So, I got this idea a while back to really get into the Indy 500 from 1987. Not just, you know, look up who won. I wanted to feel it, if that makes sense, like I was almost there, or at least understand what the fuss was all about at the time.
Getting Started – The Easy Part
Fired up the old computer, did the usual searches. Al Unser Sr., yeah, a legend. Won his fourth. That part was simple, took all of five minutes. Found the box scores, some quick recaps. Standard stuff you can find anywhere.
Digging Deeper – The Real Work Began
But I wanted more than just the surface details. I remembered hearing some crazy stories about that race, something about the car he drove being almost an afterthought, pulled out of a hotel lobby display or something equally bizarre? That’s the kind of detail I was after, the stuff that makes a story.
- Finding Footage: First off, I tried to find the full race broadcast. Man, that was a trip in itself. You find bits and pieces on those video sharing sites, you know the ones. The quality? Let’s just say it’s a stark reminder of how far TV technology has come. Grainy images, colors a bit off, sound that’s seen better days. But hey, it was something.
- Contemporary Reports: Then, I thought, “Okay, what were people actually saying and writing back then?” So, I started hunting for old newspaper articles, magazine features from around May ’87. This was tougher than I thought it would be. Some digital archives are pretty good, but others… well, they feel like they were designed in ’87 too, clunky and hard to navigate. It meant a lot of searching, scrolling through what felt like miles of microfilm scans.
It genuinely felt like being a detective, piecing together clues from different sources. I eventually confirmed the stories about Danny Ongais’s unfortunate crash, which led to Al Unser getting the surprise ride in that Penske PC-16. And yeah, the car, the March 86C, was indeed a show car from a hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania, not even the latest model. Imagine that! Pulling a car practically from a museum display and going on to win the biggest race of them all. Wild stuff.
What I Really Learned – It Wasn’t Just About a Race
You know, this whole project started as just wanting to know more about a famous car race. But it turned into something else entirely. It made me think a lot about how we remember things, or more accurately, how we lose them. All that effort I put in, just to try and piece together one single event from not even that long ago, relatively speaking.
I was there, sifting through these fuzzy videos and staring at digital copies of old, faded newsprint. It was a real wake-up call. We all talk like everything’s preserved forever on the internet, don’t we? That’s a load of garbage, mostly. The real, full story, with all the context? Often, it’s not there. Or it’s buried so deep, or locked behind some company’s paywall, that it might as well be gone for most folks.
It’s funny, because while I was trying to dig up the past of this race, it made me stare right at my own dusty boxes at home. I’ve got stacks of old photos, those ancient camcorder tapes of family holidays and stuff. Are they just sitting there, slowly rotting away? This whole Indy project, it basically guilt-tripped me into thinking about my own personal history that I’m neglecting. I haven’t managed to sort it all out and digitize it yet, of course. That’s another mountain to climb, feels just like that archival research – slow, painstaking, and you’re never quite sure you’ve got it all or if anyone else will ever care.
So, did I end up writing some definitive masterpiece on the ’87 Indy 500? Nope. Life, you know? It has a habit of throwing other stuff at you, and projects get sidelined. But that whole process of digging, of trying to uncover the story? That stuck with me. It’s a solid reminder that keeping history alive, even the cool bits like old car races, isn’t some automatic thing. You actually have to put in the work. It doesn’t just sit there nicely packaged and waiting for you.
