AUGUST 2016 GAME ON ! IT’S INDY ! Circle your calendar: the dates for next year’s convention are JUNE 8-9-10, 2017 and the place is the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The place drips with automotive racing history and next year SAAC will become part of it. We have not filled in all the blanks in the schedule yet but it will include the things that every- one tells us that they like to see at a SAAC convention: an open track (utilizing both the fabled 2.5-mile rectangular oval and the 2.6-mile Formula 1 infield road course, constructed in 2000), parade laps (we’ll try to have them on both the oval and road course), a popular vote car show, judged concours and an evening program with a sit-down dinner. There will be more, of course, but we’re still hanging some meat on the bare bones. We can’t say enough about the Speedway. Built in 1909, it is the original speedway in this country. The event owns Memorial Day weekend and has ever since it was built, with the exception of the World War II years, from 1942 through 1945. Records were kept – and broken – every year and the evolution of open wheeled race cars in this country can be traced through the track’s history. It has a seating capacity of 400,000, and is the highest capacity sports venue in the world. We expect that not all of those seats will be filled when SAAC is there. The Speedway is a place of traditions, from the original bricks that cross the track to delineate the start/finish line to the bottle of milk each winner drinks from in Victory Circle. The garages in the paddock are called “Gasoline Alley” and until 1993, the track was used only once a year – for the Indy 500. SAAC even owns a piece of Indy history. We had a convention there in 1994.