Speedway porches represent more than just decorations for lifelong Indy 500 fans

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — May 1 in Speedway means checkered flags flying in the air and signs saying “Welcome Race Fans” proudly hanging on front porches. The change in the calendar signals that this quiet town to turn into a mecca for motorsports and its fans.

No one in the world takes the Indianapolis 500 as seriously as the people who inhabit the small town surrounding the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Neighbors spend 11 months out of the year planning how they’ll decorate their homes.

”This is the greatest time of the year and you want your house to look as good as it possibly can because there are 300,000 people in town,” said Rodney Lyden, a Speedway resident within eyesight of the track.

Lyden’s home on the corner of 21st and Auburn is covered in racing banners and flags for all of May. He tries to do something different every year.

”What can I do this year to outdo myself last year?” Lyden asked. “It’s a competition within myself to do better each year and make it more spectacular year after year.”

One decoration you won’t see on any other home is flying on the flag pole in Lyden’s front yard. A flag, with a picture of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar President Doug Boles on it, saying, “Doug Approved.”

“People want to know where we got it, so we just tell them we made it,” Lyden said.

That’s the truth, he even has one waiting for Doug Boles.

A few blocks away, Michelle Lidy’s home is another masterpiece of Indy 500 fandom. Her goal is to have something in her front yard that people won’t see anywhere else.

Her front porch is transformed into a checkered Indy 500 archway, around her flag pole is a homemade scoring pylon and a replica Borg Warner trophy sits in her front yard.

”People drive by and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so cool,’ and they want to get their pictures taken with it,” Lidy said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Lidy and her family have plenty of Mays under their belts. The home at the corner of McCray and Myers was first bought by her grandparents in 1934.

”One day my grandpa, who was a huge Indy 500 fan, turned to my grandma and just said, ‘You know, we should go look for a house for sale in the Indianapolis area,'” Lidy said.

Lidy said her grandpa wanted to be closer to IMS, and they found a house that fit the bill.

”They stopped here and he got up on the roof and he could see inside the track and he said, ‘This is the one we’re taking,'” Lidy said.

More than 90 years later, Lidy, her husband and her daughter now live in the same home. They have added quite a bit to the original house.

”My grandma raised three daughters in this house in one very, very tiny bathroom,” Lidy said. “So, I’m sure she’s very jealous of the extra space we have.”

The porches in Speedway are a lot more than just decorations, it’s self-expression and art for the people who call Speedway home.

”The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 is sort of in our blood,” Lidy said.

”I want it to express my enthusiasm and love for the track and IndyCar racing and the Indy 500,” said Lyden.