew that the original bricks were still down all these years (except for the occasional construction of a new tunnel). At least that’s what we were told. But seeing is believing.
Now we have seen them. During this past September, construction crews decided it was time to smooth out a bump in Turn Two, that had been a trouble spot for years. They knew the bricks were shifting periodically and causing the bump to be a continual problem. But they had ground it down as much as they could. It was now time to dig deep and fix the problem for good.
Doug Boles was smart enough to document every move they made with camera crews and video crews. Deep down, Boles is a huge fan of everything IMS, aside from his business duties. He was lucky enough to get a firsthand look at whatever the crews found, and he was savvy enough to document it.
In my mind, Doug Boles and his crew uncovered a gold mine. As they carefully peeled away the layers of asphalt, all of the original bricks were there for all of us to see. Thanks to the video crew, we saw them as soon as Boles saw them. As they swept, washed and scrubbed – minus some cracked sections, the bricks appeared to be in excellent shape; even though they had not seen the light of day since 1937. Although they had been covered for almost 90 years, they have been down for every Indianapolis 500 ever run.
It gets deeper, literally. As they pulled away whole sections of the bricks to do their repair work, Doug Boles decided to do some exploring. Underneath the pulled up bricks was the bed of sand put down in October of 1909, just before the bricks went down. Boles instructed one of his staff to carefully dig away the sand to see what they might find. Lo and behold – they found the original surface of crushed limestone and tar. Amazingly, the tar was still gooey, having been down there since 1909. They found stone ranging from pea-sized gravel to large stones as big as a potato – all encased in tar. To add to the moment, Boles had Donald Davidson by his side as they unearthed the treasure.
Boles picked up a section and held it in his hands. It was at that point that Doug Boles went from being President of IMS or the host of the video, to being a pure fan. For once, Doug Boles was speechless. Although he had fallen silent, the look on his face told you that he was caught up in the historic moment he was witnessing. His silence finally broke with a very understated “Very Cool!” as he gave a warm smile.
Last week, IMS released the videos of this happening in four parts – Monday through Thursday. On Friday, they released one single 18-minute video that combined the four. I watched each episode as they dropped, but was surprised and pleased that they combined them into one. I have pasted it below. I hope you enjoy this as much as me. I found this fascinating, and it made me appreciate Doug Boles the fan, as much as Doug Boles the business man.
George Phillips
Oilpressure 