Indianapolis Motor Speedway might proclaim itself "the greatest spectacle in racing," but numerous open-wheeled racing superstars have refined their driving talents in the Hoosier heartland of Bloomington.\nGrassroots racing venues are littered throughout Indiana, encompassing all nooks and crannies from all corners of the state. Drivers from California to Brazil to New Zealand invade the Midwest during the summer race season to battle each other within backyard-type racing facilities, offering drivers 1/4 mile, 3/8 mile, 1/2 mile and 5/16 mile tracks composed of either asphalt or field dirt.\n"The Indianapolis 500 has gotten away from grassroots people -- the heart and soul of the racing industry," said Chuck Welsh, marketing and sales director for Bloomington Speedway. "I would venture to say 40 to 60 percent of professional drivers start at venues like the Bloomington Speedway."
HOMEGROWN TALENT\nThe Friday night fender-banging and tire-rubbing spectacle atop the Bloomington Speedway's red clay 1/4 mile track has provided Hoosiers the opportunity to witness the growth and maturity of racing superstars like Bob Sheldon and Steve Kinser, World of Outlaws sprint car legend Dick Gaines, Tony Stewart -- an Indy Racing League and NASCAR champion, Indy 500 veteran Andy Hillenburg, NASCAR regulars Kasey Kahne, Ken Schrader and Kenny Irwin Jr., and USAC champion Greg Staab -- to name only a few. \nFour-time NASCAR champion and four-time Brickyard 400 champion Jeff Gordon has also entertained racing fans at the Bloomington Speedway. He was 14 years old the first time he entered a race and he won a sprint car track title at age 16.\nPublic Address Announcer Pat Sullivan, a professor at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis during the workweek who also provides on-air commentary for various IRL races and for sprint car action at Indianapolis Raceway Park, said the Bloomington Speedway personnel and the racing action continues to bring him and his public address colleague Brad Dickison to town every Friday night during the race season. Both Sullivan and Dickison agreed the speedway is a "beautiful racetrack" and fans are always treated to "great racing."\n"You can spot talent on the track. Great drivers can take a middle-of-the-pack piece of equipment and make the car drive fast," Sullivan said. "I'm thrilled by the drivers' ability to do races at such speeds despite the certain amount of danger involved in racing. There is a lot of local flavor here -- local drivers and local sponsors. We admire the person in racing who rolls with the punches and not the person who whines when things don't go their way."\nBloomington Speedway Historian Bob Royer said the youngest driver to compete at the track this year is 14-year-old Bryan Clauson and the oldest driver so far is 72-year-old Johnny Johnson. Despite the variety of driving talent present each and every Friday night at the speedway, Royer said grassroots racing has to compete with movies, video games, palm pilots, television and satellite dishes which broadcast races from across the country into race fan living rooms.\n"Before the 1960s and 1970s racing was not televised so race fans had to go a local track to get their racing fix. Television has caused many tracks to fold," he said. "The Bloomington Speedway is a professional show nowadays as a result -- it had to be upgraded or go out of existence. (Grassroots racing) is not a bunch of hillbillies in Jalopies running around yelling 'hee-haw.'"
INDY CARS VS. SPRINT CARS\nWelsh said the Indianapolis 500 of today often collects European Formula 1 drivers, road racers and go-cart peddlers who are trained at turning both right and left with the aide of an automatic transmission to shift gears. Throughout years past, sprint car and modified car drivers seemed ideal Indy 500 contestants because they learn to control an often incontrolable racecar.\n"It's difficult to compare Indy cars to sprint cars because of the speed and cost involved," Welsh said. "The two often race on different types and lengths of tracks. Almost anyone can do sprint car racing, but not everyone can drive an Indy car."\nDickison, a teacher at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis, said a good driver has the ability to go through traffic and make instant decisions on the track. He also said basic hand-eye coordination, mental focus and a competitive attitude separate the greatest race car drivers from their otherwise able and willing competitors. \n"Racing doesn't get any better than sprint cars -- many people take that for granted. The Bloomington Speedway is cheap family entertainment and you have the opportunity to develop relationships with the drivers," Dickison said. "It's a tough sell for people who haven't been to a race before, but racing is a distinct subculture with rules, customs and superstitions. It's always preferred to choose a driver to cheer for."\nBloomington Speedway offers competitors three divisions of racing during most Friday night competitions throughout the summer: sprint cars, modified cars and superstock cars.\nWelsh said sprint cars and modified cars, similar to Indy cars, are open-wheeled but do not exhibit the delicate handling characteristics. Instead, drivers can whip the rear end of sprint cars and modified cars around the tight corners during the race in order to maintain race speeds. The closed-wheel superstock cars, on the other hand, are similar to late model cars and stock cars which offer drivers the ability to bump one another fender to fender.\nWelsh also noted rear-engine Indy cars weigh about 1,500 pounds and generate about 650 horsepower, while rear-wheeled driven sprint cars and the like weigh about 1,300 pounds and generate about 800 horsepower from a front engine. Indy-car type racing, in addition, occurs at speeds more than 200 miles per hour while the Bloomington Speedway's 1/4 mile red clay prevents drivers from navigating their race cars full throttle at all times. \nWelsh described Indy car driving as a "finesse thing" because the car body is composed of carbon fiber with shock absorbing suspension to minimize the G-forces created during accidents. Sprint cars, on the other hand, utilize fiber glass and sheet metal for the car body which causes the race car to often flip and spin end over end in an accident because the roll-cage does not decrease the G-forces generated from collisions with other cars, barriers or the earth. \n"Sprint car drivers often wake up with red eyes the morning after an accident due to ruptured blood vessels," Welsh said. "A sprint car driver, although protected by a five-point restraint system and other safety devices, can suffer many injuries in an accident like broken bones and dislocated joints. The centrifugal force of an accident on the body is often traumatic."
RACING IN MODERN TIMES\nRoyer said sprint cars and other racing machines were often built by the hands of a machinist in racing shops operating in backyards and home garages. This process enabled a few competitors with superior or advanced equipment to dominate race after race across the country. \nRoyer said modern sprint cars are often built from equipment purchased at a racing store or "speedshop." He said most race cars possess similar drive trains, engines, pistons and other equipment because the race car supplies are procured from a handful of suppliers. \n"Throughout the 1950s and 1960s a few cars driven by a few drivers dominated every field in every race they entered," Royer said. "The lap speeds from fastest to slowest is minimal today because race car owners replace equipment rather than build it from scratch."\nChuck Welsh, marketing and sales director for the town's racetrack, said Bloomington students, residents and guests attending Friday night races at the speedway can enjoy "people watching" and constant racing action with side-by-side passing most of the time. He said visitors are allowed to bring earplugs, food, alcohol and other drinks, blankets, lawn chairs, picnic baskets and just about anything not containing glass.\n"Ask questions -- the racing fans sitting next to you have probably been there before and they are willing to share what they know about racing," Welsh said. "Bloomington Speedway is a world-known racing facility -- you get to see good, close and clean racing. It is an exciting night if we don't know who will win until the end and you get to see a great performance in racing if all the drivers are able to walk away."\nRoyer said grassroots racing offers humans the ability to witness the effects of Darwinism -- or survival of the fittest -- exemplified in race cars turning left for a particular amount of laps for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in prize money.\n"Today we live in a society which seeks to insulate the individual from the consequences of their actions. As the nexus between effort and result becomes increasingly irrelevant, the race competitor charts a different course," he said. "The racer seeks to demonstrate effort and ability in such a manner so as to not hide from these consequences but rather display them in full view of their peers. Without the demonstrated results displayed on the race track, race drivers would cease to exist. It is the competition that creates the interest, not the money"
