How the revamped IMS Museum will take celebrating Indy's past into the future
Yesterday at 11:14 AM
Time it was, and what a time it was,
It was a time of innocence, a time of confidences.
Long ago, it must be… I have a photograph.
Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you.
The words are Paul Simon's and sung by he and Art Garfunkel in ‘Bookends’. I find myself humming Simon's simple but beautiful accompanying melody whenever I sift through pictures from the 1950s and '60s, despite being aware that the era's ‘innocence’ didn't run as deep as one pretends. I guess poring over yellowed photographs through rose-tinted spectacles brings out the blues. Nostalgia overcomes reality, so that we find ourselves yearning to be in places and eras we never experienced. What a time it was.
To that end, a trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum has always been a pleasure. Since its inception in 1956, this establishment has honored its heroes in a manner that was adequate for those who caught the racing bug early and are now well into the second half of our lives. However, static cars and pictures on walls are only enough to entice hardcore fans and/or those who wish to remember watching these cars in action. In order to hold allure for younger generations, a display needs to be rather more dynamic – and appealing to the next generations is vital if racing is to hold its ground in the crowded sports landscape for another century. Our sons, daughters and grandchildren need to understand why our heroes are our heroes, and to do that, they need to understand why the Speedway is known as the Racing Capital of the World. This isn't a video racing game: this is for real.
At this hallowed 2.5-mile course, the winners and beginners, the high-fliers and hard triers, genuinely put their lives on the line. At time of writing, 801 drivers have qualified for the Indianapolis 500, which makes for a pretty exclusive club when spread across 108 editions stretching back to 1911. To be one of the 33 drivers to even start an Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day Weekend is an immense privilege; it's time to proudly broadcast that fact to the world.
The huge Museum revamp aims to do exactly that when it re-opens its doors on April 2. Jason Vansickle is VP of curation and education at the IMS Museum – that job title alone suggests the Museum understands what needs to be done here – and has been an employee there for 14 years. He's the ideal guy to explain the ethos of the Museum going forward.
"When the first museum was built in 1956, it contained a six-car collection that grew to 12 cars," he says. "And then when they built the current building in '76, obviously that had to be much larger. But nearly 50 years on from then, so much has changed, including how people expect to be educated and entertained in museums. We want people to come into the museum and not only be entertained, but also understand why Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the greatest race course in the world and why Indianapolis is the Racing Capital of the World. If you go to the 500, you're in awe of the spectacle from the cannon going off at 6 a.m. all the way to the post-race celebration, and the Museum really needs to convey that. The work our team has done, and the leadership of our board has allowed us to develop a museum that tells that 115-plus year history."
Any visitors over the past few years would agree that the Museum's usable floorspace had become a major issue, as it tried to acquire each 500 winner. It was difficult to examine any one car from anything but a head-on angle, unless it had been selected for a specific exhibition. (In recent years, the special displays celebrating A.J. Foyt and Parnelli Jones were particularly memorable). As can be seen from the images accompanying this column, it's a problem that has been overcome.
"We've had to make some difficult decisions while rethinking the whole building," says Vansickle. "We couldn't expand our footprint, nor could we expand upward because of grandstand sightlines and the like, so we had to find ways to maximize the space inside the current shell. Now, I think we have developed a good, photogenic way to display the cars that guests will enjoy. You will be able, in most cases, to walk around a car, and have enough space to truly appreciate it.
"We also plan to rotate what's on display from time to time to make multiple visits more individually impactful, so there's no feeling of staleness. And the lighting will be superb. The previous skylight was damaging to the collection and also dictated how we lit each area, whereas the new lighting and encased skylight is really going to help with that."
Exploiting the height of the building was key to the huge increase in floorspace, and there is now access to three floors for the price of admission.
Says Vansickle: "What was considered the basement is now part of your museum ticket price. That will hold rotating galleries, and will contain 12 Indianapolis 500-winning cars. There will be 17 on the ground floor, where we'll also have an eight-car rotating gallery – for the opening, it will be Brickyard 400 NASCAR winners – and then a 4,800sq.ft. gallery celebrating the best of the best, presented by KeyBank, which will honor our four-time 500 winners, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Rick Mears and Helio Castroneves. There will also be the Track Lounge, which will serve as the departure point for the bus track tour on days when there is no racing activity. And then we have the Race Experience, which is a more immersive experience of what it's like to be at the track at race time."
This latter facility replaces the mini-cinema and features what Vansickle describes as one of the highlights of the Museum. But first, there's another highlight.
"You'll see from the images that we've constructed a representation of Gasoline Alley," he says, "and that's where our guests walk through right after purchasing the ticket. It's a seven-car display and we can change out what's shown in there, along with artifacts that in some cases, we could never previously display. I think Gasoline Alley will really tell the story of the track and give visitors that prime knowledge before heading into other areas of the museum.
"Then they will come to an experiential exhibit called the Starting Line Experience. When you walk in, there's a fixed likeness of the front straightaway, and there are three show cars, which we will always have wrapped as the most recent front-row cars of the 500, and curving up above is a 20ft-wide by 80ft-long LED video board. It will play a six-minute presentation of how it feels to be at the Speedway from the cannon going off all the way through the pre-race ceremonies to the start of the race. It's really about the pageantry of race day."
Yet it is the Museum's new top floor that, architecturally speaking, is the biggest coup.
"We were able to put in some new trusses to add a 6,000sq.ft mezzanine which allows more displays," says Vansickle. "We can get vehicles up there, but for the opening it will be artifact-driven. We have artwork and a variety of display cases to talk about different topics, including other races held at the Speedway such as BC39 , the eight years of Formula 1 being here , the Red Bull Air Races , the Balloon Races and the Wright Brothers' air race from 1910.
"With our rotating galleries, we'll be able to tell more stories, so for example, Sid Collins and Tom Carnegie will be represented at a basic level and then as we go through rotations down the road, there will be exhibitions that honor different topics and people and concepts that have played a significant part in the Speedway's history. It is a new museum in that regard, and one that you'll want to see more than once a year."
For many, the most notable item on display in the IMS Museum is – and always will be – the Borg-Warner Trophy. Vansickle believes its new location will convey its status.
"The Borg-Warner Trophy has a prominent display in the upper level of the winners gallery," he states. "It's a large and impactful position, where it will be surrounded by four sections of display case that will talk about what the Indy 500 winner receives in addition to his image on the Trophy – the Jostens ring, the TAG Heuer watch, the "Baby Borg", a mini wreath that was commissioned from Julie Vance who makes the winner's wreath every year since 1992, as well as a display of the tools and clay that Will Behrends uses to sculpt the faces that go on the Trophy. But there'll also be an interactive display where you learn about the Trophy itself and can zoom into the various faces to learn more about those specific races and specific drivers."
Interactive displays are generally to be savored, but there was one aspect where this writer needed reassurance. A recent trip to an aviation museum had left me somewhat disappointed, not by the exhibits, but by the lack of information provided. In several cases, gone were the typical placards that had provided a brief history of the plane and its specifications, and in their stead was a tiny plinth on which was provided only the plane's name and a QR code. I'm not a Luddite by nature (well, not often), but this seems like a misguided change for change's sake, as well as coercion into spending precious time staring at a phone. Vansickle says there will be no such aggravation at the IMS Museum.
"We have integrated the story-telling into the museum," he reassures, "and so there will be concise and engaging stories. QR codes will be there to provide supplemental 'deep dives' into whatever the topic is. We've put a lot of thought into the information that's readily available."
Such a whole-scale upgrade to the Museum required a lot of research and thought, but once the green flag dropped on the renovation process, progress was rapid.
"It was back in 2014 when the board originally started exploring what options they had to upgrade the Museum," says Vansickle. "New board members and new staff members helped us to hit the ground running, once we were out of the COVID pandemic, so the format everyone can see from April 2nd really started taking shape in 2021. We shut the Museum down in the first weekend of November '23, and so we'll be reopening after 18 months of closure."
That's impressively quick, given the extent of the changes. Naturally, admission prices have risen, but IndyCar fans or even just fans of history, won't be put off by a pricing structure that's very much in line with other museums around the U.S. – $25 for adults, and concessions for seniors, military veterans and youth.
"Depending on your interest level, the museum in its previous form might have taken you 45 minutes or an hour to go around," says Vansickle. "With all the extra display area – the basement plus mezzanine has added 40,000sq.ft. – and with all the new items on display, and new experiences, I'd say you'd now want to spend double that time here, even if you don't take one of the track tours.
"The museum is honoring the world's greatest race and other races at the world's greatest track, but it's also a tribute to those who have invested and contributed over the years just because they want to see the Speedway and its Museum flourish."
And so the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is almost ready, once more, to celebrate what a time it was, and to honor the Brickyard's heroes of the past 116 years. The difference is that from April 2nd it will also inform visitors all year around why they need to return to Indy every Memorial Day Weekend.
