Friend of the blog and VSCDA racer Ted Sodergren sent in this marvelous set of photos he shot as a young reporter covering the Indianapolis 500. I’m always so excited to see candid shots of Formula 1 drivers hanging out in the pits and marvel at the access racing fans had to these iconic competitors in the early days that I forget that the same also holds true for the Indy drivers.
Ted, of course, had a press pass to help in capture these marvelous images of the competitors and their rides. And what a time to capture these machines it was. The rear-engine revolution came a bit slower to Indianapolis than it did to Formula 1, but you can see here the effects that were taking hold at The Brickyard with only one or two holdout front-engined competitors.
It was a milestone 500. It was the first nationally televised Indy 500, and was the first of Ford’s dominance as an engine manufacturer at Indy for the next 6 or 7 years. This coincided with Ford’s dominance in Formula 1—a tremendous period of motorsport supremacy.
Thanks for these, Ted. And look for his ’66 shots here soon.
0 replies on “Ted’s 1965 Indy 500”
Great shots. Being from Indianapolis, all I can say is bring the rest on.
Blue and Gold STP … Harlo make me a STP shirt like that!
A step back in time here, thank you for the pictures. It always inspires me to see such beautiful cars in their prime racing days!
Thanks for the nice comments. BTW…these shots were scanned from original Kodachrome slides by ScanCafe. I can highly recommend their work. The slides had been stored in the dark in slide magazines at room temperature. That, I’m sure, helped hold the vibrant color that Kodachrome was noted for.