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Germantown Hills resident Dave Drosner grew up in
the Milwaukee area and was fascinated with the state fair car racing
there. As an adult, he turned his interest to the Indianapolis 500
Speedway with its more prestigious and spectacular race that employs
the highest speeds in circuit racing. Although he has attended
races and helped pit crews, he didn’t feel he could justify the
expense of having his own race car. Instead, he began collecting
miniature models of cars that have raced at the Speedway over the
years.
Mr.
Drosner has put together a display at the Metamora Branch of
Illinois Prairie District Public Library that features Indianapolis
500 race cars from the earliest days of the race through the
wide-open races in the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s until today’s
sophisticated and lightening fast racers. The display has an
assortment of plastic model kits, die cast models, slot cars, and
toy race cars in various scales. He has also included other racing
memorabilia such as an Indy ticket stub, hat pin, jacket patches,
post cards, photos, racing flags, coffee mugs, and a few official
programs and racing prints. Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt have both been
four-time winners at Indy and their pictures and models of some of
their vehicles are on display.
A large
vintage race car, an artist’s depiction of an early Indy racer and
driver, is sitting on top of the display case. Also on top is a
picture of Al Unser, Jr. leading Scott Goodyear across the bricks to
win the 1992 Indy 500, the closest finish in Indy history. On the
left of the case is a 1985 official poster, “Image of Victory”. On
the right is a Mobil oil advertisement proclaiming that their oil
was used in the winner’s cars.
Come
to the library during the month of May to take a closer look. While
there, you may check out books about race cars and racing in
general.
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