Vintage car race coming to Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Something new, something old.

That's what Indianapolis Motor Speedway will introduce June 6-8 with its first vintage car race.

Some 600 cars and their mostly amateur drivers will converge on IMS for a three-day event. They will compete on the road course and experience the oval track.

It will be unique, it will be annual, and it will take IMS to its motor sports core.

"It's not just old Indy cars and not just old Formula One cars," track president Doug Boles said Tuesday. "It will be prototypes and MGs and Corvettes, and it will be racing that will celebrate (Indy's) history."

The SportsCar Vintage Racing Association will bring a format of 12 classes, with IMS requesting a 13th class that it will refer to as the marquee division. Participating in that category likely will be former Indianapolis 500 drivers, perhaps even some who have competed in the Formula One's U.S. Grand Prix and NASCAR's Brickyard 400. Some cars from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum could be utilized.

SVRA drivers are predominantly owners of fancy race cars with big dreams. They spend most of the year racing at venues such as Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway, Road America (in Elkhart Lake, Wis.) and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. This will be their first chance at Indy.

They will practice, qualify and race as professional series do, and there will be awards given.

"This isn't parading," said Tony Parella, the president and CEO of the sanctioning body. "This is racing."

Unique to the event is the chance for competitors to drive the oval track on the same weekend, with passing and speed restrictions in the corners for safety reasons.

"This is Indy, and you've got to experience the oval if you can," Parella said. "I liken it to if a college baseball player gets to suit up for the Yankees for a day."

Parella said the response from competitors has been overwhelming.

"There's no other way to say it," he said. "There will be no other event like it."

It should be quite the spectator event, too, since the 600 cars will be pitted all over the IMS grounds, and they'll be accessible to all via an open paddock. It also will be the first IMS event that has allowed infield overnight camping.

A three-day ticket will cost $40, or $30 if the purchaser buys a ticket to one of the track's other major racing events (IndyCar, IMSA, NASCAR or MotoGP).

Call Star reporter Curt Cavin at (317) 444-6409 and follow him on Twitter, @curtcavin.