Americana

Culture / Series

(Now Playing) The Indy Mile 1 of 2

Feb 3, 2010

The Indy Mile is the oldest contest for motorcycle racing’s oldest discipline: dirt track. You’ve seen this stuff on TV before—it’s that extremely loud track party that has your dad and uncles screaming at the tube through the haze of Camel smoke and Old Milwaukee fumes and your mother annoyed or mortally frightened. In other words: it is fucking excellent. The race itself is physically grueling, with madmen looping around a mile-long oval track and sliding into turns at around 70 miles per hour—in general, looking like the trifling laws of physics don’t really apply. Competitors travel across the country all year competing for rewards that barely cover travel expenses, so in this episode of Americana we thought we’d take you to Indianapolis, Indiana, to investigate what motivates these beastly riders and to celebrate everything it is they do and stand for.

  • ruckus

    about 1 month ago

    perhaps i was a bit harsh. i never thought for a moment that those scenes were ones shot by the ...

  • SodaBob

    about 1 month ago

    @ruckus: oh, I see. I know what you're saying, but on the other hand, it's a little like any oth...

  • SodaBob

    about 1 month ago

    I consider myself to have at least half a brain (heh), and I saw no difference between the archiv...

Read all 28 comments

Oxs2g8rnfv6mwmt35hmdoxoja0o88asb
  • 06:22
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 3
Americana_small
Series

 

In Americana, we delve into the secret nooks and crannies of this great land and serve you up all the tender morsels we find inside. Investigative journalism home-cook…

Read more on the blog

All episodes

  • 12 episodes

Set your language preference

Cancel

Grid offon