Eagle eyes

Veteran Indy 500 spotter has seen it all

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Posted: Saturday May 29, 1999 05:10 PM

Wirey has seen a thousand wrecks like Lyn St. James' mishap in a qualifying run for the Indy 500. AP

INDIANAPOLIS -- Among the flags, ticket stubs and VIP passes in Gene Wirey's basement is a collection of jagged bits of metal and plastic. Many bear a name, a number and a year on a small piece of masking tape.

They are the mementos of Wirey's 30 years as an observer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He has saved many of the car parts launched over the wall as he observed the Indy 500, and, for the past few years, the Brickyard 400. The pieces of mag wheels are the most dangerous of the airborne projectiles flung from cars as they round the 2.5-mile oval track, he said.

Observers are posted at 15 positions around the track. Two of the posts are for black flag crews, where a wave from the post sends a car into the pits. From the others, Wirey and his colleagues scan the oval track for anything that could endanger the drivers, from oil slicks to bolts.

"Our responsibility is the safety of the Speedway driver," said Wirey.

Using a set of headphones, Wirey and his colleagues alert race officials in the control tower of any danger.

"We're supposed to call in any debris," he said. "We're supposed to call in any car smoking. We're supposed to call when a ground squirrel or a duck wanders across the track."

Their call brings out the yellow caution flag, slowing the racers until the track is cleared.

For the past 17 years, Wirey has observed the race from a platform just past Turn 1. Wirey and his two colleagues in Post 3 trade jobs every half-hour during the race.

"It's stressful especially during the race," Wirey said. "You're tuned into that first turn, you're not thinking about anything but that first turn."

From Wirey's perspective, serving as an observer differs from sitting in the stands. His job is to watch the cars run and make certain the drivers are doing what they're supposed to be doing, he said.

"I'm watching the race, but part of the time I don't even know who's leading," he said.

Wirey, 68, sat in the stands for more than 20 years before he became an observer. He hasn't missed an Indy 500 since 1946.

Many of the mementos in Wirey's basement museum came from his late father's collection. Dallas Wirey opened a Texaco station in Franklin, Ind., in 1941. Gene Wirey sold the station in 1996.

Among the old Texaco model trucks and well-worn caps is a photo of Tom Sneva, whose winning 1983 car was sponsored by Texaco. Sneva, whose nickname was the Gas Man, addressed his autograph to Gene.

Scrawled across the picture is, "From one Gas Man to another."

Nearby hang Wirey's observer patches from the Indy 500 and a few from the now defunct Pocono 500.

Next to the patches, his observer passes mark the passage from an Indianapolis 500 sanctioned by the United States Auto Club to the current controversy between the Indy Racing League -- which currently supervises the Indy 500 -- and the Championship Auto Racing Teams.

Following the 1995 Indy 500, Tony George formed the Indy Racing League. No CART drivers have participated in the Indy 500 since IRL was formed. Wirey said that in the beginning, there were some philosophical differences on how the race was going to go.

"Now," he said, "it boils down to CART won't change their engines, and IRL doesn't want to change theirs."

But for Wirey and thousands of other fans, no other race can ever top the Indianapolis 500.

"As far as the Indy is concerned, you get to see the tradition," he said. "It's the greatest racing spectacle in the world, even without CART."

To Wirey, the thrill of the Indy 500 comes from all those years of racing at the old Brickyard.

"To me, it's just knowing that you're somewhere they've been running races since 1909," he said. "And they're still in the same place."

Wirey, too, will be at the same place he has been for 53 years when the call "drivers start you engines" goes out at 11 a.m. May 30 -- at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

 

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