Despite covering so many miles in Chicago in his last outing, the Torchbug was eager for more! That following weekend, we decided to take him on a quick road trip and show him “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” - the 99th Indy 500!
I want to extend my gratitude to our fellow Jalop, shop-teacher, for helping me out with all the last minute planning and hooking us up with a place to stay only 3 blocks from the track! Couldn’t have done it without you bro, thanks!
As always, you can click on this link to go directly to my Flickr page and see all of the photos from the Torchbug’s adventures in the Windy City. Otherwise, keep scrolling for the highlights from Part 2!
On the way we made a quick stop at the huge wind turbine farm along I-65
These things are literally right off the highway and it’s an awesome sight to see, as they go back for miles!
What’s up? Oh not much, just hangin’ out with 300,000 of my friends and couple thousand balloons
Dixon was at the top for a good portion of the race
I’d say the lil’ guy enjoyed his view
Another caution is out!
Wondering what the checkered flag from the Pagoda would look like
The Brickyard just before Montoya came back from his winner’s parade lap
After the race was over, it was time to head towards the infield for a history lesson
On the way to the Hall of Fame Museum, we took a shot for ya $kaycog!
The one and only Offy, a legendary engine reigning over the Indy 500 for decades
The Marmon Wasp won the inaugural Indy 500 in 1911
It featured the world’s first known rear view mirror in an automobile. Torchbug really wanted to go for a spin.
How much power do you think is in this photo?
He loves velocity stacks as much as we do
A.J. Foyt dodged a four-car accident on the main straight of the last lap to win his 3rd Indy 500 with this Ford powered Sheraton-Thompson special. Torchbug is just checking for minimum ground clearance.
I’m Jeremy Clarkson, and I approve this photo
Exposed
Clever little guy
The Harley Davidson Streamliner broke the motorcycle top speed record with 265+ MPH average on the salt flats in 1970. It held this record until 1975 when the Yamaha-powered Silver Bird hit an astonishing 303 MPH!
Here we have the 1963 and 1964 Lotuses driven by Jim Clark
I think they look even better from the back
Downforce
The Torchbug taking his place among legends
I see what he did there...
The V8 Novi quickly became a crowd favorite from the “banshee-like” whine of the supercharger and the louder-than-average exhaust. Initially, they were FWD until the owner, Lew Welch was convinced to switch to the more popular RWD platform.
Torchbug was feeling a bit cranky that afternoon, no idea why
But he felt better after getting up close to the last couple cars
For some reason he was inspecting the integrity of the rivets
I couldn’t find much history on this particular car on the internet, but it appears to be one of the classic Indy Roadsters Specials powered by a dual exhaust variant of the Offy. If anyone has any links/info on these, feel free to let me know and I’ll include it!
The Brickyard
For more from this set and all of the photos from the Torchbug’s adventures in the Windy City, click on this link for my Flickr page!
To see all the photos from the Indy 500 including those without the Torchbug, check out this link. There’s a lot more in there from the duration of the race, as it was pretty difficult to capture the Torchbug and Indy cars moving at 200mph in one shot. I’m not that good. Yet. :)
Thanks for following along folks! Stay tuned for Part 3 next week!