1980sABCAuto RacingIndy 500Jim McKay

Auto Racing – 1986 – Indy 500 Special – Drivers Start Your Engines + The Pace Lap Before The Start

        This video starts out with with ABC’s always eloquent and elegant legendary sportscaster Jim McKay…..as he introduces the start of the 1986 Indianapolis 500 Race….when Mary Hulman, Chairman of the Board at Indianapolis Motor Speedway makes the famous call….“Drivers start your engines”.…to which 33 different race car drivers enter their cars and start their engines.

From this moment on….McKay guides the viewer through the major players in the day’s race….including the first three rows of cars starting the Indy 500….with highlights of other drivers in the race back through the eleven rows of cars starting.  McKay also sets the stage for where the focus to the race is when a driver starts his engine….and how introspective the whole experience of being alone with their thoughts in the cockpit of their Indy 500 cars. 

McKay then takes us around the track for the warm-ups of the cars…..and then into the pace lap when the drivers take theirs race cars up to 120 mph anticipation of the dropping of the checkered flag to start the race…..with the pace car being a Chevrolet Corvette driven by Brigadier General Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot…..which is “in and to itself” an enjoyable process to watch for any and all race fans.

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