Town of Speedway in midst of a major makeover

INDIANAPOLIS -- If you're at all familiar with the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway, you know the aesthetics surrounding the world-class facility don't exactly match the track's touted prestige.

Within the grandstands of the famed venue, the signage is subtle yet effective and careful not to take away from the beautifully manicured grounds. Maintenance workers are watchful for litterbugs and vendors keep clean storefronts.

A look at what the roundabout at Main Street will look like.

It's hard to believe that in the town of Speedway, Ind., home of the esteemed edifice, such a stark contrast exists just beyond the front doorstep of IMS.

To say the area leaves something to be desired is an understatement. Pawnshops and cigarette outlets are plenty and you're not hard pressed to find a number of gentlemen's clubs, but if you can look through the trailer park and beyond the Wild Cheri Show Club and see past the inundation of beer and bar advertisements blanketing the area of Georgetown Road and 16th Street, eventually you might find the real town of Speedway.

"On Main Street," said Scott Harris, executive director of the Speedway Redevelopment Commission.

It was on this street about 40 years ago that the town enjoyed the vibrancy of a strong manufacturing community home to Allison Transmission and Praxair. It offered great schools and a low crime rate originally designed to be an automotive testing ground, a city of the future if you will.

Nearly 100 hundred years ago, four automotive pioneers designed the race track and began the process of defining a community around the emerging automobile industry. Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler and Arthur Newby were the innovative minds to form the town of Speedway.

The town thrived, however, the automotive manufacturing field declined during the 1970s and 1980s and so did Speedway's traditional economic base.

On top of that, the town of Speedway became lost in the shadows of big city Indianapolis just five miles west of the niche town.

"The reality is prior to 2005, I don't think we paid attention," Harris said. "I'm just not sure people paid attention and now your first impression driving on 16th Street it that Speedway is somewhat of a blighted area."

But not for long, as the town of Speedway -- through a change is state legislature in 2006 freeing up millions of TIF (Tax Increment Financing) dollars from major stakeholders like IMS, -- is in the midst of a major makeover.

"We have a revenue stream of several million dollars a year right now," Harris said.

More important, the Wild Cheri will no longer be the first business to greet race fans coming to the Brickyard 400. This time next year, it will be gone.

"I'm not coming back," joked Ryan Newman, a Hoosier native and Stewart-Haas Racing driver familiar with Speedway's colorful culture. "How many A-frame buildings do you still see in existence today?" (Continued)