Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 6, 1994 TAG: 9408090032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bob Zeller
DATELINE: INDIANAPOLIS LENGTH: Medium
To the little boy, his famous grandfather, longtime speedway owner Tony Hulman, was ``Paw Paw.'' Tony George was an only grandson, and Hulman doted on him.
Hulman died in 1977, but George did not take over until late 1989, after the death of former speedway president Joe Cloutier, Hulman's right-hand man.
Tony George is 34, and when you see him for the first time, it is hard to believe a man so young runs the world's oldest and greatest speedway and directs the Indianapolis 500, the largest single-day sporting event in the world.
But there is no mistaking who is in charge.
In five short years, George has brought revolutionary change to a stodgy sports venue that equalled Augusta National Golf Club in tradition and resistance to change.
In the last two years alone, George has built a new administration building outside turn one, built a new victory lane, revamped pit road, built a new scoring pylon, revamped the track apron, rebuilt and raised the track's outside walls and built a warm-up lane.
And most importantly, at least for NASCAR stock car racing fans, George has brought a Winston Cup race to Indy - the Brickyard 400.
This was the most revolutionary change of all, since it shattered the one-race-a-year tradition that dates back to the first Indy 500 in 1911.
The Brickyard 400 no doubt will be Bill France's greatest legacy's as NASCAR president, but George clearly was the key to this deal. If it wasn't for him, this race never would have happened.
The main reason George brought a NASCAR race to the brickyard is that he likes the show. ``I'm just a NASCAR fan,'' he said. ``I just enjoy, like millions of other people, watching NASCAR racing.''
Despite his proclivity for change, George is a reserved, almost bashful man who, like his grandfather, is somewhat uncomfortable in the public eye.
``He has an awful lot of the traits of his grandfather,'' said longtime speedway historian Bob Laycock. ``Neither one of them likes to talk in public.''
For George, part of this reticence can be traced to nasty family squabbles that became public because of his family's notoriety.
His father, Elmer, who raced in three Indy 500s, was shot to death in 1976 by a Hulman family horse trainer, Guy Trolinger, who was identified years later as the boyfriend of his mother, Mari Hulman George.
And during Tony George's bitter divorce from his first wife in the 1980s, it was revealed that their party habits included cocaine and marijuana use.
So he is not eager to do interviews, but he does them. And he does them a lot better than he probably thinks.
``With the Brickyard 400, we'll be treating stock car racing fans to something they've long awaited and long asked for,'' George said in an interview here Wednesday. ``And it is something we're proud to give them.
``We don't feel this will detract from the 500,'' he said. ``If it does we haven't done our job right. This is going to be a great race in its own right.''
George said ``it took some convincing'' before his mother, his three sisters and his grandmother, Mary Fendrich Hulman, agreed to have a stock car race.
``My sisters, it took a little warming them up to it,'' he said. ``My mom, she really likes to ease into things.''
He said they had the same reaction when he decided to destroy the old 27-hole speedway golf course and replace it with a new 18-hole course designed by noted golf architect Pete Dye.
``They gave me a lot of grief when I started tearing up the old golf course and building a new one,'' he said. ``Now they're all golf fans.
``But I'll never forget the meeting where it was agreed that we could go ahead and try to work out a [NASCAR] sanctioning agreement. It was quite gratifying that everyone was so together. It kind of hinged on my grandmother. Everyone was in agreement. And when she gave her blessing, I was relieved and everyone was really excited that she was for it.
``And I'm glad that she will be here to give the command'' to start engines, he said. ``It's really going to be a special time for all of us.''
George said he believes his grandfather would approve of what he has done.
``He always thought that one day there might be another race,'' George said. ``It's going to be sort of sad when it's all over with, because there's been a lot of emotion getting to this point.''
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB