IMS Museum brings historic Indy 500 race cars back to life to return to the track

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Before the field of 33 takes the track at the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500, generations of racing history will take four turns around the track.

The Historic Car Lap is a time-honored tradition that has happened before the Indy 500 dating back to the 1940s.

This year, 13 cars will take a lap around the track. The oldest among them won the 1935 Indianapolis 500.

On Thursday, three vintage cars were going through the final preparations for the Historic Car Lap in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum Garage

”We have the 1990 Indy 500 winner, Arie Luyendyk’s Lola that he would go onto win and really set a record for fastest average speed in the race which was not surpassed until Tony Kanaan in 2013,” said Jason Vansickle, the Vice President of Curation and Education at the IMS Museum.

It won’t just be Luyendyk’s old ride returning to the track, but the two-time Indy 500 champ himself will be back behind the wheel.

”I think Arie is pretty excited to be in the car,” Vansickle said. “He talked about bringing his fire suit that he wore in 1990.”

Next to the 1990 winner will be an entirely different looking vehicle — the car the won the 1950 Indy 500.

”It was driven by Johnny Parsons, the first Kurtis Kraft to win the Indianapolis 500,” said Vansickle.

The third car being worked on Wednesday was one that introduced brand new technology to the Indy 500.

”The third vehicle we have in the restoration shop right now is Johnny Rutherford’s 1980 winning Chaparral,” Vansickle said. ”It was the first IndyCar to incorporate ground effect technology into the design of the car, so it was very advanced for the time.”

Vansickle said other race teams quickly incorporated ground effect technology after Rutherford dominated the Indy 500 that year.

”When you’re looking at history and watershed moments of the Indy 500, that car set the future for the following almost 40 years,” he said.

Now, these three cars are nearly ready to return to the track for the Historic Car Lap.

The 13 total cars will show how the technology at the Indianapolis 500 has advanced over the past 108 races.

”Current day car has more than a mile of wiring in it, this car that’s the entire wiring harness, there is four feet of wiring in this car,” said Dan Rosenau, pointing to the winning Kurtis Kraft from 1950.

Rosenau is the Restoration Manager at the IMS Museum. His job is keeping a majority of the 100-plus historic cars in the museum running.

”The museum is a living, breathing collection of cars,” Rosenau said. “About 85% of the collection runs, and it’s our job to keep them running.”

With cars more than a century old in the collection, that’s no easy task. Rosenau said his team spends most of its time preserving and maintaining the cars. The team can spend anywhere from a few weeks to three months bringing cars that haven’t run in 40 years back to life.

”Parking a car is the worst thing you can do for it,” Rosenau said. “Keeping a car moving, keeping things circulating, keeping all the bearings free and everything else is the best thing you can do for the car.”

Rosenau said they use an extensive network of connections, the IMS Museum research library and the collection of parts, spares and artifacts the museum has to bring the cars back to life.

”There’s five full-time employees in the restoration, two part-time guys,” Rosenau said. “There are hundreds of years of experience amongst those guys, so usually somebody has the answers.”

Rosenau said working on these machines gives his team so much respect for the engineers and craftsman who built them decades ago.

”Our Maserati, the ’39-’40 (Indianapolis 500) winner that will run on race day, is one of the most sophisticated cars I have ever seen,” Rosenau said. “The technology, the workmanship, the quality of the incredible little parts on the car is just beyond belief. To see that car and think this car was made before World War II, it’s just amazing.”

Indy 500 fans will be able to see the Historic Car Lap on race day morning just before 11 a.m.

”You can hear the difference, you can see the difference, you can learn about the technology difference,” said Vansickle.

Here’s the full list of historic cars running at this year’s Indy 500:

1. 1935 Ford V-8 Special (Private owner)
2. 1940 Boyle Special, originally driven by three-time Indy 500 champ Wilbur Shaw
3. 1950 Wynn’s Friction Proofing Special Kurtis-Kraft, originally driven by Indy 500 champ Johnnie Parsons.
4. 1950 Cummins Diesel Special, originally driven by Jimmy Jackson.
5. 1955 John Zink Special Kurtis-Kraft, originally driven by Indy 500 champ Bob Sweikert.
6. 1955 Keck Epperly Streamliner (Private Owner)
7. 1960 Ken-Paul Special Watson, originally driven by Indy 500 champ Jim Rathmann.
8. 1963 Agajanian Willard Battery Special Watson, originally driven by Indy 500 champ Parnelli Jones.
9. 1980 Pennzoil Chaparral 2K, originally driven by three-time Indy 500 champ Johnny Rutherford.
10. 1985 Miller American Special (Team Penske owned), originally driven by Indy 500 champ Danny Sullivan.
11. 1990 Domino’s Pizza “Hot One” Lola T9000, originally driven by two-time Indy 500 champ Arie Luyendyk.
12. 2000 Target, originally driven by two-time Indy 500 champ Juan Pablo Montoya.
13. 2010 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, originally driven by three-time Indy 500 champ Dario Franchitti 

Before the cars hit the track on race day morning, fans will have a chance to see them in select garages along Gasoline Alley on Carb Day and Legends Day.

”We’ll have the doors open for the trackside garages and people will be able to come and ask questions of the cars we’re going to run, see the restoration crew and really see the cars up close before they run on race day,” said Vansickle.