Indianapolis Motor Speedway to auction off odd items

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum is preparing to auction off an assortment of strange items it has acquired over the years.

Betsy Smith, director of the nonprofit foundation that runs the museum, told the Indianapolis Star (http://indy.st/2n3DlXz ) that no race cars or racing memorabilia will be sold at the auction Saturday.

Instead, the items include a horse-drawn hansom cab, dozens of wooden carousel horses, and a large player-piano-type organ.

It turns out that a lot of the treasures hidden in the museum's basement have nothing to do with auto racing. Smith said she isn't sure how the museum collected such items over the years, but she suspects many have to do with a theme park that was in the works four decades ago.

"There are quite a few items that we've been storing that have nothing to do with our mission," Smith said.

A story by the newspaper in 1975 shows that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the town of Speedway had a plan to make the area a "year-round tourist destination." The speedway's longtime president and owner, Tony Hulman, had an option to buy a monorail used in the 1964 New York World's Fair for the project.

A committee was formed, and the enterprise was named "Speedway Unlimited." But Hulman died in 1977, and nothing ever came of the project.

"I don't know if he planned to do an amusement park or not," said Donald Davidson, a longtime Speedway historian who knew Hulman. "He might have, but also he was a collector, and this was just stuff that he liked."

The money from Saturday's auction will go to the Speedway museum, which was built in 1976. Smith said that a design firm was hired in January to develop a plan for a major expansion.

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Information from: The Indianapolis Star, http://www.indystar.com