Stuff

The Indy Mile

The Indy Mile is the oldest contest for motorcycle racing’s oldest discipline: dirt track. You’ve seen this stuff on TV before—it’s that extremely loud track party that has your dad and uncles screaming at the tube through the haze of Camel smoke and Old Milwaukee fumes and your mother annoyed or mortally frightened. In other words: it is fucking excellent. The race itself is physically grueling, with madmen looping around a mile-long oval track and sliding into turns at around 70 miles per hour—in general, looking like the trifling laws of physics don’t really apply. Competitors travel across the country all year competing for rewards that barely cover travel expenses, so in this episode of Americana we thought we’d take you to Indianapolis, Indiana, to investigate what motivates these beastly riders and to celebrate everything it is they do and stand for.