Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The track opened in 1909 with a crushed stone surface that broke up and killed drivers and spectators in its first meetings, and was relaid the same year in 3.2 million paving bricks - hence the Brickyard. Asphalt covered them over the decades, but a metre-wide course of the original bricks was left exposed at the start-finish line and winners kiss it. The Indianapolis 500 has run since 1911 on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and draws a crowd generally given as around three hundred thousand, the largest single-day attendance of any sporting event in the world. The infield museum holds winning cars, and track tours include a lap on the oval in a bus.

What you actually see

• A course of the original bricks - exposed at the start-finish line.
• A 2.5-mile oval from 1909 - relaid in brick the same year.
• The museum's winning cars - including many 500 winners.
• A bus lap of the oval - on the standard track tour.

When to go

May for the race and practice; the museum runs year round. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Race weekend is enormous - traffic, accommodation and prices all reflect three hundred thousand people. The museum has been through renovation with reduced displays at times. Track tours do not run when the circuit is in use.

Nearby

Downtown Indianapolis is east; the canal walk is in the city.