April 4th, 2007
Updated: August 27th, 2007 :

A "chance of a lifetime", a "day to remember", "the right place at the right time", "unbelievable", or one of a hundred other sayings could describe these special two days in April that I just had the privilege of experiencing.

I and another of our Registry members, Jim Egan, our Ombudsman, were invited to travel to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and participate in this two day event working with the fifty seven Corvette Pace Cars that are currently at the Indy Speedway performing Track and Festival car duties. What does this really mean? Well, here is how our two days unfolded ......

The plans called for us to arrive at the Speedway around the noon hour on Tuesday, April 3rd (after a 6 hour drive in from the Cleveland Ohio area). Upon arrival, we were met by Howard Kirchenbauer in Gasoline Alley, our Registry historian and "our boss" for the next two days. It was a beautiful sunny day, in the mid 70's. And there lined up in front of a garage was a row of shiny Atomic Orange Corvette Pace Cars (56 in total), complete with all their graphics !

But wait.... we were informed by Howard that a cold front was heading towards Indy, complete with damaging winds, heavy thunderstorms, and HAIL ! We had about 1.5 - 2 hours before the storm hit, and we had to move those 56 Corvettes (which were already lined up in their track sequential number and getting their final detailing by a skilled cleaning crew in preparation for an evening photo shoot on the track) into the F1 garage area until the storm passed by. So, we hopped in (along with 5 other people) and started moving Corvettes.... Whew, we finished moving the Corvettes, and the sky was beginning to turn black in the direction of the storm.... BUT - there are another 100+ brand new Chevrolet support vehicles (Suburbans, Silverado's, Impala SS, Trailblazer SS, Uplanders, Colorado's - did I miss anyone?) that were also in harms way sitting out in one of the "Flag Lots"...... So we jumped into action again, and were joined by several others and moved all of those into other garages. We even found a few garages to put our "personal transportation" into and waited in one ourselves for the storm to hit... and it did. Heavy rain AND pea sized hail just as forecasted, so we all got a nice warm feeling knowing that we protected those Vettes (and the other support vehicles too of course) from harms way.

But this storm put a real damper on our schedule, which was to originally have the cars setup on the front straightaway and pit lane by around 5pm and ready for an early evening photo shoot, to be followed by a second early morning shoot, and the eventual "Festival Driveaway" activities.

What is a "Festival Driveaway" your ask? It's when the keys to the Track and Festival vehicles are actually handed over to their new "owners" to enjoy using between now and the end of the Indy 500. These are some lucky folks and they consist of Speedway and local community officials and dignitaries, as well as members of the Indy 500 Festival committee. This year is a special one for the Festival committee, celebrating their 50th Anniversary! Congratulations to the 500 Festival !

So, due to the weather situation, we found a break in the storm and headed over to the Speedway Museum (and Gift Shop of course), and then out to dinner. We returned to the track around 7:30pm, and with a lingering drizzle, began to move the cars out to the track. We were a group of 10, which consisted of a person driving a 15 passenger van (that we used as a shuttle), 3 on-track "parkers", and 6 actual drivers who moved the cars out from the garages.

I was amazed by the precision involved in lining up the cars. Each was placed in a straight line, equidistant from the next car, and on the same angle. And of course, most of this work was completed IN THE DARK ! Do you know how dark it gets at the Speedway with only the light of a cloudy night sky and headlights on from 56 Corvettes? Yes, VERY dark, and other than security, VERY DESERTED ! As we were nearing completion, the rain became heavier and colder. We wrapped up and were back at the Brickyard Crossing Motel by 11pm.

Below is how the cars actually were lined up on the track. Numbers 1-21 and 24 were "Track Cars", and 25-58 were "Festival Cars".

The next morning, we were back at the Speedway at 7am to prep for the special activities. WOW, the cars looked great, and we DID have them all straight and in formation ! How'd we do that??

Overnight, the temperature turned COLDER, and there were a few snow flurries in the air, and even some ICE on the convertible tops. We helped pass out the keys to each car and found a good position to wait for the festivities to begin. Up in the Pagoda the dignitaries were having a nice breakfast. Although I did'nt see any, we heard there were also drivers on the premises being interviewed by the media. Then, we saw the crowd coming towards the track, smiling like a bunch of 10 year old children on Christmas day as they headed for their new Corvette Pace cars.

After a brief driver orientation of their cars, they lined up for a few photos, and then were led around for a pace lap - consisting of 35 Corvette Pace Cars. WHAT A SIGHT !!! Shutters were clicking and videos running to document this year's piece of history.

After the Pace Lap, we had a few final duties, including moving the 22 remaining "track" Corvette Pace Cars back to Gasoline Alley, as well as some of the other Chevrolet support vehicles to a static display in front of the Pagoda.

This has certainly been a wonderful few days, and it could have only been improved by the weather cooperating, but it was well worth the trip to participate in these festivities. I hope you all enjoy the photos I had a chance to take during this event !

But wait, What is that "Other" Track car for - that adds up to 57 cars??? Yes, there was a Track Car #91 lurking around the garage area. Seems that this car has a VIN number that coincidentally ends with 500 (get it, 91st running of the 500 miler !!). Well, rumor has it that this car was intended to be given to the race winner as one of his awards. But, he never received this car since it was redirected to another new owner, but that's another story for another day !!

But don't worry, Dario DID receive a Pace Car replica for his efforts, just not one of the Track cars !!

Bob Kirsch, Webmaster (and 1 lucky guy !!)

But, stay tuned to our website for the latest updates on the Corvettes at Indy this year....

P.S., thanks Howard!