1980... The open bathroom year

Camping got alot better this year. The G.T.G. (Good-Time Gang) found a nice lady (Teresa Coffett on west 16th St. that let us park the Ford wagons in her yard. When she told us that we could use her basement bathroom (and that her back door would be open would be open all night) we couldn't park the Fords fast enough! When there are 350,000 people at a sporting event, camping and drinking beer, bathroom facilities become a priority. There was even a shower in her basement!!! Now your talkin!!! This year we sat in Grandstand C, Row K coming off turn 4. The race was won by Johnny Rutherford in the Pennzoil Chapperal. All it says in the scrapbook is; "stayed in stands after race were Tom & I met a couple from Milwaukee and got drunk with 'em"....

The birth of Wisconsin Good-Time Gang

1979 was the year myself, my brother Rick and my friend Tom Anderson established our racing fraternity; The Wisconsin Good-Time Gang. I have to give Tom the credit for coming up with the name. This was our first year together and it showed! Our "camping" consisted of 2 Ford station wagons parked on the street back to back. Drinking Old Style under an oak tree standing in the rain, and peeing into an old 10 gallon Army gas can! It does get better in the years to come as I will show as we go down memory lane. Oh, by the way, 1979 was the first year Rick Mears won it driving for Roger Penske.

My dad took my brother and I to our first Indy 500 in 1963. We sat on the 2nd turn bleachers for $2.00/ticket. It was the race that Parnelli Jones won over Jimmy Clark and the Lotus Ford invasion. We attended the 1964 race when the fiery crash on lap 2 occured, killing Dave McDonald and Eddie Sachs. We were sitting on front stretch coming out of turn 4 where the accident happened. I also went in 1969 with high school buddies. We were 15 feet away from victory lane when winning car owner Andy Granatelli kissed his winning driver Mario Andretti. I also went in 1977 with some buddies I was serving in the Air Force with, and watched A.J. Foyt win his 4th Indy 500. I missed the 1978 race, but have not missed a race since. And this is were this blog comes in. For the last 30 years I have been keeping scrapbooks of the years we have been going. These books not only include accounts of the race, but also who attended, were we camped/stayed, what we did for entertainment before the race, and believe it or not, the vehicles we drove and EVEN what we had to EAT! I will be posting articles of each years race, pictures and the story of the friends and family that attended The Greatest Specticle In Racing.