Talk:Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The page said "The final brick added to the track was made of gold ..." Now that's obviously bullshit, so I've removed the "gold" part. If anyone can provide a description of what that ominous "gold brick" actually was, (like a standard brick, possibly covered in gold leaf maybe?) feel free to put that interesting information back in. --BjKa (talk) 18:05, 27 April 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

@BjKa: Per the reference, it was gold-plated brass. I've restored the text, with the additional information. DH85868993 (talk) 09:21, 28 April 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

Trying to find some ref to 1950 -59 when it was part of F1 World Ch. So we should include F1 category too from that period. A few drivers joined Ascari, Fangio (but not qualified) gtp (talk) 10:09, 22 November 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

After some days waiting for some replies I decided to include drivers who only competed at the Indy without joining other races on the WC gtp (talk) 18:39, 7 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

@gtp: I'm not sure it's accurate to list Jim Rathmann's fastest lap time in the 1960 Indy 500 as the Formula One lap record for the oval configuration. Although the 1960 Indy 500 was a round of the World Drivers' Championship, it wasn't a Formula One race and I don't believe Rathmann's car (which this webpage suggests ran a 252 cu in/4.1 litre engine) conformed to the contemporary Formula One regulations (which specified a maximum engine size of 2.5 litres). The table used to list Ascari's 1952 time in the Ferrari 375 as the record with a time of 1:06.60, but I'm not sure that's accurate either - although the base 375 F1 was a legal Formula One car, I'm not sure if the 375 Indianapolis (i.e. as raced in the 1952 Indy 500) conformed to the contemporary F1 regulations (it probably did - Ferrari 375 F1#Technical data indicates that the engine capacity and maximum weight were within the F1 limits). And we don't really know what his fastest lap time was. We know that Bill Vukovich's fastest lap was 1:06.60, but we don't know what Ascari's fastest lap time was. Given all this, I'd be tempted to remove the "Formula One" row from the oval section altogether. @Apeiro94: do you have a view on this? DH85868993 (talk) 09:41, 30 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

OK, that was a probably not accurate way to unveil the curiosity of a comparison with old times. So, no problem I agree with you if removing from table. Then I could add it as "curiosities" (something like that) in some a paragraph. gtp (talk) 11:11, 30 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

As for the technical reason, honestly, I don't have ideas of '60s F1 rules (come from V8 era). So listening to you. Anyway, it could be just some kind of "grey-zone": even if it's not a Formula 1 in other races, in that particular race it becomes, since scoring WC points. It's just my opinion. gtp (talk) 11:18, 30 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]

First of all, thanks for the reference, this can be valuable. @Gtp Hello, actually I do not have any detailed information about the technical regulations on those times. But it seems that the Watson-Offenhauser car was different than the F1-regulated cars, and probably that car did not participate any other F1 races except the Indy 500. So, in my opinion, it should not be true to think the FL record of this car as the F1 record. As you mentioned above, Alberto Ascari's FL record could be more suitable to think as the F1 FL record of the Oval circuit. Besides that, I can also suggest that putting the FL record of the cars before CART regulations, if you have any other suggestions, we can discuss them again. Apeiro94 (talk) 21:38, 30 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]