Race day began at a bleary 4:30 a.m. David Abbey piled into his uncle’s 1964 Buick Riviera with his father, two uncles and brother to make the 150-mile trip to the state capital for the 1965 Indianapolis 500. He had received a ticket from his father for his eighth-grade graduation, an event which, in the small town of Cropsey, Ill., still drew a crowd.
Now a lawyer with Abbey Adams Partners & Attorneys, Abbey has a sharp memory for Indy detail. Even 50 years later, it doesn’t take more than a second for him to recall that Jim Clark won the race in 1965, in the first rear-engine car to take the 500.
“The thing that is really amazing about it is we’re doing something that involves automobiles (and) the change in technology 100 years down the road from when it started,” Abbey said.