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Archive for the tag ““Back Home Again in Indiana””

19 Apr 2017
9 Comments

Horses for courses at the Indy 500

Tribalism runs deep in motor racing, with the disregard and mockery of rival series a cottage industry among fans and journalists alike.  The decision of F1 champion Fernando Alonso to skip the Grand Prix of Monaco to race in this year’s Indianapolis 500 is a case in point.

After the announcement, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said Alonso would be the best driver there.  Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said he would have worked to stop it.  Red Bull’s Christian Horner said Zak Brown of McLaren was “barking mad” to do it.  I assume Honda just wanted to prove they had a competitive engine in a top series somewhere.

Is it important to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500 to have Alonso in town for the 500?  Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles was effusive in his praise of Alonso and McLaren coming to Indy in May, as was Zak Brown of McLaren.  AP writer Jenna Fryer’s recent article indicated that Alonso to Indy is just not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.  Andretti Autosport certainly likes it since it brings cash and notoriety to the team.  Twitter, of course, is Twitter.  Whatever opinion you have is vindicated there if you need that sort of approbation.

Here’s the truth: everyone is right.  Perspective is what perspective is, and we can’t really change the lens.  F1 finds it a mockery.  IndyCar considers it a huge get.  Andretti considers it a gift.  NASCAR fans are asking, “Who dat, bubba?”

The winner here is the Indy 500 and IndyCar for the simple reason that people are talking.  Mark Miles did not say that Alonso coming to Indy was a game-changer.  He basically said it was pretty cool.  Which it is.  Everyone else wants to analyze it from where they sit.  Where will that kind of thinking lead us?

Is every decision made by IMS and IndyCar expected to be the most important decision ever, subject to dissection and discussion?  Horses for courses is an old British adage meaning the right people in the right situation.  Alonso certainly seems to be the right F1 driver at the right time for the Indy 500.  Is every decision at IMS expected to do more than  generate publicity?  Must these decisions appeal to a certain demographic’s ticket buying proclivities to be acceptable?  Are there really courses for all horses?

With Fernando Alonso, is IMS going after not only current F1 fans but expatriate Spaniards with a fondness for former Ferrari drivers, too?  One can only assume that the announcement of Chicago Blackhawks “National Anthem” singer Jim Cornelison to perform “Back Home Again in Indiana” was IMS vying for the elusive hockey fan who has not seen the 500.  Or maybe it was to find the even rarer opera aficionado with a taste for speed, baritones, and Jim Nabors.  Singer Keith Urban was obviously selected to inspire Midwestern Aussie’s with a taste for country music to make the trek to Indy.  Where does this demographic rabbit hole end!  Not every decision is vetted through marketing to ascertain its value before being made.

Without discounting them, maybe it’s not all about marketing and ticket sales.  Maybe IMS was not doing a “deep dive” into demographics.  Maybe they weren’t trying to “move the needle.”  Maybe the Speedway and Andretti Autosport simply saw the opportunity to bring one of the greatest racers of his generation to Indianapolis to compete in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.  After that, of course, fire up the hype machine and flog away.  There has to be an unexploited demographic somewhere.

 

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26 May 2015
6 Comments

2015 Indy 500: postcards from the NE Vista

Another Indianapolis 500 has come and gone, and besides torched Port-O-Lets and the general detritus left by a sunburned and slightly inebriated humanity, the race was what we all have come to expect.  In other words, the inexplicable combined with the sublime.  I took the time to pen a few thoughts on post cards that have just arrived from the NE Vista.  They tell a story.

  • Greetings from the North 40, the parking lot that last year had no rules.  I know I gigged IMS last year regarding the total lack of parking acumen and the inability to honor a paid parking pass.  All is forgiven.  We rolled from the corner of Moller and 30th to our parking spot in the North 40 in less than five minutes, and that included taking a few moments to gawk at the sights of the Coke Lot on our way past.  It was reassuring to see all the Yellow Shirts in their natural habitat, performing their May rites of being petty tyrants and martinets.  They scowled and whistled and pointed and screamed.  I was home.  I might suggest that the planners in their cubicles not route traffic directly past the doors of the Port-O-Lets. You are supposed to use the lavatory when you go in, not on your way out as a car hurtles past, missing you by inches.

 

  • Hello again.  I have entered the track alone, unaccompanied by friends or family.  For some reason, they prefer to stand in a grassy parking lot with others, drinking Bloody Marys and slurping Jell-O shots while listening to loud music.  The radio should be tuned to a station reporting on the goings-on inside the track.  I am bereft and rent a chair back to make myself feel better.  I sit moodily in the early morning sun, watching celebrities and 500 Princesses drive past on the track, pretending they are waving at me.  I long for new family and friends.

 

  • Aloha from sunny Indianapolis.  The pace quickens as the pre-race activities roll on.  Terrifying skydivers buzz the Snake Pit and land on the golf course.  The PA announcer tells us to look to the sky minutes after their landing.  The new video boards work as advertised.  Florence Henderson warbles “God Bless America.”  Judging by the looks of all those under 50, The Brady Bunch has been forgotten.  Two A-10 Warthogs do the flyover.  I hope they strafe my family and friends with their depleted uranium cannons.  They deserve it for abandoning me.  Straight No Chaser sings “Back Home Again in Indiana.”  I weep and shake my fist in the direction of Kentucky.  Our song is better, even when sung acapella by someone other than Jim Nabors.  The balloons are released as an awkward struggle ensues on the video screen during “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines.”  The inexplicable has arrived.

 

  • Salutations from the top of the NE Vista.  The race starts, stops, almost starts, and continues under yellow.  Finally, the race begins.  Passing is constant.  It soon becomes apparent that the winning car will be owned by a man named either Penske or Ganassi.  All is right with the world of the top dogs.  The small teams scramble for a top ten finish as God intended.  Parity is no more.  At the next yellow, I hurry to grab a tenderloin, but the lines are enormous.  The reason is simple: two remodeled concessions stands are closed.  We are outliers in the NE Vista, forgotten and despised by our political masters.  I do not get a tenderloin.  Scenes from Lord of the Flies run through my brain.  We are a true Turn 3 dystopia.

 

  • Howdy friends.  All is saved by the tremendous passing we see lap after lap entering Turn 3.  Plus we have craft beer in addition to salt and vinegar potato chips.  The Verizon IndyCar 15 app not only works, but works well.  I have phone, text, and Twitter for the whole race.  Maybe the NE Vista is not completely forgotten.  Hope springs eternal in the human breast.  We stand the last 30 laps, grabbing strangers, pointing at cars, adding our own body English to help these steely-eyed missile men at the front of the pack maneuver through the turn.  Juan Pablo Montoya wins, proving once again that he is a wheelman extraordinaire.  We are sated and slowly exit the NE Vista.  As we leave, we see Rick Mears as he leaves his Turn 3 spotters’ platform.  He waves a greeting, and we do likewise.  A smile curls my lips.  He is one of us.

 

 

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24 Dec 2014
4 Comments

B-listers, YouTube, and tradition at IMS

Who says there is no news coming out of the Verizon IndyCar Series?  A decision that could affect the Indianapolis 500 for years to come was a front page headline in a recent Indianapolis Star: “New track tradition – Straight No Chaser replaces Nabors on iconic song.”  Yep, the choice of a new voice, or voices in this case, to take the place of Jim Nabors singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” pushed important news to another page.  What this says about our society is another discussion, but what it says about the tradition of the Indy 500 is loud and clear.  It matters.

Oh, there will be haters on multiple issues.  Some IndyCar fans get all frothy over the fact that one race holds so much sway over the public’s perception of the series.  Their stance is that the 500 is just one more race on the schedule, and the PR it gets for things like who belts out a traditional song actually hurts the series and other venues and races.  I’m on the side of the cash cow splashing down in the ocean creating a rising tide that lifts all ships on this one.  I’m not quite sure how you make other races and venues more popular by making arguably the most well-known race in the world less popular.

Then there are the loyalists who recommended using a video of  Jim Nabors singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” in perpetuity, presumably because they thought the idea that a perennial B-list actor and singer was as good as it was ever going to get in Indianapolis.  Truthfully, Jim Nabors’ baritone and his second tier stature worked very well for the race.  There was no way he was ever going to be more important than the song or the tradition itself.  In fact, he had become a hipster’s ironic ideal.  Nabors was just schmaltzy enough to be cool.  He had a good run.

There were some interesting suggestions for the replacements  One was the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, who are top notch.  I just had this sinking feeling about some 10-year-old asking his or her choir director some very difficult questions about aberrant human behavior.  I even endorsed Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs fame, a trained opera singer.  He fit the Jim Nabors B-list criteria of not now or ever being bigger than the song or the moment.  And he was a baritone, too!

Which brings us to the new choice, the a cappella group Straight No Chaser.  They were formed at Indiana University and became famous for a version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” that went viral on YouTube.  Now that’s mixing traditional with modern.  They are an inspired choice.  They went to IU.  They understand the importance of the song to the predominantly Hoosier crowd.  They get the tradition.  They are young.  They are cool.  I want to be churlish and find something to dislike, but they are really, really, good.  Take a look at them singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” at this YouTube link.

The fans watching on ABC will absolutely love them.  Let’s hope the video and audio upgrades work well out in the hinterlands of Turn 3 and the writhing humanity of the Snake Pit, too.  Of minor consideration is the fact that an a cappella group not only sings the songs, but they also make their own music with their voices.  This might leave the Purdue band, the accompaniment on this song for years, out of the picture.  I’m sure the Indiana University grads of the group will get some pleasure out of that.

So here’s to a long tenure and the beginning of new tradition.  Cars, drivers, fans, and facilities change.  The inevitability of time demands it.  Traditions like singing “Back Home Again in Indiana” are the sinews that keep us connected to the past and the future.  Thanks for the good news, IMS.  It was worth the wait.

 

 

 

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