It’s just one lap, and is a small portion of the elaborate pre-race Indianapolis 500 pageantry. But it stirs hearts and imaginations like few of the other annual activities. It’s the ceremonial lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway featuring standout vintage machinery and notable drivers behind the wheel.
Taking place shortly before driver intros, the single ear-pleasing lap is anything but straightforward, with preparations for those few minutes next year often beginning shortly after the checkered flag falls.
“We really try to look at potential cars we would like to run maybe a year out now. We look at anniversaries or cars significant for other reasons and get the list finalized quickly,” remarked Jason Vansickle, the IMS Museum’s VP of Curation and Education. “From there we start preparing the cars around September.”
It’s a methodical and detailed process that involves assessing where the car is in its routine maintenance, any major work that needs to be done, and what will need to happen for it to run the day of the 500.
Ten cars spanning several generations were selected for this year’s ceremonial lap, eight of which reside at the museum, including Tom Sneva’s 1983 Texaco Star March 83C, Parnelli Jones’ 1963 Agajanian Willard Battery Special, and Louis Meyer’s 1928 Miller Special, winners all.
Cars chosen and preparations underway, there remains a most important question: Who will pilot these historic machines on race day?
Ideally, the museum would like to have the original driver behind the wheel, but for obvious reasons, it can’t always work out that way. Still, they make a concerted effort to find a significant pairing.
“We try to see what drivers will be in town for the race. From there we just approach it one at a time and try to finalize around March or April,” explained Vansickle.
“This year we had a few new drivers, and some drivers, like Mario [Andretti], who have participated multiple years. Thankfully we have a day during race week where there is no track activity so we can go out and do a final shakedown with the drivers. They can familiarize themselves with the car and the process.”
Like everything else connected with this very special exercise, much thought goes into the cars’ newest-to-oldest running order.
“The speed of the cars is the biggest reasoning for going in reverse order. We didn’t want the cars that need to go a bit quicker to be held up. Plus, the Millers have to be pull-started, so it gave them the time needed to get going.”
With everything involved it sounds like a small army is needed to manage everything, the full-time restoration crew of six ballooning to nearly 10 times that many people during race week thanks to some devoted volunteers.
“We have one dedicated car chief and two or three support members with each car, plus other volunteers to help with logistics,” Vansickle said. “It’s an incredible team effort.”
The work is not done when the cars leave the track on Sunday. While many Americans are honoring fallen service members on Memorial Day Monday, the museum staff is working to clean the cars and return them to display. “We pickle the methanol cars [a process that involves purging, cleaning, and preserving the entire fuel system. The process for prepping the older gas cars is not as intensive, but is still quite thorough. Then, it’s time to put all the cars back out on display so that guests can see them.”
And, of course, start contemplating next year’s ceremonial lap…
More information about the IMS Museum and its many activities year-round can be found HERE.