Optimism abounds in open wheel unification

By Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE April 18, 2008 11:39 pm

— There’s going to be a segment of auto racing fans that go “home” to the Indianapolis 500 in the wake of the IRL-Champ Car reunification. So when the Indianapolis 500 Festival Board of Directors decided where to go for their annual dinner, why not head to hometown of track patriarch Tony Hulman?
“The Indy 500 is about Hoosiers,” said Indianapolis Motor Speedway COO Joie Chitwood. “We always plan a dinner off-site, usually an hour from Indianapolis, and we hadn’t been to Terre Haute. It was a no-brainer for us. We have so many fans here.”
The 500 Festival Board always goes somewhere in Indiana to celebrate the coming month of May. For this occasion, they did it in style. Twenty Chevrolet Corvette pace cars were driven by board members from Indianapolis to Terre Haute. They were given a police escort through Terre Haute on Wabash Avenue to the Clabber Girl headquarters on 9th Street.
Chitwood is excited about the vibe at IMS this year. The buzz surrounding the Indianapolis 500 is higher than its been since the last unified race in 1995.
Chitwood knows the end of the open-wheel split is the tonic many race fans have been waiting for to revive interest in the sport and the track.
“For 13 years we’ve had this negative feel about conflict, with the divisiveness between the two open-wheel racing [series]. It’s no more. The unification is a chance to invite fans back who haven’t been for a while. Or to give the fans who stuck with us a great feeling about what the 500 really means,” Chitwood said.
In addition to the first unified Indianapolis 500 since 1995, the track will host MotoGP motorcycles for the first time in September. The track has undergone major renovations to reconfigure the road course for the motorcycles.
“The first race at the speedway was a motorcycle race in 1909. There’s not many properties that can go back in their history and make it relevant again,” Chitwood said.