On the Road with Fast Eddie – Road America Vintage Indy
By Eddie LePine
My most recent excursion into the world of motorsports took me back to my home track, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. I grew up in Milwaukee, and spent a lot of time both at the Milwaukee Mile and Road America in my youth and beyond.
Of course, the thing that these two tracks have in common is IndyCar racing and while at Road America for the NTT IndyCar race recently, I caught up with Mike Lashmett – the founder and CEO of Vintage Indy, which was on hand at Elkhart to showcase the history of IndyCar racing.
Mike started Vintage Indy back in 2017 as a registry to keep track of all the restored vintage Indy cars that were out there – and there were a lot of them. One thing led to another and Vintage Indy held their first on track event in conjunction with the IndyCar race in St. Louis, at what is now named, World Wide Technology Raceway. A large field of 26 vintage Indy cars participated in that first event.
Success breeds success, as they say, and Vintage Indy has continued to grow and prosper under the leadership and vision of Mike Lashmett.
As Mike says, “We just took off from that initial event, basically (WWT in 2018). We were just with IndyCar last weekend at St. Louis and now a week later we’re here at Road America. It’s the first time we’ve ever had back-to-back weekends. We’ve been at WWT for eight consecutive years and this weekend is our 6th annual race here with IndyCar at Road America.”
Mike has put together the right team to continue to grow Vintage Indy as the perfect partner to the NTT IndyCar Series. Working hand in hand with IndyCar, Mike’s Vintage Indy organization is positioned to honor the history of the IndyCar series and bring new fans to the sport. Partnering with legends like Al Unser, Jr. (who was at Road America driving the pace car for Vintage Indy), adds greatly to the whole fan experience. Also on hand at Road America was Indy 500 winner and racing legend Arie Luyendyk, who was meeting fans and signing his new book in the Vintage Indy paddock.
Arie Luyendyk
Mike: “We think we’re an important component of IndyCar. I like to tell people, you know, you go to an IndyCar race at Road America, you’ve got the past, present and future in one place. The past is us. Vintage Indy. The present in NTT IndyCar and the future is Indy NXT. I think the history is critical with the sport. A lot of people that I’ve talked to agree. You know, there are a lot of race tracks in the world – Le Mans, Daytona, Monaco – famous places. But no other place has the history and the appreciation for the history that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series has with the fans…and we want to stick around and keep telling that story.”
Mike and Danna Lashmett
Others have come before Mike Lashmett and tried to do what he is doing, and they didn’t succeed. They were around for a year, maybe two, and they just disappeared, just quit.
Mike Lashmett is not a flash in the pan or a quitter – as evidenced by his past accomplishments with Vintage Indy and his plans for the future, he will, as he says, “just keep pushing forward, we want to stick around.”
I’ll leave you with this quote from famous author and visionary, Michael Crichton, which pretty much sums up Vintage Indy’s philosophy: “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.”
Well said. See you at the races…
You can be part of Vintage Indy. Visit their website and see how to become a member.
