The 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is not going to look anything like anyone envisioned when it was announced on January 6 that Roger Penske had finalized his purchase of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar and IMS Productions.
After all, no one planned on a pandemic and an Indianapolis 500 with no fans in the stands. Not 50 percent capacity. Not 25 percent. Zero.
According to published reports, Penske spent upwards of $15 million fixing up the venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he still hasn't been able to show off all he's done with the old place. Bud Denker, president of the Penske Corporation and executive vice president at Team Penske, said that he left Pole Day on Sunday with a bit of an empty feeling.
"This past weekend being there without fans, you felt a real shallow place of emptiness by not having the fans there," Denker told Autoweek. "Just the energy level, the excitement of having the fans around, was certainly difficult.
"Probably the most difficult for me was when I went outside the track and saw hundreds of people around the track, in their lawn chairs, in the back of their pick-up trucks. There were tents set up, chairs set up and people watching the cars on the track through the gaps, hearing the sounds of the cars, watching the large LED screens that we put up.
"That's what hit me the hardest, just seeing the fact that our fans couldn't be inside with us."
It was almost as if the fans of the Indianapolis 500, the fans of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway itself, were actively involved in some sort of vigil for a sick friend. They were just waiting for the OK to come on in and visit.
That OK, however, is not coming this weekend.
"I talked to a couple of them and asked why they were there," Denker said. "They said that they had been there now for 20, 30, 40 years and they couldn't miss it. They had to be a part of it. Knowing that fan dedication for generations is probably the biggest thing that leaves me empty, not having them there this past weekend, and also coming up obviously for the Indy 500."
IMS president J. Douglas Boles also took a stroll outside during qualifying weekend.
"It's really weird," Boles said. "I spent a little bit of time (on Pole Day) just outside the grounds watching qualifying with the fans, just trying to do my normal thing with fans. It's amazing how passionate people really are about the place that they'll come hang out in the heat, sit on a gravel parking lot and watch the cars on a video board 200 yards away."
Boles said he's expecting another gathering outside the Speedway on race day.
"I don't know how you'd stop them," Boles said. "We're not going to open our parking lots. We didn't over qualifying weekend, but what happens is people park in the neighborhood and they'd just walk over. It's a public sidewalk. It's a busy road. I don't know how you'd stop it.
"I understand how important the Indy 500 is to people, and I think we just have to embrace it and remind people to be safe."
Despite the pandemic-driven shutdown that hit the sports world particularly hard beginning in mid-March, things have been hopping around IMS since The Captain took the wheel.
"It's actually been really exciting since the November announcement (that Penske had agreed to the purchase)," Boles said. "He spent the first couple of months, before the acquisition was closed, back in November and December, coming in a couple days a week and really getting the lay of the land, getting to know people and then asking the people, 'If you had the opportunity to say what can I do to make the place better, what are some of your thoughts.'
"He did a big inventory of little things that we felt needed to be done, and then sort of the big pipe-dream things like building different kinds of suites and where you might put a suite and just a lot of things. He had a whole big list of the little stuff that needed to be done then the big stuff that could be done if you were investing long term.
"Then, in January, after the acquisition happened, he said let's focus on the things that make the customer experience better this year. Let's worry about the long-term ROI investments later on, but let's make this first one about the customer."
To that end, Penske's team focused on upgrading nearly 200 restrooms, sprucing up the concession stands and adding video screens throughout the facility.
"Roger won't walk by a door without opening it," Boles said. "So, you could start in Turn 1 and would literally take you all day to get from Turn 1 to Turn 4 because every door, he'd have us open it up, he'd walk in and have us take notes and suggestions on what we needed to do and how to make it better and more efficient."
At last count, workers had spread about 60,000 cans of paint throughout the facility. Denker added that the grassy areas on the IMS grounds would make the folks at Augusta National Golf Course proud.
"Over 200 bathrooms have been renovated," Denker said. "They're all painted. They're all polished. New fixtures. LED lighting. That's one of the first things that people are going to see. It's not sexy. It's not glamorous, but it's obviously needed.
"We've installed over 30 LED big-screen TVs. Those are an amazing addition for the customer experience. When the cars are on the back straightaway and you're sitting on the front straightaway, and you couldn't see a monitor. Well, now you can, no matter where you are on the track.
"The idea of putting a 100-foot long by 20-foot video board on the back of the Pagoda is just incredible. You're sitting there in the Pagoda plaza now, and you feel like you're on the front stretch, the front row, it's so clear and so vivid. It's such an amazing guest experience. The addition of installing a 9,000-pound lift to lift the winning car above to our (victory) podium so that all fans can now see it from the grandstands was an investment we thought the customer and fan would benefit from, and they really will."
The trick on race day in 2020 will be to make an Indianapolis 500 without fans still feel like the Indy 500. It's not any easy task, as it turns out, to manufacture normal.
"It's funny," Boles said. "We debated a lot of that. I've said forever, and I think our fans would agree, the best part about race day is the 30 minutes that lead up to the start command. There's something really powerful about the military march and the way we celebrate the men and women who serve and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
"The 'Back Home in Indiana' thing is just the best 90 seconds of the year in my opinion. It's because for those 90 seconds, everybody in the venue, no matter where you're from, you're a Hoosier. And if you watch it at home, that's your tradition, wherever you are for those 90 seconds.
"We debated on how much of that you do, We even talked about, do you not do 'Back Home Again in Indiana' and save it until everybody's back home. But it is such a part of the race and it is such a part of what makes it special and for those millions who have never been but who watch it on TV. We're going to go ahead and do that.
"There's going to be pre-race. It's just not going to be quite as robust. We're not going to do balloons this year. One of the biggest challenges for the balloons is that we have a special tent that's put up so that when they're ready to go, you just pull a zipper basically and they're all released. But it takes eight hours and about 40 people to inflate all of the balloons, and they're inside this enclosed tent. So there's no way to make that COVID-safe.
"We're going to do the best we can to make it a good show for the folks at home."
Then, it's a matter of wait until next year.
"I'd love to have them all inside, I'd love to bring them all inside for a short peek, but it's just not possible," Denker said. "That's a realization of where we are. We made the right choice—not having fans—for the right reasons, as hard as it was.
"Roger is one of the most resilient people in the world. We've moved on now. We're sorry that they can't be there. Now, the show must go on this weekend. And then, everything will be focused on 2021."
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
"wait" - Google News
August 19, 2020 at 08:40PM
https://ift.tt/3gdK7Bh
Penske Must Wait Until 2021 for his Indianapolis Motor Speedway House Party - Autoweek
"wait" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35qAU4J
https://ift.tt/2Ssyayj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Penske Must Wait Until 2021 for his Indianapolis Motor Speedway House Party - Autoweek"
Post a Comment