The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is more than bricks, concrete and tarmac. It's a piece of motorsport's soul, and proof you don't have to go to a speedway to fall in love with it.
I have been to some of the world's great motor-racing circuits-and even set foot on the track of a few..
I have walked up the Beau Rivage, down past the Loews Hotel and through the tunnel at Monaco...my feet have trod every inch of some of the most hallowed tarmac in motorsport history.
I've passed through the Nurburg forests, come within the yowl of a supercharged engine of Spa, and walked down the D338 near Le Mans (this innocuous stretch of French public road leads to the village of Mulsanne and the corner on Le Mans Circuit de La Sarthe that bears its name, and is one of the most hallowed stretches of flat-out tarmac on the planet (it's also the fastest, with a Group C Peugeot driven by Roger Dorchy clocked on it during the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours at 252mph before chicanes were introduced, preserving the record for ever).