Fantasy Indy 500 Radio Broadcast

Radio station WIBC in Indianapolis will be broadcasting the "Fantasy 500" on Sunday, April 4, 2004. It will be a make-believe running of the Indianapolis 500 in which drivers from throughout the nearly 100 years of the 500's history will compete in the same race. I don't know many of the details of how they will do this, but I suspect they are going to edit together segments from the radio broadcasts of the 500 over the years. My understanding is that they have handicapped the race in some way so that drivers from the early years have as much chance to win as those from later years. This is your chance to hear Ray Harroun, Wilbur Shaw, Bill Vukovich, Jim Clark, A. J. Foyt, Emerson Fittipaldi, and many others from different eras all competing in the same race! Who knows, Lloyd Ruby may finally win one!

WIBC has a page for this broadcast on their web site: 2004 Fantasy 500

There's not much on the page right now, but I think they will be adding more information soon (including the starting grid, I hope). I know most of you can't get WIBC over the airwaves, but their web site does have a link whereby you can listen to it over the Internet.

The pre-race show will begin at 10:00am, with the race at 11:00am and the post-race show (including Donald Davidson's "The Talk of Gasoline Alley") at 2:00pm. These times are Eastern Standard Time, which is GMT minus 5 hours. Most of Indiana (including Indianapolis) does not observe daylight savings time, so keep that in mind if you plan to listen. Daylight savings time begins for most of the U.S. on the morning of April 4.

I think this is going to be a lot of fun!