Thursday, October 31, 2013

We should have; Mario Andretti as the ambassador for the first Grand Prix of Indianapolis 2014. By Jim Gandolf

I believe that the main person to promote this grand first Grand Prix of Indianapolis (Master of the road racing honors) should have in all honors of the spectrum of Grand Prix major history! Mario Andretti! Yes, the last American to win a Grand Prix race in F1, Yes, Mario Andretti has a F1 Championship, a IndyCar championship (well CART championship, but that is IndyCar now). This great Giant of a race car driver loves his IndyCar Racing Action. Mario Andretti has won the Indianapolis 500 mile race in the year of 1969. Mario Andretti did win the Daytona 500 in the year 1967! Mario Andretti; has another win in the class section at the 24 hours of Le Mans in 1995! Mario Andretti has raced on dirt, and has won Pikes Peak, to concrete, from streets to ovals! Andretti won three 12 Hours of Sebring endurance races (1967, 1970, 1972), and the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1972. Now if I have to keep explaining that reason for Mario Andretti to be the master of ceremonies for the first Grand Prix of Indianapolis 2014 any more, this could take a week.  I know I can raise the money for that, and know this for a fact. I just did get off the phone with one of the largest companies in America and they told me they would be in on that great action. I just can’t think of just being a fly on the wall back in 1908 when Carl Fisher started thinking up the plans for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Or even bouncing out the idea of a 24 hour race? Stoddard-Dayton went flying through the air attached to a balloon over the city of Indianapolis. Mr. Carl Fisher knew how to plan an event! I just would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Tony Hulman decided to buy the abandoned race track, called the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and what a mess that place was. Tony Hulman then decided to get that race track ready for the next 500 mile race in 1946! Tony Hulman wanted no excuses and just wanted the race track ready. The thought in Tony Halmans mind the morning of May 1946, as he got out of bed the morning of the 500, then looked at his wife (Mary Hulman) saying, “Well we are going to have a 500 miles race today Mary!” Then probable thoughts of; oh my, did I do this right? There has not been a race at that race track since 1941, and that race track was abandoned until Tony Halman showed up.  I just can’t think of what thoughts were just running through his mind, as he was trying to assure his wife this was a great deal to get involved in. Then the tear in Tony Hulman’s eye as the traffic was so bad trying to get into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway race morning. Success is driven by what you desire with the Lord in all areas of life.  I now believe that the Grand Prix of Indianapolis is a defining moment in motorsports next May 2014, and I am not a fly on the wall at all, now. Each day that goes by, is time in history. The defining moment will be resurrecting the strong fan base of open wheel racing; that has been hiding away, with a real system to promote our racing history, as well as the great City of Indianapolis, that was built on the world stage because of motorsports at a race track called the Indianapolis Motor Speedway located in Indianapolis, Indiana. I will say this again my friends;"May 2014, is coming very soon!"

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