Ripple Effect

A GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY.

- Josh Scott

When testing the new Indy car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last fall, drivers James Hinchcliffe and Scott Dixon reported bumps on four areas of the track, not necessarily visible to the naked eye, but clearly felt at 200 mph. Engineers took core samples down to the iconic bricks and found that the culprit for at least one of the irregularities was a missing line of bricks that had buckled and was replaced with asphalt around 1939. Over many freeze/thaw cycles, the new material expanded and contracted differently than the surrounding brick and mortar, causing a ripple to form. Areas of concern have been smoothed in hopes that the curr