Boston Girl Is 'an Indy 500 Fanatic'

INDIANAPOLIS, May 27, 2005 — -- I'm not supposed to like race cars. I am a sports fan, but I hail from Boston for crying out loud. We indulge in Fenway franks, not bottles of Bud, and run circles around the Yankees instead of an oval track.

But truth be told, my name is Alexa and I am an Indy 500 fanatic.

I've been lucky enough to have seen my beloved New England Patriots win the Super Bowl two years ago and the Red Sox win the World Series. What could be better?

Well, the biggest sporting event in America -- the Indy 500 -- ranks right up there. I walked into the track last year a skeptic, but left a full-fledged fan. The excitement, the adrenaline, the speed and the mind-blowing (and I'm sure for some ear-drum exploding) roar of the engines are just a few factors that make 300,000 fans descend upon Speedway, Indiana on the last Sunday in May -- some of whom possess a checkered past, but all of whom salute the checkered flag.

This year, I have been assigned a piece on the Indy 500 "Now and Then." And so my first assignment was to interview Donald Davidson, a historian from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum. The man is a human history book. This is the 90th running of the race, and I think he explained each and every one of those years. Note to self: bring more tapes next time, because a 30-minute interview it was not. Anyway, I learned a lot, and in the spirit of giving I'm going to share some of his wisdom.