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Indianapolis Motor Speedway. © [Andy Clary / Spacesuit Media]

by Paul Gohde

It’s funny how two years away from something you love can seem like a millennium, but the Pandemic-scared past years left a hole the size of Indiana for those who love the Indy 500; thankfully they are now “Back Home Again”.

For the multiple thousands of fans who hold the same tickets for the race year after year, camping on the front lawns of neighborhoods nearby, clogging the narrow streets of the Town of Speedway, and filling every hotel and restaurant within (fill in the blank) miles of Indy, 2022 couldn’t arrive soon enough.

Two years away for both fans and participants, gave Roger Penske’s ownership team an opportunity to do what they saw fit in order to bring the track and the property around it into what many called “Penske proper”. It’s been noted by most racing media how progress has been made on and off the track over the two seasons of Penske ownership; but the 2022 running should open the eyes of more fans and racers alike; the improvements are numerous and hard to miss.

The previous Hulman-George regime worked a miracle back in post-war 1945, rescuing the 36-year-old facility that resembled an airfield chocked by weeds, without any proper chance of returning to its pre-WWII “glamour”. But the new, Hoosier-raised owner, Tony Hulman, must have had a direct line to heaven. A miracle allowed the 1946 race to be run without too much trouble after a massive repair job (not improvements or up-grading) brought a huge crowd to the track that would stay in the H-G family until they decided to sell to an anxious RP almost 65 years later. Many conjecture that the Pennsylvania business giant/race car maven was just waiting to be the next owner, operator and savior of the storied facility. There apparently were several serious buyers interested and making offers, but Mr. Penske won out, bringing not only the track into his fold, but the Indy Car series as well; after all an owner has to have races to make the track profitable. How much did he spend and is continuing to spend? Many conjecture as to the amount, but unless you have Roger’s email address or phone number the amount will remain just that.

So, the sun is out this 106th 500 morning, the media center is alive with writers, the loud 6:00 am fireworks spectacle signaled the opening of the gates and a rush for parking. The sun gleams off of every inch of the renewed facility, 300,000 fans are flocking in, and this writer can’t wait for all the pre-race pageantry to begin. Because when Jim Cornelison sings “Back Home Again in Indiana”, everyone gathered will know that they are finally, Back Home.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

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