Indy - 2nd Edition by Terry Reed (Paperback)

About the Book

Rev. ed. of: Indy, race and ritual. c1980.

Book Synopsis

In a nation that worships the automobile for the freedom, style, and status that it confers, the Indianapolis 500, run on or near Memorial Day eighty-seven times, is an annual rite of passage celebrating Americans' love affair with speed. Indy recounts the drivers (677 men and 3 women) who have gone to Indianapolis in the past ninety-five years to live their dreams, staking their lives on the outcome. It highlights the faces in the crowd: hardworking Americans, tinhorn celebrities, hookers, movie stars, gate-crashers, and five American presidents. Terry Reed focuses his narrative on the track's four quarter-mile-long turns, each the site of triumphs (including those of such multiple winners as Billy Vukovich, A. J. Foyt, and Helio Castroneves); grisly deaths (at least sixty-six, including three unrelated men of the same unusual last name who died in the same turn but in different decades); and bizarre heroics (like the sans souci French driver who downed champagne throughout the 1913 Indy 500 and still won). Reed also examines Indy's confluence of racing and aeronautics (World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker once owned the track) and the impact upon the event of such forces as segregation, gender politics, food, fads, publicity stunts, world-class partying, and tasteless pop culture. Indy takes readers on an entertaining, full-throttle ride through the history of one of the world's most famous races and one of America's most hallowed rituals. It is the definitive account of the crown jewel of American motorsports.

Review Quotes

""Indy" is one of the most entertaining and enlightening books written on the Indianapolis 500. . . . It is the definitive account of the crown jewel of American motorsports."

""Indy" is the most complete book in the Indianapolis 500 I ve ever read. Terry Reed deserves the pole position for this book."

"Captures the legends and lore of the race and the track that hosts it. . . . "Indy" offers up a detailed, engaging history."

"Fascinating . . . It's all there for Brickyard junkies, from the first race in 1911 through 2004."

"For Terry Reed, "Indy" surely has been a labor of love. . . . The result is extraordinary: a book that definitively answers the question, 'What's so special about Indy?'"

"Of all the books based on the history of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, none have been as extensively and penetratingly researched as Terry Reed s."

"Other books have of course been written about the sport . . . but none with the lore, depth, and detail of "Indy"."

"Terry Reed demonstrates consummate skill as a writer, reporter, and researcher in this enhanced and updated second edition. His book is a pleasure to read and may come as enlightenment even to aficionados of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race."

"Terry Reed has done a magnificent job in writing an intriguing and captivating mosaic. He is accurate, entertaining, and amusing, and presents a chronicle that is truly enjoyable to read."