Feature: Indy 500
All you need to know about the legendary Indy 500 that takes place on 27 May
To the uniformed, the Indy 500 may look like one of motorsport’s easier races ... all you do is floor it down the straights and then turn left. Not exactly. There’s a reason this iconic American race is part of motorsport’s elusive Triple Crown along with F1’s Monaco Grand Prix and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Indy’s turn one is the stuff of legend. Al Unser Jr. called going into the bend at full throttle for the first time “the biggest commitment of my life”. Eddie Cheever likened the turbulence in turn one to “flying a 747 with the windows open”. Mel Kenyon, who raced in eight Indys, described it as “going 125 mph down a city street and turning into a dark alley”.
The close racing, the 500-mile distance (805 km), the complicated fuelling strategies and the incredible speeds reached by open-wheel cars without power steering or assisted brakes mean it requires a lot of courage and more than just luck to finish. It’s nicknamed the Brickyard after the track’s original surface that comprised 3,2 million paving bricks laid on top of the original surface of crushed rock and tar. Asphalt was gradually added to various sections of the brick surface and, in 1938, the entire track was paved with asphalt except for the middle portion of the front straightaway. In 1961, the remaining bricks on the front straightaway were covered with asphalt, but a 920 mm strip of the original bricks was kept intact at the start/finish line, where it remains today.
It also requires very specific racing rubber and all teams use Firehawk racing tyres that are specifically engineered for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s banked left-hand turns that require the outside tyres to have a stiffer construction than the two on the inside. Each team is allowed 36 sets over the course of practice, qualifying and the race, and Firestone brings about 5 000 tyres to the race.
This year will see the 102nd running of what’s become known as the greatest spectacle in motorsport, boasting a field of 33 cars lining up on the start grid that have already spent the best part of a week qualifying for the main race.