The 100th 500 Weekend Notes

Helio Castroneves has had a good week leading up to his challenge to win his 4th Indy 500. [Russ Lake Photo]

May 26-28, 2016

• Team owner Roger Penske who was selected to drive the 2017 Camaro SS 50th Anniversary Pace Car retired from racing before he could compete at Indianapolis, but is taking his driving job seriously. “It’s been a long time since I’ve really had a lap at any kind of speed…I just want to know what I have to do. This is like anything else, I want to be prepared. I’m going to go out and lead the field, then I’m going to get out of it and jump on my pit box. It’ll be an exciting day.”

• California’s Cody Swanson became a three-time winner of the USAC Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fair Grounds, winning for the third-consecutive year. Bryan Clauson, who will compete in the 500 for Dale Coyne finished fourth.

• In the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters annual contest, Racing Nation.com writer Alan Brewer finished second in “Online Technical Writing” with a piece entitled “The Car Honda Built.”
Racing Nation’s Paul Gohde also took a second place in “Online Column Writing” with his “Dreyer and Reinbold” column.

• In 1966 the 50th 500 starting field featured 14 different chassis but just two engine types. Among the variety of chassis were Lola, Brabham, Gerhardt, Huffaker and Eagle. Also in the field were Lotus, Shrike, Brawner, Coyote and Watson. Ford and Offenhauser were the only two engine manufacturers however.

• The Indianapolis Motor Speedway unveiled a new red-white and blue logo for the 101st Indianapolis 500 to be run on May 28, 2017. Due to the demand for tickets for this year’s 100th running, the track also announced a program that will give 2016 ticket holders an opportunity to renew/upgrade their tickets for next year’s 101st 500. Dubbed the “Race to Renew”, ticket holders have 500 hours beginning at 12:01 a.m. on May 30 (ending June 8 @ 8:00p.m.) to purchase 2017 tickets at current prices. By renewing they will also receive a variety of other benefits.

• When Pippa Mann qualified for this year’s 500, it marked the 17th consecutive year that a female driver has qualified for the race.

• During Monday’s Indy Light’s practice, Belardi Auto Racing’s Zach Veach turned the first lap ever of more than 200 mph for the Light’s cars when he lapped the 2.5-mile track at 201.455 mph.

• Dale Coyne Racing announced that Lilly Diabetes will act as co-sponsor of Conor Daly’s Honda for the 500. Daly was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes when he was 14. Now 24, he wears a glucose monitoring system to help manage the disease and his racer is equipped with a glucose monitoring readout device.

• Tony Kanaan was quickest in Friday’s Carb Day final practice with a speed of 226.280 mph. in his Chevy, while Carlos Munoz’ Honda was next at 224.772.

• Team Penske and driver Helio Castroneves won the Indy 500 Pit Stop Challenge Friday, earning a $50,000 prize. This was his eighth win in the contest and he celebrated by climbing the fence in front of the Tower Terrace stands.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

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