Indy: The Race and Ritual of the Indianapolis 500
- ISBN-10
- 1597973912
- ISBN-13
- 9781597973915
- Category
- Sports & Recreation
- Pages
- 270
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2005
- Publisher
- Potomac Books, Inc.
- Author
- Terry Reed
Description
In a nation that worships the automobile for the freedom, style, and status that it confers, the Indianapolis 500, run on or near Memorial Day eighty-seven times, is an annual rite of passage celebrating Americans' love affair with speed. Indy recounts the drivers (677 men and 3 women) who have gone to Indianapolis in the past ninety-five years to live their dreams, staking their lives on the outcome. It highlights the faces in the crowd: hardworking Americans, tinhorn celebrities, hookers, movie stars, gate-crashers, and five American presidents. Terry Reed focuses his narrative on the track's four quarter-mile-long turns, each the site of triumphs (including those of such multiple winners as Billy Vukovich, A. J. Foyt, and Helio Castroneves); grisly deaths (at least sixty-six, including three unrelated men of the same unusual last name who died in the same turn but in different decades); and bizarre heroics (like the sans souci French driver who downed champagne throughout the 1913 Indy 500 and still won). Reed also examines Indy's confluence of racing and aeronautics (World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker once owned the track) and the impact upon the event of such forces as segregation, gender politics, food, fads, publicity stunts, world-class partying, and tasteless pop culture. Indy takes readers on an entertaining, full-throttle ride through the history of one of the world's most famous races and one of America's most hallowed rituals. It is the definitive account of the crown jewel of American motorsports.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Indy Split: The Big Money Battle That Nearly Destroyed Indy Racing
By John OreoviczWith a foreword by Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee Robin Miller, arguably Indy car racing's most vocal advocate, this is the real story of The Split from one of the sport's most respected voices.
-
The Indy Car Wars: The 30-Year Fight for Control of American Open-Wheel Racing
By Sigur E. WhitakerThis book details the fight over control of Champ Car racing before reunification in 2008.
-
Indy 500: The Inside Track
By Nancy Roe PimmLooks at the history of the Indy 500 and describes the cars, engines, drivers, pit stops, flags, and crashes found at the race.
-
Vincent D'Indy and His World
By Andrew ThomsonYet he was fully aware of thesocial and intellectual problems of the secular Third Republic which militated against his Dante-inspired Catholic humanism, embodied in the work of the Schola Cantorum, the Paris institution founded by d'Indy ...
-
Black Noon: The Year They Stopped the Indy 500
By Art GarnerIn this tight, fast-paced narrative, Art Garner brings to life the bygone era when drivers lived hard, raced hard, and at times died hard.
-
The Official Indy 500 Trivia Book: How Much Do You Know About the Indianapolis 500?
By Pat KennedyGrade your knowledge on the Indy 500 scale. The answers are provided in the back of the book.
-
Jack Arute's Tales from the Indy 500
By Jack AruteHe now relates all of his greatest, funniest, and most meaningful stories in Jack Arute's Tales from the Indy 500.
-
Indy Cars
By Sarah TieckThis book discusses the fast, thrilling world of Indy cars!
-
The Curse of the Indy 500: 1958's Tragic Legacy
By Stan SuttonVeteran sportswriter Stan Sutton profiles the ill-fated 1958 Indy 500 and the careers of the drivers involved, highlighting the exciting but dangerous world of auto racing and the new safety innovations the tragic race inspired.
-
Indy 500 Recaps: The Short Chute Edition
By Pat KennedyI hope this book will help to provide clarity in this regard as well as educate. During high school, many of us chose to use CliffsNotes to assist in the education process. This book is somewhat patterned after that concept.