Dad has been going through old photos, and found this one.
On Sunday, May 26, 1968, my dad called me into the kitchen. He said "You are done with school for the year. I've made arrangements with your teachers." I was eleven years old, and was puzzled to say the least.
He said "Dick and I (his best friend) have rented an airplane, and we are going to Indianapolis to see the 500. It's on Thursday. You're going with us." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Talk about an adventure! Early the next morning we went to the airport, and loaded up the almost new 182K they had rented. Dick's son Jeff was going along too. We flew from Albuquerque to Indianapolis that day, arriving late in the afternoon. We stayed with Dick's family members, and on race day, my Dad's high school buddy Bobby Unser won the race. The next day we headed back home.
I've never seen this photo of N2565R before. That's me, the tall kid with brown hair and white shirt, standing in front of my dad. When the photo arrived, the first thing I did was check the registry for the plane. It's still in active use. It belongs to a company in Pearland, south of Houston. When Dad rented it, it was only eleven months old. He thinks they paid $18 per tach hour to rent it.
Going to Indy was the one of the coolest things I've done. Twenty five years later it led to me working in the sport as a "weekend warrior" for nine years. I flew to every race on the schedule to work as a mechanic, including multiple Indy 500s.
Pretty cool, huh?
On Sunday, May 26, 1968, my dad called me into the kitchen. He said "You are done with school for the year. I've made arrangements with your teachers." I was eleven years old, and was puzzled to say the least.
He said "Dick and I (his best friend) have rented an airplane, and we are going to Indianapolis to see the 500. It's on Thursday. You're going with us." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Talk about an adventure! Early the next morning we went to the airport, and loaded up the almost new 182K they had rented. Dick's son Jeff was going along too. We flew from Albuquerque to Indianapolis that day, arriving late in the afternoon. We stayed with Dick's family members, and on race day, my Dad's high school buddy Bobby Unser won the race. The next day we headed back home.
I've never seen this photo of N2565R before. That's me, the tall kid with brown hair and white shirt, standing in front of my dad. When the photo arrived, the first thing I did was check the registry for the plane. It's still in active use. It belongs to a company in Pearland, south of Houston. When Dad rented it, it was only eleven months old. He thinks they paid $18 per tach hour to rent it.
Going to Indy was the one of the coolest things I've done. Twenty five years later it led to me working in the sport as a "weekend warrior" for nine years. I flew to every race on the schedule to work as a mechanic, including multiple Indy 500s.
Pretty cool, huh?
