IMS Museum Moves in New Cars Before Indy 500
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — Dan Rosenau is like many of the fans who come through the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum — born and bred into the racing fandom, the black and white pride checkered into his DNA.
”I came here as a kid,” Rosenau said. “We’d come down from Michigan every year for the 500 starting in 1965.”
Flash forward about 60 years, Rosenau, the museum’s restoration manager, is charged with preserving the very history he saw in real time.
“I remember these cars going around the track as a kid,” Rosenau said. “It’s magical every time you walk in this place.”
From the track to the truck, Rosenau and a crew of helpers unloaded six historic cars to display at the Gasoline Alley Gallery inside the museum.
“We have a variety ranging all the way back from 1914 to 1988, so it allows us to really tell a broad history for people coming into the museum for their first experience and then explore more as they go through the museum,” Jason Vansickle, IMS’s museum curation and education vice president, said.
The seven garages inside the exhibit had been staged with the same cars since last April, when the museum’s $60.5 million renovation was completed. Six cars were wheeled away to make space for the fresh series of speed. One car, however, stayed in place.
At the end of the exhibit, the car Arie Luyendyk drove when he set the one and four-lap qualifying records remains in its garage.
“With the 117 years of history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the museum is tasked with telling those stories,” Vansickle said.
The gallery not only honors history, but is a testament to the crews who work tirelessly to keep tradition alive. Rosenau and other staff members removed layers of plastic wrap from car wheels, while also covering the old set of cars to protect them from the rain.
“We spend a lot of time preserving the cars,” Rosenau said. “A lot of these cars weren’t meant to last a year, let alone 100 years. There’s a lot of bare metal on the cars, there’s a lot of things that don’t really respond well to rain, dirt or anything else, so we try to protect them as much as possible.”
The cars, while they are the centerpieces of Gasoline Alley, are surrounded by carefully curated artifacts. Tools, signage and different progressions of media are all meant to further immerse viewers into chapters of racing history.
Rosenau said every element is presented and sourced with great attention to detail. He knows the future of racing depends on how history is shown to future Speedway superfans.
“We get some incredible comments from people that come through the museum that say, ‘This is my 42nd Indy500’ and things like that, and it makes us feel proud to be able to preserve this for future generations.”
IMS Museum Moves in New Cars Before Indy 500 was originally published on wibc.com
