“The greatest spectacle in racing” is how America refers to the Indy 500 in TV sports bulletins, web sites, newspapers and in fact in any pre–event reference to it. It’s never referred to simply as “the race”. Having had many trips to the USA over recent years I’ve become used to the American talent for optimistically promoting products and events as “the worlds greatest”, “the fastest”, “the biggest” etc. So while driving along the I70 toward Indianapolis early on Memorial Day morning, I was thinking that as long as the Indiana rain eased off I’d see some pretty good racing at my first Indy 500, but I was confident that the “greatest spectacle” was being played out by F1 in Monaco. Wrong. Totally wrong. The Indy 500 truly is the greatest spectacle in racing. F1, even at Monaco, seems rather dull after experiencing the 500.

The build up to the race is an excellent illustration of the American talent for putting on a great show and working a crowd into a frenzy. The traditions play out from about 40 minutes before the start. The cars appear in the pit lane while rock music blasts out of the superb trackside sound system. There are parades of former champions and celebrities, the rescue teams parade round and a fleet of Corvette pace cars follows on. The teams are asked to “grid” the cars, there is the singing of “God Bless America”, “Back Home Again in Indiana” and the national Anthem with the US Marines Choir. The bishop of Indianapolis even blesses the race! By the time the proceedings got to the point of “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!” the crowd was euphoric.

The cheering of a 300,000 strong crowd made the engine noise barely audible. In fact only 32 out of 33 engines fired. Helio Castro Neves’ Penske, on pole position, failed to start and while a horrified Honda engineer tapped away at a laptop to try and coax the engine to life the rest of the cars set off for the first pace car lap. Helio got moving and caught the pack, resuming his front row slot by the end of the first pace lap. So when the cars were released into the race, the full 33 car grid was there.

Now, a car passing you at 230mph is a pretty dramatic sight. The effect of 33 of them passing at that speed every 40 seconds is simply explosive. It’s something your brain never adjusts to. TV coverage of Indy usually features a camera at the end of each straight with a big zoom lens. The result is that TV provides no impression of speed at all. From a trackside seat on the approach to turn one, the speed is simply mind blowing. That speed is carried into the corners as well, with cars on full throttle all the way, it’s just tyre scrub that slows them by 10 to 15mph in the turns. And then they start overtaking each other, they bottom out on the banking with the heavy, early race fuel loads, they slip and slide around. It’s real “on the edge” stuff. Anyone who says Indy is easy needs to think again. The first 4 laps were run at over 222mph.

The 2007 race was one of the most closely fought Indy 500’s of all time with frequent lead changes; 17 in the first 100 laps if I remember rightly (29 is the all time record over 200 laps). By the time all the first pit stops were done though, it became clear that there were only 4 drivers who had the consistent pace both in clear air and in traffic to have a shot at winning. They were all in Andretti-Green cars; Marco Andretti, Dario Franchitti, Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick; and all had a turn in the lead before lap 100. The Target Ganassi cars and Penskes were in the hunt but just didn’t look as solid as the Andretti Green cars. When rain stopped the race at lap 113, Tony Kanaan had had the strongest run, thanks to pitting out of sequence and then being able to stay on track during a subsequent yellow flag period. It was going to come down to pit strategy between the four main contenders to decide the victory.

After a 3 hour rain delay (during which the commentary team played “Rain drops keep falling on my head” amongst other rain themed songs), the cars were brought back out. Refuelling was allowed before the restart, so Tony Kanaan’s strategic advantage was negated. Dario’s car had tyre damage and so had to pit at the end of the first pre-restart pace lap. That put him back in the pack, but well placed to benefit from being out of sequence on fuel stops. And that’s exactly what happened. Dario carved through the field after the restart, constantly overtaking. When almost the entire field dived into the pits for fuel under yellow on lap 153, number 27 appeared at the top of the iconic Indy start line scoreboard. Dario had stayed out and was in the lead.

The race went back to green 10 laps later but within 30 seconds was yellow again when Marco Andretti rolled down the back straight following contact with Dan Wheldon. With rain falling heavily on the next lap, that was it. Dario Franchitti had won the greatest spectacle in racing. Had it stopped any later he almost certainly would have had to pit for fuel and drop back into the pack. But then again, had it gone the full distance, he would have been on a different fuel stop sequence to the rest and I reckon he would have been out front again by lap 200. So a lot of luck, but some great strategy as well, allowed one of the best drivers in the world to take the biggest win of his career.

So is Indy worth the trip? Oh yes. Direct flights from Edinburgh or Glasgow into the US at competitive prices, and race tickets at less than half of F1 prices make it reasonably affordable. And it is the greatest spectacle in racing. So if I get the chance to go back for the 92nd running of the 500, I’ll be there like a shot. And I’ll take a Scottish flag next time!