Indy Grid Formation

[wodonnell]

This may be in the wrong place (may be better in historical, but I will try here first.)

Does anyone know when the 11x3 grid was standardised for the Indy 500?

Clips of early Indy 500 races seem to have 4 or 5 cars on the front row.

Does anybody know the exact grid formats for every race? - Am I asking too much?

Basically, if possible(!), I need to know the formation used for each race, at least up until the 11x3 grid was used.

[tanalised]

go over to track forum and ask. One of the train spotters will tell you

[racer69]

As far as i know there have always been 11 rows of 3.

In the past though the grid line-up wasn't always perfect, it was common for the drivers on the second row for example to be right on the leaders before the start finish line (eg...Michael Andretti was 6th on the grid for the 1992 Indy500, but was leading into the first corner). In the last few years for some reason though the drivers have been told not to break formation and leave a big gap between the rows.

The reason 33 cars was settled on originally is because it was determined that 33 cars could be evenly placed (with a safe distance between them) around the circuit.

[ensign14]

33 cars because there was a formula for safety applied by the AAA - something like 1 car per 440ft of track. And the only factors of 33 are 3 and 11 - 3 rows of 11 would have been fun.

There have been more in the past, and they started with 4x4 rows.

[wodonnell]

There is a clip of the start of the 1911 race (I saw this on the PS2 IndyCar Series game) and there are clearly more than 3 cars at the front.

This could just be that the cars behind had broken rank though, as mentioned above.