My association with Gerry Maggiora goes back a long way, beginning in 1976, when I joined the research group co-directed by Gerry and Ralph Christoffersen in the chemistry department at the University of Kansas. We were using quantum mechanical methods to calculate visible and ultraviolet absorption spectra of photosynthetically important molecules, such as chlorophylls, under a grant from what is now the U. S. Department of Energy. Later in 1985, I joined the CADD research group at The Upjohn Company in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Gerry was the director of the unit.

As I got to know Gerry, one thing that I noticed was that he knew a lot about many branches of science. As a true biophysical chemist, he had a strong background in such fields as chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, quantum chemistry, and biophysics. His store of knowledge covered the molecular and biomolecular worlds.

Gerry was also always very interested in everything new, ideas or experiences, within science or otherwise. In this connection, sometime in early 1986, I proposed that we attend an automobile race at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS) later in the year. He agreed, and I opened an account at the Speedway and purchased a few tickets.

For fans of motor racing (I count myself among them), living in Southern Michigan is advantageous because you are a reasonable distance from MIS. The track is a 2.0-mile D-shaped oval with long, sweeping, steeply banked turns. It is known for its high speeds and wide roadway, 72 feet, which gives a driver ample space in which to maneuver.

The event that we would be attending was the 1986 Michigan 500, a 500-mile race for Indy cars. In 1986, the race was one in a series of seventeen races sanctioned by Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. (CART), a corporation which organized the race series (the “CART series”) and formulated the rules. The flagship event in the CART series was the famous Indianapolis 500-mile race (the Indy 500). The name “Indy car” was a generic name used to identify the type of car that ran in the Indy 500 and all other CART series events.

Indy cars are pure single-seater racing cars with exposed wheels and suspension components, and a rear-mounted engine. In 1986, they were powered by a 2.65-L turbocharged V-8 engine which produced approximately 800 horsepower using methanol fuel. Indy cars in 1986 were extremely fast because of two basic features, a powerful engine and aerodynamic downforce. It stands to reason that if you install an 800-horsepower engine in a 1500-pound car, it will be intrinsically fast. The phenomenon of aerodynamic downforce is less obvious but not difficult to understand. In simple terms, the underside if an Indy car consisted of a set of venturi tunnels, integrated with the car’s floor, and when the car was in motion, air flowing through the tunnels generated a region of low pressure under the car. Consequently, the car was pressed down into the track by the higher ambient pressure above the car. It’s the reverse of what happens when an aircraft is lifted by an airfoil shaped to produce low pressure on the topside of the wing. Additional downforce was obtained from inverted airfoils attached to the front and rear of the car, such that at speeds above 180 miles per hour, the amount downforce was enormous. On a track such as MIS, this allowed a driver to negotiate the high-banked turns at or near maximum speed.

On August 2, 1986, Gerry and I, along with several others whose identities I do not specifically recall, set out for MIS by car. Conditions for the race were forecast to be ideal, with essentially no chance of rain, and news from the track suggested that the race might be run at record speed. During qualifying runs, the day before, Rick Mears, one of the best Indy car drivers and a master of the high-speed oval, won the pole position with a lap turned at an average speed of 223.401 miles per hour, the fastest lap ever turned on a closed track.

Our 90-mile trip, taken mostly on Interstate 94, was uneventful until near the end, when we ran into a bottleneck in the village of Brooklyn, Michigan, approximately four miles north of the track. Traffic came to a halt, and we inched along, wondering if we would get to the track in time for the start of the race. Once we reached the center of Brooklyn, we discovered the root of the problem: there was a traffic light that was set to give preference to cross traffic, not to the heavy traffic running south though the village on the way to the track. Only 5 or 6 southbound cars at a time were getting through. Apparently, someone in a position of authority in Brooklyn did not like racing fans and had devised a scheme to spoil their day. With time running out, we finally left Brooklyn behind, drove to the track, parked the car in an off-site lot, and walked the final half-mile to the track. We reached our seats no more than five minutes before the command to start engines was given. (Note: Later, I learned that this “Brooklyn problem” had been going on ever since MIS was opened in 1968. Apparently, Brooklyn officials believed that they should be compensated by the track for the inconvenience caused by the presence of large crowds on race weekends. Track owners were never receptive to this idea, and because the track was located entirely within Lenawee County, while Brooklyn was located in Jackson County, the issue was never resolved by political means.)

The standard procedure for starting an Indy car race is as follows. Before the race actually starts, there are two warmup laps. The first, run behind a pace car, is run at a slow speed, perhaps 80 miles per hour. Subsequently, the pace car will leave the track and the second warmup lap is run at a faster speed which is set by the driver who is starting in the pole position. The cars will line up in rows of three on the backstretch and then will wait for the driver starting from the pole position to accelerate. Usually, that point will be somewhere in the final turn. Finally, as the cars approach the starting line, the green flag will be waved.

Our seats in the center grandstand gave us an excellent view of the section of the track that included both the final turn and the starting line. I explained the starting procedure to Gerry and told him to watch the final turn and to keep his eyes on the cars until they passed by. The start of an Indy car race is one of the most hair-raising spectacles in sports, but sometimes it can be chaotic.

Rick Mears began accelerating at full throttle halfway around the final turn, and the field of 28 cars shot forward like rockets as methanol was burned in the engines, producing massive amounts of pure classical kinetic energy. The starter waved the green flag and Mears took the lead followed by a cluster of three or four other cars. But the yellow caution flag was displayed on the third lap when a car grazed the outside wall. (When a race is run under yellow flag conditions, the pace car is sent out and the cars follow it in single file at greatly reduced speed. Each driver is allowed to catch up to the car in front of him, but no passing is permitted.). It was a minor incident, and after the track was checked for debris, the racing continued. Mears continued to lead while the field gradually spread out, but by lap 12, an enormous black cloud had settled directly over the track. Rain was inevitable and moments later, on lap 18, the race was halted (red-flagged) as the skies opened up and completely flooded the track. We, and tens of thousands of other spectators, were totally drenched well before we were able to take shelter under the center grandstand. It would clearly be a while before the cars would return to complete the final 232 laps of the 250-lap race.

We waited for 90 min while the track was dried with jet driers and other equipment. When the race was restarted, the drivers were confronted with a different track surface, one that had been washed and cooled by the earlier rain. These changes in track condition may have been partially responsible for an outbreak of five crashes which occurred between lap 47 and lap 126. Most of these incidents were minor, resulting only in damaged cars, but one was serious enough to send the driver, Randy Lanier, to the hospital with a broken leg.

As the second half of the race began on lap 126, Rick Mears was in the lead. He had run in the top three positions during most of the race, but now faced a serious challenge from two other drivers, Bobby Rahal and Michael Andretti. Mears led until lap 137, when he pulled into the pits with a vibration in his car. He continued, but would drop out later, on lap 181, with engine failure. As the race went on, the pace picked up, as Rahal and Andretti continued to battle and exchange positions. But then, when Andretti’s engine failed on lap 196 and when Rahal made a pit stop, another driver inherited the lead.

That driver was Johnny Rutherford, who had started back in the field in fourteenth place. Rutherford had been driving Indy cars since 1962 and in his prime, had been a star of Indy car racing, a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500. But now in the latter part of his career, he was driving for a team with limited resources. The team had given Rutherford a fast car, but not quite as fast as those driven by Mears, Andretti, Rahal, and others. Wisely, Rutherford had relied on his experience and had driven a smart tactical race in which he had conserved his engine, avoided trouble, and steadily moved through the field as others fell by the wayside. It was still possible for Rahal to catch him, but when Rahal’s engine expired on lap 219, Rutherford appeared to have a clear path to victory. However, in this crazy race, there would still be more action to come.

On lap 235, 15 laps from the finish, only eight cars were still running. Rutherford held the lead, and the only other car on the lead lap was driven by Josele Garza, a young Mexican driver who was trying to make a name for himself in Indy car racing. Garza was almost a full lap behind Rutherford, while the other cars were several laps behind. The race proceeded normally until lap 239, when a car suddenly lost power and was rammed by another car following closely behind. The yellow flag was displayed, and the pace car was driven out onto the track. Now, Garza would have a chance.

The remaining cars closed up behind the pace car with Rutherford in position 1 followed by two cars that were several laps behind, then Garza in position 4, less than 100 yards behind Rutherford. When the race was restarted on lap 247, Garza immediately passed the two cars in front of him, but he had nothing for Rutherford, who pushed his car to its limit. After qualifying for the race with a lap of 212 miles per hour, Rutherford drove the final 4 laps at 217 miles per hour and beat Garza to the finish line by 1.82 s.

Our trip home was less stressful than our drive to the track; we simply went where the deputy sheriffs and state police told us to go and eventually made it back onto I-94. During the following week, we all agreed that we had had an interesting time and decided to make our visit to the Michigan 500 an annual event. But there was one issue, the “Brooklyn problem”, that needed to be addressed. Thus, armed with a pile of county maps, I returned to MIS in October, drove around for a couple of hours, and mapped out a “secret route” to the track. After that, we never were caught in a traffic jam and never had to drive through Brooklyn again.