Admit it. You can only watch so many videos of cute cats and replays of the latest IndyCar and NASCAR iRacing extravaganzas during this time of social distancing and stay-at-home-and-do-nothing orders.
Might as well learn something, right?
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is offering a free peek under the hood of its vast digital archives starting this week with a look back at 1909 and the building of one of the world’s most famous racetracks.
The segment on 1909 kicks off a 13-week project that will feature a different decade each week with images and history from IMS. Included are trips back in time with noted IMS historian and former Autoweek contributor Donald Davidson.
Every Tuesday during this time period, IMS will release a look at each decade in chronological order. Fans are encouraged to check IMS.com/DigitalArchive weekly as more content will be unlocked and great stories will be told. The rich, multimedia content is optimized for enjoyment on mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, and browsers.
“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has hosted some of the greatest champions, pioneers and innovators in auto racing, motorcycle racing and aviation competition history,” IMS president J. Douglas Boles said. “It’s important that we honor our history and show our race fans where we come from as we grow into the next generation as a modern racing facility. As a passionate fan of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway myself, I can’t wait to learn new stories right alongside our amazing fans and see what this archive tells us next.”
This week’s release features IMS’ four founding fathers—Carl Fisher, James Allison, Arthur Newby and Frank Wheeler—and how they pooled their resources to build a testing ground for Indianapolis’ growing automobile industry. This section also details the hot air balloon and motorcycle races and competitors who raced at the original Brickyard.
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