INDYCAR News and Notes – Oct. 8, 2015
1. IMS Start-Finish Line Goes Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month: The start-finish line at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway has always been a clean, white color. Not so this month.
The painted strip – stretching across the 106-year-old track adjacent to the famous “yard of bricks” and marking the location of victory where Indianapolis 500 winners and legends are made – has been turned pink to symbolize the global battle against breast cancer.
Today, in recognition of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Verizon IndyCar Series driver Pippa Mann, who has piloted the pink-and-white Susan G. Komen car in the last two Indianapolis 500 Mile Races, IMS president J. Douglas Boles and a group of breast cancer survivors got on their knees with paint rollers and applied the colorful change.
“This was just an incredibly cool event, to have the survivors out here painting the start-finish line pink ahead of the yard of bricks,” Mann said. “It’s just such an iconic location. It’s such an iconic image, the yard of bricks. So to bring that into National Breast Cancer Awareness Month has just been a really cool experience for me personally and having talked to many of the survivors who were here today, I think it’s been a pretty cool experience for them, too.”
With the IMS scoring pylon also displayed pink further down the track frontstretch, Mann, Boles and the survivors dipped the rollers in Sherwin-Williams paint cans and worked together until the white line on the track became pink. The 20-person project took less than 15 minutes. Then, observing IMS tradition in unison, they kissed the yard of bricks behind the newly “pinked” line.
Adrienne Harlow, an Indianapolis resident diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008 when she was 19, dyed her hair pink in honor of the month. An Indy car fan, Harlow said painting the start-finish line at IMS felt like a celebration.
“This event is about celebrating our journeys and becoming friends together and sisters, and it’s just a really fun time to forget about all the stuff we’ve been through and just really be able to celebrate ourselves,” she said.
The pink line will remain that way until the end of the month when it will be repainted its traditional white.
2. INDYCAR Community Joins Forces for House Build: In the shadows of Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week is an ongoing project that will transform Frank Gazvoda’s life. The INDYCAR community has banded together to build a new home for Gazvoda, a disabled U.S. Army veteran, and his two sons in Speedway, Ind., within sight of the world-renowned racetrack.
The “Speedway 5 Hundred” project is coordinated through the Fuller Center for Housing, a national nonprofit organization that works with families in need to provide an affordable home, and corporate sponsor Jonathan Byrd’s restaurant and hospitality group.
After Gazvoda was selected for the project, the Speedway Community Development Corp. acquired the abandoned property and procured the appropriate permits. The old structure was demolished and site work began for the new dwelling. The Pit Crew, founded in 2012 and consisting of the extended INDYCAR community assisting veterans in the Indianapolis area, is overseeing the project with the help of skilled trades and craft professionals.
Throughout the week, members of Verizon IndyCar Series teams Andretti Autosport, CFH Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, Dale Coyne Racing, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Team Penske, along with INDYCAR, Performance Tire Service Company and other local companies, are each chipping in on phases of the project. Among those donating materials are Firestone Racing and ABC Supply Co., the sponsor for AJ Foyt Racing and title sponsor of two Verizon IndyCar Series races in 2015.
“I am one lucky man and blessed to have these talented people out there helping me,” said Gazvoda, 43, who sustained a broken back rappelling from a U.S. Army helicopter more than a decade ago and still deals with the pain. “They say I am their hero for serving our country, but they are my heroes.”
The house dedication is slated to take place Oct. 10.
3. Rare Race-Worn Firesuits Headline Newest Wilson Auction Items: Oswaldo Negri co-drove to an emotional victory in the 50th anniversary Rolex 24 At Daytona in January 2012. Justin Wilson, AJ Allmendinger and John Pew were his teammates in the Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Prototype.
Negri’s signed firesuit from that twice-around-the-clock endurance sports car race is among the featured items in the latest group up for bid on the Wilson Children’s Fund eBay auction site. Wilson succumbed Aug. 24 to a head injury sustained in a race the previous day. Proceeds from the auction of racing, other sports and entertainment memorabilia and other items – including race VIP packages – will be directed to Wilson’s family.
Other unique items currently up for bid include race-worn and signed firesuits from Formula One drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen; a race-worn and signed firesuit from six-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson; signed firesuits, windshields and car parts from Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates sports car drivers Scott Pruett and Joey Hand; race-used pistons signed by drag racing stars John, Courtney and Brittany Force; and a Firestone display Indy car tire signed by all 33 starters in the 2015 Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. To view and bid on items, visithttp://stores.ebay.com/
Additionally, a limited edition reproduction of 50 signed and numbered prints of noted artist Bill Patterson’s original work depicting Wilson’s final Indy car victory at Texas Motor Speedway in 2012 are available by clicking at http://billpatterson.com/
Wilson tribute T-shirts and decals are available at http://shop.ims.com/indycar, with proceeds also directed to the fund.
Contributions can be made directly to the fund at http://justinwilson.co.uk/
4. Team USA Scholarship Winners Named: Young Americans Dakota Dickerson and Michai Stephens were named winners of the 2015 Team USA Scholarships and will travel to England later this month to compete in a pair of famous international events to further their racing careers.
The pair will represent their country in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch and the Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone, driving Ray chassis prepared by Cliff Dempsey Racing and boasting the traditional red-white-and-blue U.S. colors.
Dickerson, 18 from San Diego, and Stephens, 23 from Evanston, Ill., earned the scholarships from a field of 12 nominees following a “shootout” last month at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., that included an assessment comprised of a variety of on- and off-track activities.
The Team USA Scholarship is celebrating 25 years of providing opportunities for American race car drivers. Past recipients include Indy car drivers Jimmy Vasser, Bryan Herta, Buddy Rice, Josef Newgarden, JR Hildebrand and Conor Daly.
5. Zanardi Returns to Compete in Ironman World Championship: For the second straight year, former Indy car champion Alex Zanardi is competing in the iconic Ironman World Championship presented by GoPro at Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The 1997 and ’98 CART champ while driving for Chip Ganassi Racing lost both legs in a crash at Lausitzring in Germany in 2001, but that hasn’t slowed the 48-year-old Italian fan favorite.
Zanardi won a paracycling gold medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London and finished 272nd overall in the 2014 Ironman using a handbike for the cycling portion and an Olympic wheelchair for the running section. The 2015 Ironman, set for Oct. 10, consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon run. More than 2,300 competitors are expected.
Zanardi reunited earlier this week with Verizon IndyCar Series driver Tony Kanaan. The two were CART teammates with Mo Nunn Racing in 2001. Kanaan was in Hawaii training for the Ironman 70.3 Miami – a half-distance version of the full Ironman – on Oct. 25.
6. Bourdais, de Silvestro Racing at Bathurst 1000: Verizon IndyCar Series drivers Sebastien Bourdais and Simona de Silvestro are racing V8 Supercars this weekend in the Australian series’ premier event, the Bathurst 1000. Will Power will be a guest of his Team Penske organization’s V8 entry, but is not competing.
Sources: Mike Kitchel/Verizon IndyCar Series PR