- [Narrator] This is me having an out of body experience.
I'm flying down the front straight
of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
and crossing over the last strut of bricks
that used to comprise the entire circuit.
Now I'm an amateur racer competing on the world famous
circuit that until a few years ago
was only open to the pros.
Two weeks ago, Takuma Sato won the 101st Indy 500,
a race that's so run to drivers that Formula One champion,
Fernando Alonso skipped the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix
just to run at Indy.
For this brief instant however, Sato, Alonso and I
are almost equals.
Somebody pinch me.
Our heroes, Foyt, Andretti, Gurney and countless others,
they either forged a reputation at the track
or suffered heartless defeat.
Indy is racing's Mecca.
This is where countless tinkerers, engineers and mechanics
ply their hopes and dreams.
It's where the 1911 Marmon shocked the paddock
with its single seat and rear view mirror.
It's where the front drive Blue Crown Special showed
that there was another way in 1947.
And it's also the place where fellow racers first realized
that Roger Penske had outfoxed them all in 1994
with a devilishly clever and powerful engine design.
Now the head of the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association
is a guy named Tony Parella.
He recognized Indy's draw to amateurs like me and he hosted
the SVRA's first race on the track's infield oval in 2013.
- You can go anywhere in the world and if you say
which race track you've heard of,
they're going to heard of Indianapolis.
You know every Memorial Day for the last 101 years
we've had this spectacle and
being a part of that and associated with that
is a privilege to a racer.
And there's literally you'll see guys with tears rolling
down their face that they're in awe of the fact that they're
pulling out of Gasoline Alley
onto the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
- [Narrator] It was a hit.
So for 2017, the SVRA held two weekends at Indy
including this one for those of us racing open-wheel cars.
Now these machines range from the basic Formula Fords
to later model Formula One cars
and of course, cars that actually raced at Indy.
The folks who come here are incredibly passionate.
And this is John Doonan.
He's the head of Mazda's racing program
and I think it's fair to say, an Indy fanatic.
- First time racing on the track at Indy,
but I've been coming to the facility literally
since I was seven years old.
Came here for the first time in 1977
with my grandfather and my dad.
My first race was A.J. Foyt's fourth win.
Without a doubt to be able to come here
and drive across the bricks,
you can't explain it.
- [Narrator] Doonan is not alone.
Phillip Lewis came all the way from Bangkok
to race his brutish Formula 5000.
- The 500 is absolutely,
it's the greatest spectacle on the planet.
I can remember getting up and watching black and white
television and watched the turbine cars back in the '70s.
So Indy's always been on the radar but never really as a
dream to drive it.
But I've been very keen in recent years.
This is on my bucket list of race track to turn race laps.
- [Narrator] Now these cars are the Shelby Cobras
of the open-wheel racing world.
They're meant to provide about the same speed
as a Formula One car,
but with relatively cheap and crude American V8s.
Today, a good F5000 car has about 600 horsepower,
weighs only 1200 pounds
and can scare the nomads off of anyone
who has about $100,000 to spend.
Now my car costs far less.
It's one of 13 Formula Fords
built by all-American racers in 1978.
Formula Fords use a steel tube frame and a 1.6 liter
Ford engine that was also found in the Pinto.
In race tune, their motor makes only about 115 horsepower,
but it feels quite strong in a car
that weighs only 1,000 pounds.
Since its debut in 1967, the Formula Ford
has been a mainstay of amateur racing around the world
and a first step for aspiring drivers like James Hunt
and Indy 500 winner, Emerson Fittipaldi.
Now All American Racers, you might remember,
was started by Dan Gurney.
Dan is the man,
a racing hero.
In 1967, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans
with A.J. Foyt in a GT40,
and then just a week later, he won the Belgian Grand Prix
in a car his company built.
Now I never totaled the dollars or the hours I spent
restoring the car to racing trim,
nor do I want to.
It's a Gurney car and that's enough for me.
Gurney's Formula Ford is a wonderful thing to drive,
which can be said about most Formula Fords.
They're unfiltered and graceful
with enough speed to excite, but not too much to terrify.
There's a couple of linked turns on the Indy road course.
A left-right combination taken with throttle pin
in third gear.
Done right, the car drifts just to the exit curving,
kissing the tiny bumps that signal the track edge.
I bring the car home in eighth place.
I believe my performance hasn't smeared the Gurney name
too much.
Now the end of every race is a rush of mixed emotion,
the adrenaline still flowing
and you don't want that experience to end
but you're also relieved.
You're relieved that you didn't crash.
In this case, there's the added satisfaction
that in some infinitesimal way,
I've left my mark on my own personal temple.
For a certain group of people like me,
the Brickyard holds something very special
and I can't wait for next season.
(racing music)