Penske Buys IMS in Blockbuster Deal

The "Captain" Roger Penske is the new boss at Indy

This past Monday November 4th, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stole all the headlines in the motorsports industry with the announcement that the most successful team owner in Indy 50 history, Roger Penske, was going to buy the assets of Hulman & Company which included the Speedway, the NTT Indycar series and other racing related enterprises. Arguably the best kept secret in racing perhaps ever, that announcement sent shock waves through the Indycar community but once the dust settled, the purchase was almost universally lauded as a positive development for IMS, the Indy 5000 and Indycar. I happen to share that view as there is no one better suited to run the show than Roger Penske who, as many people have said, has basically "owned" the Speedway and the 500 for decades by virtue of his 18 Indianapolis 500 wins.

Tony George can ride off into the sunset

The press conference which covered the announcement was quite interesting to watch although I had to do so in segments due to my teaching commitments that day. I wish I could have been at IMS to take photos of that historic event! Tony George was noticeably emotional during many of his remarks as the Hulman family had decided to part with an institution that had been in the family since 1945. People talk about racing being in someone's DNA and no truer words could be spoken to describe the Hulman-George family's connection to the 1000 acre facility at the corner of 16th and Georgetown in Speedway, Indiana. One of the things which struck a chord with me was Tony's comment that "everyone has a story" who comes to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. My story with IMS is perhaps not that different than many other Hoosiers with a few exceptions - and I'll get to those in a minute - for I was bitten by the racing bug at an early age.

Mark Miles has done well in a tough job

My first 500 was in 1970 when my Dad took me to the race as a 13th birthday present. I remember riding with Dad out to the old museum on 16th Street where the ticket office was located the week before the race and buying our tickets. We got seats in the 3rd Turn infield bleachers and during the race I think I spent as much time watching the drunks in the infield behind us as I did watching the race. There was a big crash right in front of us late in the race and I remember watching the race fuel run down the track and ignite every time another car would drive through it. I recall being scared for the firemen and safety officials who seemed oblivious to their near death existence as they worked to get the track cleared. At the same time I was thrilled by the entire experience, from the early morning race day drive into the infield to the trip home and excitedly talking about everything we had seen.

With my Mom and nephew at another 500

The previous year, I had another birthday experience that revolved around the 500, but then I've been having those my whole life. My birthday is May 31st and I was born the day after Sam Hanks won the 500 in 1957. For most of my childhood the race was run on May 30th and I have so many memories of being at the lake in Warsaw, Indiana at my grandparents' house, going swimming, eating Penguin Point fried chicken and watermelon and listening to Sid Collins describe the 500 on the radio. My 12th birthday in 1969 was right about the time the movie "Winning" came out starring Paul Newman, Robert Wagner and Newman's wife Joanne Woodward. I remember it like it was yesterday since Dad and I went just before I turned 12 and it was the last time I was able to see a movie with the "kids" discount for children 12 or under. I was already a pretty big kid at that age so it took some convincing at the ticket window, but Dad wasn't going to pay full price if he could avoid it. After all, he was a Methodist minister and Mom was a school teacher so you can imagine money didn't grow on trees for our family!

Jay Shue - my grandfather and my namesake

My late mother was a huge race fan and used to take us to Indy 500 practice on a regular basis. Our family moved to Indianapolis in 1968 shortly after my 11th birthday, and I was already certifiably smitten with racing by then. From an early age, I loved building plastic models of race cars and there were plenty of kits out in the 1960's by companies like Monogram and Revell. Mom got the bug from her father Jay Shue who I am named after. Grandpa Jay had the house on the lake in Warsaw and he was involved with getting a quarter mile dirt track built at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds near their house shortly after World War II. As long ago as I can remember, summers in Warsaw involved going to the County Fair where they raced something every night of the fair: stocks, midgets, sprint cars and even flat track motorcycles. Grandpa would take me down to the pits off the third and fourth turns and he seemed to know everyone as we walked though. I have vivid memories of checking out the cars and hanging on the board fence in the pits watching the races. I loved the sounds and smells as much then as I do now. So my Mom and I came by our love of racing naturally and our whole family is connected in some way or another to racing - my uncles and cousins all race motorcycles and the rest of us fell for anything on wheels just as hard.

Mom loved being at the 500 with us

I found out during my childhood that Grandpa Jay had a connection to the 500 and IMS as well. Mom used to tell us stories of Grandpa barnstorming with Eddie Rickenbacker flying airplanes in the 1920's. That led to Grandpa making many visits to Indianapolis when Rickenbacker owned the track and we have family photos of women and men posing with Indy 500 legends like Peter de Paolo from those days, so it's obvious that Grandpa was bitten by the racing bug too. Mom talked about coming to the 500 after World War 2 when she was a little girl in a school bus with a farm trough full of iced beer in it where they would sit on top of the bus and watch the race from the infield. I'm sure that's what led to his involvement with the track in Warsaw after the war. Mom was still going to the 500 with us even up to a year before her death from lung cancer. Her last 500 with us was in 2014 but she wanted the whole race day experience that year like many years before. Since I'm a credentialed photographer, that meant going into the track before dawn and having breakfast at the Alley Cafe shortly after the bomb went off that signals the opening of the public gates. I will be forever grateful for the Speedway's yellow shirts who gave Mom a golf cart ride to our seats in Stand B that day so she didn't have to fight the crowds. She made it through the whole day and we talked about that race day and many others numerous times over the next 14 months of her life before her health finally failed her in July 2015. I still have many of her ticket stubs, autographs and collectibles from the 500 that she saved so those memories are not going away anytime soon.

I shot this photo of Simon Pagenaud this year - he's the most recent Indy 500 winner for Penske

I've been to every Indy 500 since 1976 and have been a working photographer for all but four races since 1984 and now I'm a member of the Indy 500 Oldtimers which is pretty damn cool for someone who is just a "fricking Hoosier", as a college friend from the Bronx used to say. When I was in college at the University of Chicago in the late 1970s, I would bring friends back to the race every year and we partied hard with the infield crowd for many years. I often tell people I came for the party but stayed for the racing and photography has enable me to be a part of something that is so much bigger than myself. In 1982, I was dating a young lady who was selected as a 500 Princess and we sat right above Victory Lane while getting the royal treatment for the whole race weekend, from the black tie gala to the police escort and pace car ride on race day. I've been very fortunate to see the 500 from many different perspectives and I know I will continue to be involved as long as I am physically able. When I can't, I'll go sit in our family's seats and enjoy the spectacle just as much. Having Roger Penske now taking the helm as the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ushers in a whole new era for my beloved Indy. I trust Roger and know it's in good hands.

That's my story for now - I look forward to hearing yours. See you next May on the westside. Let's take a photo together!