On a hot Memorial Day in 1955, I was sitting on the patio of a new suburban home in Decatur, Ill., as the broadcast of Indianapolis 500 blared from our green plastic AM radio. It was plugged into an extension cord.
I was 10 years old, and my passion for cars was beginning to bloom. The Indy 500 was a Midwestern institution, and listening to it on the radio was becoming a tradition at my house.
The sun was scorching hot and there was no shade on the patio. I silently cheered Bill Vukovich, two-time winner and leading for the third consecutive year. On the 57th lap, Rodger Ward, Al Keller and Johnny Boyd got tangled up coming out of Turn Two. Vukovich hit Boyd’s car as it slid into his path. Vukovich’s car became airborne, went over the backstretch wall, somersaulted four and a half times and landed upside down. The car burst into flames.
Vukovich died, and I remember the tears that streaked my face that hot afternoon.
Last Saturday, with four DeLaSalle High School students who have been part of the Minddrive electric-car project, I was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We had been invited to bring the car to Emerging Technology Day as part of the Speedway’s Centennial Celebration.
After each of the students took a lap around the track, I slid into the cockpit of our resurrected Lola Indy car for one lap around the legendary Brickyard.
Our electric car is geared to go a bit over 42 mph, but ensconced inside the narrow cockpit, peering through the recycled airplane canopy, I felt as if I were going much faster. But speed wasn’t the point. I was driving around the most famous tracks in the world, a track steeped in history that includes epic drives and tragic endings.
About an hour after my turn on the track, I sat quietly and reflected on that afternoon’s experience. For the last 25 years I have been writing about and photographing cars, living a fantasy that I once only dreamed about. My eyes began to well up as I gave thanks for the opportunity I had just had. Tears and Indy just seem to go together.
