As he nears his 79th birthday, which falls just nine days before the newly-scheduled green flag for this year’s Indianapolis 500, Butch Welsch hasn’t stressed an ounce over whether to attend what would be his 73rd consecutive viewing of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
“This might sound morbid to say, but it’s the way I’ve felt the whole time in all this. I’m gonna die at some point anyways, and I’m not going to die not living my life for the years I have left,” said Welsch, a St. Louis resident, about attending the Aug. 23 race in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. “Quite frankly, I’m not letting this take over my life, and I’m certainly not letting it take over my life when it comes to racing.”
IndyStar spoke with nearly a dozen fans in a variety of situations – old and young, in and out of state, solo attendees and those that manage groups of upwards of 40 fans yearly – to gauge fans’ emotions after Friday’s landmark announcement from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Late last week, track president Doug Boles sent a letter to grandstand ticket-holders to announce IMS’ plan to admit roughly 175,000 fans to the August race, along with a survey for present ticket-holders to reclaim as many of their tickets as they wish – with some caveats.
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Health concerns have many fans other the Welsch – both old and young – seriously considering breaking lengthy streaks, if they haven't already pledged to watch the 500 on TV or listen on the radio for the first time in decades.
For Zionsville resident Gabi Youran, 2020 was supposed to be 31 years spending a late May (or in this case August) Sunday in the grandstands at IMS. It was a continuation of a family tradition that includes a packed charter bus and a police escort to watch a race she has been willing to attend what she called “9.5 months pregnant” in 2011.
And she’s a daughter of an aging parent – her father Larry Schuchman, who’s only missed two races since 1955. Just the thought of missing the race in May and not knowing what the next few months and years might hold brought Youran to tears in mid-May. It’s a testament to just how difficult her decision to skip this year’s race was.
She and many in her family have opted to forgo their seats this year for a 2021 renewal credit.
“None of it feels safe, unless you can be guaranteed a safe distance,” she said in a text message. “And 50% capacity doesn’t cut it for me.
"(I just don't see a way) to be distanced. With the rise in cases we've seen across the country in recent weeks, it just feels uncomfortable."
So much of the policy, released by Roger Penske and his team, ultimately, leaves health and safety up to the spectators themselves. Though Penske Entertainment Corp. has pledged to unveil a more detailed health policy for the events around the 500 in the coming weeks, as it stands now, there will be no mask-wearing enforcement.
The track will hand them out to all fans entering the grounds Aug. 23, along with a container of hand sanitizer, but the application and use of both will be left up to personal preference – not to mention how folks line up at the restroom, concession stands and entry and exit points. Masks, according to many medical experts, protect those around the wearer more than the person in the mask, meaning those uncomfortable donning a face-covering in the muggy August heat and humidity could have an effect on those around them.
Without concerts in the Snake Pit, it’s reasonable to assume the infield will be filled to less than half-capacity, leaving a potential for the grandstands to be more than 50% full – a fact that has some feeling unsettled.
There’s a reason seat neighbors become “like family” as years go by, with hardly any room on the iron benches for sweat to drop in between. Even at half-capacity, the new vision seems hardly enough for Joe Bowling, whose two girls went with him to last year’s race for the first time.
“If they could make the masks a requirement, not just in the seats, but on the grounds, I’d feel a lot better about going, but I don’t see a realistic way they could enforce that,” said Bowling, who went to his first 500 in 1984 and has continued annually upgrading tickets he received for a high school graduation gift. “Had Roger Penske owned the track for five years, maybe he could instill that level of discipline and control he’s famous for, but when he’s just been there a few months, I just can’t imagine crowd control of that nature in a place like this.”
At the moment, Bowling is considering keeping two of his four tickets and going with his cousin, while leaving his girls at home to make sure their group is all seated in the same place. If he talks himself into holding onto the pair by the July 6 deadline, Bowling said he’s willing to eat the cost of the tickets he wouldn’t be able to turn into 2021 credit – but he’s still far from that mental place, with just one week to go.
“When you go out, the thing that keeps us safest is when others wear masks and keep their distance, and I don’t have faith that other people are going to do that,” he said.
Penske Entertainment Corp. president and CEO Mark Miles echoed the sentiment doctors and scientists around the country have claimed in recent weeks – that it’s far tougher for the virus to spread in the open air simply due to the fact that virus droplets can spread off into the air and aren’t recirculated like an indoor A/C unit. Small particles from a sneeze, yell or cough may have a chance to reach more people, but studies have said a person would need to ingest dozens of virus-infected droplets to run the risk of infection.
Still, 30-year-old Jacob Meyer, who this year was looking forward to attending his sixth 500, stands in stark contrast to Welsch. The Cincinnati resident is a healthy millennial-aged race fan – part of a group painted broadly as folks who either don’t care much about the virus’s risks or would be all but immune of serious consequences if infected. But as the leader of his group of seven that’s blossomed from his dad, brother and nephew, going this year feels like an odd box to check in the background of a pandemic. His dad, who’s over 70, and his brother, with a family to think of, are both out already, Meyer said.
“It’s just, not knowing what people around you have. Not knowing what precautions they’ve taken or what they’re going to take. That’s the most concerning to me,” he said. “You go to the grocery store, and there’s not a lot of people wearing masks or taking things seriously, and what’s going to happen with that when there’s 100,000 people or more.
“It’s not so much that I’m worried about anything bad happening to me. I’m pretty young and healthy, but if something bad were to happen to someone else in my family, that would be tough to swallow.”
It’s been similarly tough for Lawrence Cunningham, who still remembers leaving his first Indy 500 in 1969 on his dad’s shoulders, to ponder missing 2020. He still came to the IMS gates on May 24 as a pilgrimage of sorts, as a diehard racing fan who’s watched every Brickyard 400, IndyCar Grand Prix, MotoGP and other races that have taken place at IMS – all except one Formula 1 event.
With diabetes, he falls squarely into that at-risk category that cares nothing for one’s lifelong racing fandom. He’s now debating the risk of his own health. It's not the possibility of wasted money weighing on him but the call of the track.
“I don’t know if I would get deathly sick or just a little. I don’t know,” Cunningham said. “But there’s just more to life than this, as important as it is to me. There’s just some things more important.”
Email IndyStar motor sports reporter Nathan Brown at nlbrown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @By_NathanBrown.
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