Zach: Hey there race fans! Your host Zach Rutledge here for another adrenaline field episode of doing Indy, we’re right here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway because they are celebrating their centennial. What is the centennial you ask? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.
Donald Davidson: Well the centennial is actually a 100 celebration of several things and so the management had the idea, will just make a three-year celebration that will cover everything.
The thing that just amazed me is how important the activities of the track are to the people. This is almost like a religious experience for probably hundreds of thousands of people and I would guess that probably if you could take the average, if you took everybody that was here on race day and figure out how many times that they have been coming, I bet you the average is around 40 years. And some people have come for their entire lives and they came when they were kids with their parents who had been doing the same thing. I don’t think there could be another event that it is like it because it is the same event in the same place every year.
Zach: Well, we heard from the man, the memory; Donald Davidson and all of his Indianapolis Motor Speedway track knowledge but what is the average fan now about the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
What year is the track open?
Female: 1904-5
Male: Is it in the 70s?
Male: I call the—
Male: Oh.
Male: 1909?
Male: 1909.
What was the first race?
Male: It was—I don’t think it was in the 500.
Male: The Indianapolis? 200.
Male: Not the motorcycle race?
Female: Their brick yard, 400?
Male: Oh it is a balloon race.
Male: It was a hot air balloon, right?
Female: The hot air balloon air races.
How much did Tony Hulman buy the track for?
Male: I must say around $500,000.00
Male: $23,000.00
Male: $200,000.00 I have no idea.
Male: $24,000, 25.
Male: By the parking today, I would say probably too much.
Male: I feel like I’m on the price is right, 29, 30, 40, 50, 60.
It was actually $750,000.00.
Male: Yes—let me finish the answer.
Why is the track called, “the brickyard”?
Female: Well, we’re not at the brickyard, we’re at the—
Female: Because of the bricks when you walk in.
Male: Part of the track used to be a brick so of course that’s all changed now.
Male: The whole track has been bricks.
Male: That is what they kiss, that is dirty. I don’t kiss the ground.
Zach: Well, some people know their track history and some don’t but hey that is why we have the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum for open year round and if you need more information on the centennial, just go to the indianapolismotorspeedway.com. Well, that is all we have time for on this episode in Doing Indy. I’m your host Zach Rutledge and we’ll see you next time.
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