Gentlemen and Ladies, Start Your Televisions : HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF WATCHING THE INDIANAPOLIS 500

The Indianapolis 500 is more than a bunch of colored cars going around and around a track 200 times in Indiana.

It is, as the late Sid Collins called it, “The greatest spectacle in racing.” It is the richest, most watched and most prestigious race in the world, with a lot of things for even a casual TV viewer to look for.

The start alone could be called the “The greatest spectacle in sports.” You could, perhaps, tune in late during the first inning of a World Series game or even skip the kickoff of a Super Bowl and not miss a memorable moment. But whatever you do, don’t miss the start of Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. The sight of 33 cars-25,000 horsepower’s worth- charging down the long straightaway to take the green flag and then channel through a tight 90-degree left-hand corner is a sight never to be forgotten.

A.J. Foyt, who has won the 500 four times and has made that dash to the first turn in 32 consecutive Indianapolis races, says, “Turn 1 at Indy isn’t much by itself, it’s just getting through it that’s hard. Particularly on the first lap, when all the cars are coming down like a herd of longhorns tryin’ to get in position.”

To fully appreciate the Indy 500, watch before the race, when the cars are sitting silent, drivers and crews nervously fidgeting around them as if they were some religious object of worship.

Crucial is hearing that racing cliche, “Gentlemen, start your engines” and watching thousands of balloons drift into the sky while Jim Nabors warbles, “Back Home Again in Indiana.”

If that doesn’t get the goose-bumps to bumping, nothing will. Now on to the raceI and there’s more to it than watching 33 moving billboards racing three hours for a purse of nearly $8 million.

Pit stops. When a car comes into the pits, six crewmen will swarm over the wall and in 14-15 seconds fill the tank with 40 gallons of methanol, clean the windshield, hand the driver a drink of water, change two-maybe four-tires and, if necessary, make a change in the car’s suspension. It will look like chaos, but it is a highly orchestrated detail of the race. Cars travel 100 yards in a second while racing, so each second spent in the pits is extremely critical. During yellow flag stops, when more than half the field may pit at the same time, the traffic can be worse than the Dodger Stadium parking lot after a sellout.

The track. Look how narrow it is. When it was built in 1909, the average speed for a hot lap was around 70 m.p.h. Today the cars will be running 230 m.p.h. on the straightaways and averaging 215 for a lap, yet the dimensions have never changed The track is 50 feet wide on the straights, widening to 60 feet in the middle of the nearly flat 90-degree corners.

On-board cameras. This is where the TV viewer has it all over the fan who has paid $100 for a seat in Turn 1: You watch part of the race from behind a driver’s shoulder. Note two things: one, how much the driver’s head bounces, and two, how the car drifts back and forth across the track, first right up against the wall and then down along the line next to the infield grass. If you drove like that, you’d be arrested for erratic behavior-but the 33 guys in the 500 don’t have to worry about cross-traffic.

The crowd. More than 400,000 spectators will jam into the grandstands and the infield, making it the world’s largest paid sporting event To put it in perspective, there will be more people than who live in the city of Long Beach or more than enough to fill the seats at four Rose Bowl games.

Safety crews. When a wreck occurs, and there surely will be one, safety trucks will arrive on the accident scene almost before the crippled car stops spinning. It is a testimony to their speed and skill that there has not been a driver fatality in the 500 since 1973.

The crashes. A good thing to remember is that the worse a crash looks, the better the driver may be. Race cars are made to disintegrate when they hit something. The more pieces that fly off, the more energy is absorbed and the less impact it will have on the driver.

If you don’t get your fill of racing during the 500 miles, stick around for the International Race of Champions. It will be coming right up as soon as the winning driver in the 500 takes his swig of milk, kisses his wife and thrusts his fist in the air to signify how many times he has won the race.