CLERMONT— One hot September afternoon, Bill and Mike Scott are sitting at the top of the bleachers at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway. They say it's the best view and have been sitting in section SS since 1971.
"We over slept in '71 and missed out on our seats on the other side so we came over here and have been here ever since," said Mike Scott.
They've been attending the NHRA US Nationals way before 1917 though.
"It was 1964. I was 7, he was 11 we came by ourselves. Our dad just dropped us off and said climb under the fence there and we came spent the day," said Mike.
"Yea we were instantly hooked, first night, first car we heard we were like this is it," said Bill Scott.
For 60 years they've been at the raceway for all six days of racing, except one time.
"My granddaughter 17 years ago on Wednesday, that day was the last time I missed a day," said Mike.
After sneaking in for the first few years, they even started buying tickets.
"The first one I had was ’69 and it was a five day pass and I think it was 15 dollars it might have been 20 for the whole week, like we said we were in when it was still fairly cheap, of course it wasn’t cheap to us," said Bill.
"Fifteen dollars was a lot of money," chimed in Mike.
"But yeah that was probably the first one I had was ’69. We had all kinds of ways to do it. I’d buy a ticket and come in and then we’d look on the ground for tickets of people and we’ve have one for the week. We did that quite a few times. We did that for several years," said Bill.
Over the last six decades they've watched the sport of drag racing evolve.
"The money has changed. When we started coming our heroes were old veterans. Our favorite era was ’69-70 probably, the sport was still new but was starting to mature, all the big names of drag racing history would meet here," said Mike.
Spending all this time at the raceway means they've met people from all over and made a lot of family memories.
"The brothers I don’t always see that much, but we spend five to six days over here, we have friends from Michigan, just there’s been several friends through the years that we’ve gotten to know. It’s more than just a drag race," said Mike.
