Are There Ghosts at the Brickyard? An Introduction

In addition to the podcast, each episode will be accompanied by a written version. Generally a transcript, they will also typically include links for further reading and pictures. This introduction is not scripted so this is not a 100% transcript, however it will contain all of the information that the episode contains. Enjoy!

“There is nothing in the world quite like the Indianapolis 500. Every May, more than 250,000 people gather to watch thirty-three of the best drivers compete to immortalize themselves and they’ve been gathering for over 110 years. Through World Wars, pandemics, a global depression and a recession, through sanctioning body volatility and its subsequent split, the Indianapolis 500 has managed to not only endure but thrive. 
The Indianapolis 500 is special but at least, in our experience, the history and what makes it so special feels incredibly gatekept. When I first really became interested in IndyCar and the Indy 500, I kept seeing people talk about how special it was and how it had so many traditions but most people weren’t interested in letting anybody in on what exactly made it so special or where all of these traditions came from and what made them so sacred.”

Meet Kate and Abby:

Abby is the producer of the show! Abby, originally a Formula One fan, found IndyCar through McLaren F1’s social media in late 2021. 2022 was Abby’s first Indy 500 and she fell in love with the race and is interested in the history of it which is why she agreed to do this podcast with Kate. You can follow her on Twitter here.

Kate is the host/historian of the podcast. All of the research you’ll hear on this podcast is Kate’s. Kate grew up as a NASCAR fan however, she stopped watching as a teenager but came back to it as an adult after the birth of her son. Her background is in genealogical research – she has accumulated a decade worth of research experience, cracking her family’s secrets through creative research strategies. Kate started researching motorsport history when she stumbled on a Maude Yagle article that didn’t have any substance and thought “I wonder if I can do better” and she did. You can follow Kate on Twitter here.

Why Behind The Podcast:

When Kate started researching motorsport history, she had assumed naively that there would be copious amounts of books written about the Indianapolis 500. However it became apparent quickly that this was not the case.

In reality, there is very little accessibility to information about the Indy 500 – there are not many in-depth books or even internet articles about it, especially the pre-war Indy 500 (which sucks because Kate feels that it is an incredibly vibrant and interesting time). A lot of information you can find on the internet is pretty uniform and very surface level. There is really only one website, called firstsuperspeedway.com where you can find in-depth information about early American motorsports, as well as early Indy 500 history.

There is also a lot of gatekeeping. The phrase “You don’t know what Indy means” has been co-opted by people on social media and used against newer fans who don’t “get” the traditions or history.

Kate has also found that on social media, at least, if you don’t subscribe to this one particular view of Indy 500 history, people will be very mean and Kate and Abby do not like that. One of the goals is to present in-depth information about each year so others can form their own opinions.

Ultimately, the biggest motivation behind doing this podcast is that we want to help make Indy 500 history more accessible, first and foremost.  Accessibility is a good thing — if people who are more casual viewers of the Indy 500/IndyCar can know and understand the history of the race, they’re going to appreciate it a heck of a lot more. And if by understanding the history of the Indy 500, you have a really solid foundation to understand the history of American motorsports in general, particularly American Open-Wheel (or what we currently call IndyCar)

Another mission of the podcast is to help preserve the stories of particularly women in motorsports and at IMS because researching Maude Yagle opened Kate’s eyes to the fact that it’s not that women weren’t there at the race track, people have just generally not cared to research and memorialize them

The Structure

So while information about the Indianapolis 500/Indianapolis Motor Speedway is not easily accessible to average people, does not mean the information does not exist. Using mostly newspaper archives, Kate has been able to unearth A LOT of information about the lead up to each Indy 500, the actual race as well as the aftermath.

The two-pre IMS years will get one episode but beyond that, each year will get it’s own scripted episode called Narratives or Lore. These episodes will be a continuous story, broken up by year. However, there will also be “Seances” which are conversation based episodes where Kate and Abby chat about the narrative episode, Kate shares any weird rabbit holes she couldn’t fit into the Narrative and they’ll talk about how each particular year’s history is still relevant now.

There will also be Minor Hauntings/Major Hauntings episodes. Minor Hauntings will cover the lives of minor (in Indy 500 history) characters while Major Hauntings will cover major Indy 500 figures. These will be at varying frequencies.

It’s also not out of the question that Kate and Abby will come up with different types of episodes down the road… Who knows what kind of rabbit hole they’ll end up down.

Kate would also like to make it clear that any mistakes are her own and they are not out of carelessness. She wants to tell these stories accurately so if you find a mistake, feel free to send her an email (link is in the Contact page at the top of the website).

We are so excited to be doing this podcast and sharing this history with you all! Please go follow our Twitter page for updates.

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