rage Six THE EICH IGAN DA ILY The carnal thunder of By JIM TOBIN The crowd exploded. A woman clutched her little boy at the should- er, wept aud laughed. stamping her feet. Eyes grew wide aud the fans jumped from their seats as thirty- three brutish raciug engines roared to life under the harsh Indiana sun. "Gentlemen . . . start . . . your eeenginnesss! ' was all Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Anton Hul- man had said while 300.000 cheer- ing, screa ming, nting race fans listened. One hundred feet from where I stood at the pit wall, a tril-" lion horse-power shook the endless grandstand and drowned those of us foolish enough to stand so close to the wave of grinding engines. TrHERE IS LITTLE so terrifying as man-made monster automobiles which the snectator cannot tame. I felt myself step boekward, away from the pit wall separating me from the machines, the winld on my face feel- ing like a rolling tide of hot, stinging force, But the fever was contagious and when the Buick pace car, customiz- ed, jacked up and looking like some little town's street drag demon, rolled out of the pits to lead the growling cars around Indianapolis's two - and - a - half mile oval for the warm-up lap, I again drew closer to the ferocious parade, I and the quar- ter-million others who had driven their gaudy campers, timid Fords and Chryslers here to watch thirty-three heroes and fools risk their lives at 200 mph in the Indy 500. In the elaborate pre-race cere- monies, played to the hilt because this is Indianapolis's one grand show- case, one of the speakers called the race, "the world's greatest event!" Choking in surprise, I took a look at the beaming faces nearby and had to wonder if they did not believe as much themselves. I'E PACE CAR shot by the starter's stand on the parade lap with its raging caravan, following close be- hind at a mere 90 mph. The pit crews stared at the drivers, their at- tentive postures expressive of a single prayer, that the $90,000 engines would at least survive the green flag to start the race, at least not make them look foolish after four weeks of drudgerous, dirty work in the Speedway's "Gasoline Alley," rac- ing's most glorified garage. "Here they come," the announcer mtrmurred in a funny little nervous voice as the whir grew louder and the racers were suddenly around the fourth turn and into the front straightaway, weaving from side to side ,trying to heat up their giant slick tires. A quick flourish of green flag - Starter Pat Widan finally, irrevocably, committed the cars to the ferocious competition before them, and thirty-three of the world's most determined competitors, in elev- en rows of three, jammed their feet to the floor of their missiles - on- wheels. There was no ceremony left, no marching bands or baton twirlers or pompous welcomes to Indiana. Only fear and speed and sound as the racers did what they were sup- posed to do - drive faster than any- one else at whatever risk was neces- sary. J HAD BEEN TO the race five years before, but I had forgotten that the cars moved so, so fast on the oval ribbon of pavement at Indianapolis. There is-something strange that hap- pens to one's vision when the cars go by on that first lap. They are at first unchained and roaring to get' ahead of eagh other in this bizarre race to get gack to where they al- ready are, faster than their compe- titors. They drive so as to be almost Inscrutable, like a shadow fading when the sun goes behind a cloud. Watching them come down the straightaway my eyes couldn't fo- cus; as they pass they sudden- ly seem to surge forward even faster in some supernatural, impossible ac- celeration. The whine mixed with the acrid smell of burning kerosene and the glaring, late - morning sun, and the crowd seems to lose its mind for a moment. A sudden spurt of even more pow- er carried them around the turn; they were gone except for the whine of the engines that is never passed. One balding, perspiring young man in a "Penske Racing", windbreaker dashed a few steps after the fleeing cars, shot his hand toward the sky, and yelled "SSSSHHHHOOOMMM!" Only that, nothing more - it cer- tainly said what I was feeling and nothing else would have meant any- thing at all. Fear had changed to fascination. But the grand beginning was real- ly more of a finale for the entourage of fans who had arrived the night before to camp out and drink beer around the sprawling white speed- way. Mere blocks from downtown Indianapolis, the long, oval arena is abutted by Sixteenth . Ave. - and Georgetown St.; these are the long corridors of bawdy action the night before the race. A huge American Legion post field and hundreds of ill - kept residential lawns of crab grass were crammed with gleaming, souped - up campers, vans, at derous motor homes spilling o dle-aged, middle - income with their friends and childr would-be spectators lined th on their rickety aluminur chairs,. watching even more incoming crowd roll along to ner of the speedway or the only to stroll back again. A mustachioed man in a B' er t-shirt, about thirty, doze to his green cooler in the is ning rays, a can of Pabst c In his hand. Strolling cai along the curb, wary of the motorcycles close at hand startled from my other side other gentleman, hair slicke and his ample belly covere greasy, green-striped shirt, w staring into space while lett rank residue qf the afternoon cascade down upon the rea wheel of his car. When I turn' a moment later the urine 5 flowing, and I left before find just how deep the reservoir w )ARKNESS CAME ON on shattered by the glare of dianapolis streetlights. The 1 of unsheathed motorcycle ripped the humid darkness a screamed up and down the "Show us your tits!" bellowed of men to every passing womb some, drunk, began to tul shirts up-in acoulescence, the restrained by their glowerin companions. One shundred thousand I around the Speedway. It w until five o'clock the next ml the race was hours off and fe of it, but it was right the them all; its engines, chrot and steel had lured them, I the next day's rivers, they W ting themselves loose. The m A. J. rOyr