PastImperfect: The month of May:If you're a motor racing fan and live in the US, then May can mean only one thing - Indianapolis.
The race's real title is the Indianapolis 500, but although there are other races staged at the speedway, Indianapolis can mean only one thing. And what an event it is with qualifying spread over the month of May and the race itself happening on Memorial Day, the public holiday at the end of May.
The venue and the race have a fascinating history - the circuit was built in 1909, initially consisting of an oval track and four slightly banked turns with a tar/gravel surface. In the autumn of that year the track was completely re-built as the original surface was breaking up. The new track was paved with brick which gave rise to the track's nickname The Brickyard, although today only one row of bricks survives, forming the start/finish line.
The famous annual Indianapolis 500 was first held on May 30th 1911 and the winner was Ray Harroun in a yellow Marmon Wasp who averaged 74.59mph. An average speed of 100mph was first achieved at Indy in 1925 when Peter de Paolo managed 101.13mph in a Duesenberg Special. Between 1919 and 1939, no European driver was victorious until Wilbur Shaw - one of the great names of Indy - took victory driving a Boyle Special, which was in fact an 8CTF straight-eight Maserati.
After the second World War, European cars and drivers fared little better. Drivers such as Rudolf Caracciola and Alberto Ascari tried and failed in the race and it was not until the revolution to rear-engined Grand Prix cars occurred that the tide began to change.
In the 1963 race Jim Clark, in a Lotus-Ford, finished second to Parnelli Jones' Agajanian Willard Special. In 1965 Clark reversed the positions with Parnelli Jones, winning at an average speed of 150.686mph. The 1960s also saw the arrival of turbine-powered cars when the John Zink turbine-car was entered in 1966. The year of the turbines was 1967 and Parnelli Jones came agonisingly close to victory that year, driving the STP four-wheel-drive Lotus turbine car leading for 171 laps and being in the lead on lap 197 when a gearbox bearing failed leaving him to coast home to sixth place.
Finally, one Indianapolis tradition which survives to this day is the "touring" pace car which leads the field round on its rolling-start lap, and is presented to the winner. It's regarded as a great honour among American car manufacturers to have one of their cars chosen as the pace car, and competition to be the chosen make is almost as intense as in the race itself.