Some maintenance work at Indianapolis Motor Speedway has revealed some of the original bricks installed in 1909.
Crews have worked to smooth out some of the bumps at Turn 2 caused by the bricks shifting due to moisture seeping in. This has led the bricks to expand and break resulting in the bitumen (first laid in 1937) being pushed up.
“During the NASCAR race, some of the NASCAR drivers were first starting to notice the bumps that were coming up,” IMS president Doug Boles explained.
“We’re going to actually have to take some of the bricks out because they’re actually moving and pushing the asphalt up. We’re going to have to take out those problem bricks.”
Most of the 3.2 million bricks originally installed in 1909 remain under the bitumen surface and the plan is for that to remain.
“The ones that are good, we’ll keep and use for special occasions,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of those left, obviously, so it’s nice to get them. Right now, a lot of the bricks that come out are just going to crumble.”
Further digging revealed the original track surface, with a square cut to put on display at the IMS Museum.
Once all the damaged bricks have been taken out, IMS will be repaired and ready for testing next month.