Indianapolis 500 Chronicle

by Rick Popely and L. Spencer Riggs

Book Overview

Race fans, start your reading! 'Indianapolis 500 Chronicle' takes you on a fast-paced, authoritative hot lap through the history of auto racing's greatest event. Illustrated with historic photos of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0785327983
• ISBN13: 9780785327981
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Publications International
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 4.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 9.4" x 12.2"

Customer Reviews

Indianapolis 500 Chronicle

This is one of the top 5 books in my Indianapolis 500 memorabilia collection. This book has the history of the Indianapolis 500 from 1911 to 1996. The photographs are of very high quality, even the older black-and-white ones. This is a must-have book for any serious racing or Indianapolis 500 memorabilia collector.

Great Reference for the Enthusiast.

Baseball is known for the obsession that it has with keeping statistics concerning the most minute elements of the game.Motor racing as a whole has not cared much about statistics with the exception of who won a particular event and to a lesser degree how much money they earned.The notable exception to this is the Indianapolis "500", where participants are kept under a microscope from the first day of rookie orientation until the last person leaves the annual victory banquet. Drivers and teams who do not qualify for the annual race are given more media attention than winners of many major motor sports events!This book examines the stories surrounding the Indy "500" from 1911 to 1997 (year before publication). In addition to listing every starting field (qualification type, starting position, number of laps run, reason for retirement, etc.), photos of every participant (the so called "wedding photo" taken after qualifications) are included. At least 4 pages are devoted to each race with the expected highlights, but also many of the stories of struggle and heartbreak that teams go through each year are detailed.Much of the history of the famed "Brickyard" is also covered, with photos showing the evolution of the physical facility over time.If you are a motor racing fan. and particularly if you are an avid follower of the Indy "500", you should have this well done reference work in your library.

An excellent narrative and photographic history of Indy 500

This is an excellent race-by-race history of the Indy 500 beginning with the construction of the track, the first races in 1909-1910 and the first 500 in 1911. It provides individual photographs of each car in the starting field of all races as well as many race photos up to and including 1998. The narrative frequently provides little known details of a race as well as appropriate statistics.