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[quote=Frank Roales]2008 will mark my 63rd year at Indy during May. My father Ralph Roales was a road salesman for Hulman & Co. From before the time I was born till he retired, he also had been Tony Hulman’s golf caddy before that. I was introduced to the track on 16th St. at the age of 6 when Tony bought the facility and I haven’t missed being there sometime during the month of May since. 
I remember standing inside the South short chute and having one of the Blue Crown" cars spin down and stop just short of my spot at the fence. I remember watching the lap by lap duel between Jack McGrath and Bill Vukovich and knowing who it was that crashed when the plume of black smoke drifted up from the backstretch. At one time before the museum was built Tony had dad store the "Miller Hartz" 1932 winning car in our garage. I can recall the roadsters, the lay overs, the Sumar streamliner and the John Zink Trackburner, first of the turbines, the changing of the guard to the rear engined cars. However of all the great cars past and present there never was or never will be a car that captured the fan as much as the NOVI. I can still hear its howl as Jim Hurtubise screamed down the main straightaway. I saw Foyt win 4-500’s followed by "Big Al" and Rick. 
In 1960 I came home on leave from the Air Force in May and had only enough time to either go to the 500 or to my girlfriend’s Senior Prom, I went to the race. However it worked out OK we’ve been married now for 45 years. 
Starting in the late 60’s Dad worked in timing and scoring running the "33" tower on the main stretch and in the mid 70’s I was one of the two who ran the top ten score board at South end of the track. One of the years I worked that spot there was a huge altercation in the "snake pit" and police on horseback had to break it up. I remember the streakers’ the "show us your tits" signs and watching inebriated fans belly flop off vans into mud puddles for something to do during a long rain delay. 
Then I was privileged to be on a crew in 1984. Usona Purcell a long time associate of Grant King purchased a pair of two year old March’s and we rebuilt them in the garage of his nursery and landscaping business in Vincennes IN. There were over 100 cars entered that year and this team of mostly volunteers with only the driver and chief mechanic getting paid made the show. Car #50 and Dennis Firestone started 32nd and finished 12th even if Dennis slapped the wall on his final qualifying lap and lost a clutch, killing the engine for almost 5 minutes during the race. I will always remember standing out on the front straightaway with the car as taps was played, tears streaming down my cheeks remembering dad who had started me on this journey and had passed away two years earlier. Then holding my hand in the air after "Gentlemen start your engines" signaling we were running and ready to go racing, truly both ends of the emotional spectrum. 
Now I return to being a fan, I introduced my wife my children and my grandchildren to this great event. Both my son and daughter are truly 500 fans and have been going since my wife first made them wear ear protection as youngsters of about 3 years old. Now my grandsons and granddaughters carry on the family association with INDY. However I doubt that they will be able to see it from as many angles as I have. 
Frank Roales[/quote]

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