The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 21

1 I i SUNDAY, JULY 31, 1994 The Indianapolis Star jJiv ibj Brickyard tickete are unimer9 hotter Princely senator has little better to do than be lonely naysayer Scalpers' prices slipping, but track sure to be packed for stock car venture. chance to see a new event on what may be racing's most hallowed ground. Initial ticket requests reached an estimated 1 .7 million, according to some racing publications. The Speedway's director of ticket operations, Peggy S. Swalls, will only say that Saturday's race could have been sold out three or four times.

The Speedway does not disclose its seating capacity, which some estimate at more than 300,000, so the actual number of ticket requests remains as guarded as a vital state secret. would they be handed out? Would longtime holders of Indianapolis 500 tickets get preference and first choice? Would stock car fans who've never been to the Speedway be shut out entirely? While many predicted the sold-out inaugural race would produce turbo-charged scalping and sky-high prices, the secondary market for "400" tickets appears to have weakened in recent weeks. That's a 180-degree spin from 1993, when the race was announced. Fans were lured by stock car racing's popularity, as well as the stock car driver Kyle Petty remarked as he sat on a cooler in Gasoline Alley earlier this month. "It could quite possibly be the hardest ticket in sports to get." From the moment Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George revealed that Winston Cup NASCAR stock cars would traverse the famed oval where only Indy racing cars had tread, the talk has focused on tickets.

Who would get them? How By David J. Remondini STAR STAFF WRITER In the revved-up stock car racing community, there are two distinct groups: Those with tickets to the Brickyard 400, and those without. "I have been from Lakeland, Florida, to Charleston, West Virginia, to Madison, Wisconsin, and all the race fans talk about is the 'haves' and the CircleFest show whets race fans' appetites The Brickyard 400's colorful addition to city racing tradition gets a Downtown preview. By Jeff Swiatek STAR STAFF WRITER Dt didn't offer anything slath- ered with barbecue sauce or frozen on a stick, but the NASCAR display at Kroger CircleFest on Saturday satisfied appetites Just the same. Mike Chew hankered for NASCAR cars, and he got six of them.

Real-life, brightly painted and fully decaled, parked right there off Monument Circle with nary a "Don't touch" sign. The Ohio State University student clicked away with his camera, making sure his parents weren't in the frame to obscure so much as a single decal. "I've got plenty of pictures of them," he said of his parents, who drove with him from Shelby, Ohio, to spend the weekend in Indianapolis. Called NASCAR Alley, the lineup of cars and NASCAR-related doings spotlighted next weekend's Brickyard 400 race that will bring NASCAR to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first time. Rick Branham took his son to see the four-wheeled additions to the annual summer bash in the heart of the city.

A safety officer at the Speedway, he'll tend to crowd control during the "400" and plans to take Ricky Jr. to qualifications. "You can see these cars," Branham said to Ricky, who's watched plenty of Indy race cars in action. "And they're louder," said the 12-year-old, fresh from posing for the camera inside the Country Time Lemonade entry, a Chevy Lumina that radiated neon yellow and pink. But there's no secret thai there's a thriving ticket market.

Ads for buyers and sellers havy shown up In the The Indianapolfe Star and The Indianapolis the weekly Winston Cup Scene and other racing publications, One Indianapolis family offers lodging in exchange for two tickets. Couples only, please. Another Indiana resident w4)l trade his two first-turn tickets for comparable seats at next year's Daytona 500. -M Prices in the ads have ranged from at least double face value See TICKETS Page 2 3 ''K'i Speedway for passers-by to pose for photographs. But didn't the.

backdrop show Indy cars zooming down the main straightaway? "They didn't have time to put any NASCARs on there," said Kroger employee Rob D. Hover- -male. And besides, he said, people "really don't notice it. They are so used to Indy cars going around there." destroy 1 monument velopers of the property, said plans are for a monument. to-Be built on the corner lot of the property, which in its better days was a filming site for the movie Hoosiers.

Stanley said the drive for the monument began "after so former students came up (after tfje fire) wanting a brick from'te school." All that is left of the school nojv is the gymnasium, and that will be gone as soon as an asbestos, problem is cleared up, he said. The proposed monument upll include the two cornerstones from the building and its bell, encasld in brass. It also is to Include p.t of the limestone entryway that contained the name "Ninevh School," Stanley said. Stanley estimates the projejt will cost about $3,000. and jae hopes to have the money by tfie end of August.

Rob Petro, day manager of the Old Williamsburg Inn, said people's hearts seem to be in the rigfit s- i 1 4 ia Dick Cady None of Prince Richard Lugar's loyal subjects blinked when his nobleness announced the other day that he would cast a fairly lonely "nay" against the pagan Democrat judge Stephen Breyer. Oh, Prince Richard's loyal subjects thought, may the mighty Republican God shield our graying regent from Washington's vengeful alchemists. Here in Indiana, of course, to question Prince Richard is less treason than blasphemy. Except in the midnight whispers of their huts, serfs and bonds-people do not question the wisdom of noblemen. After all, with King Ronald now retired to the royal nursing home and King George spending his exile revising his memoirs about Oliver, the Black Knight of the North, Prince Richard fights with right flank exposed against King Bill and his liberal squirearchy.

As we all know, while King Bill lacks a Merlin, he has a formidable sorceress on his side In the form of Lady Hillary. These are indeed Dark Ages for the Grand Old Party's aristocracy. An infidel in the White House. A sly Democrat posing as a Republican holding the governor's office, with his looking-glass pointed in the direction of the Potomac mists. And, hark, off in the distance, the blare of trumpets.

Forsooth, Sir Rexford of Early, a pudgy commoner with his shirttail hanging out, threatens to lay siege to the Statehouse, Long live the prince Lesser humans would be intimidated, but Prince Richard knows the virtue of patience. Come the autumn, the serfs and bondspeople will repledge their fidelity and, with trumpets and hosannas, return him to the marble palaces of ington for another six years. Recognizing the inevitable, the Democrats have sent into the field one of their veteran knights, Sir James of Jontz. As Prince Richard tramples him down without raising much of a sweat, Sir James will make as much noise as possible without raising his visor. The best he can hope for is to be compared favorably to Don Quixote.

In the meantime, what does the prince do to avoid boredom? Visit Indiana on weekdays? No, you get better television coverage on Sundays, when with so little happening, even a regal politician can appear to be mildly interesting. Count his campaign gold? No, that would be unseemly. Better to Just hum to the jingle from one's saddlebags. What, then? Keeping busy in D.C. Customarily, champions of the GOP who are sent from Indiana to Washington crusade against non-Indiana issues.

In this way, the serfs and bondspeople back home never question, even at midnight, why Indiana ranks so low In so many categories by which excellence is judged. Our political aristocracy knows that as long as one opposes tax increases, invokes the deity with frequency and visits home on weekends, reelection is a cinch. Baron Dan of Burton, for example, spends much time jousting with the scoundrels of Whitewater. The other prince, Daniel of Coats, is much taken with various national issues. Ergo, Prince Richard steps into the spotlight to proclaim that King Bill's Supreme Court nominee is unworthy, as if the GOP nominees he's supported in the past were all vessels of purity.

Hail, Prince Richard! Let the serfs of Indiana sing his anthem. Roughly translated from the Latin, it says: Ain't God good to Indiana! er than driving a truck, which he does for a living. "My tires wore out, and I didn't know where the brake was," the Plainfield man said. NASCAR served up in the heart of Indy had its confusing moments. Fest sponsor Kroger Co.

plunked a Kyle Petty race car in front of a cloth backdrop of the Fire didn't dream for Nineveh raises money to build memorial on site of burned-out building that hosted Star Staff Photo Frank Espich SOAP SCULPTURE: Six-year-old Emily Willis creates bubble art at the Bubblemania stand at the CircleFest as her dad, Wayne Willis, watches. The festival, on Monument Circle Saturday, entertained with food, music and Brickyard 400 cars. i if 1 i At i said Campbell, who works for Jack's Tool Rental, Indianapolis company co-sponsoring driver Stan Fox's Lumina. The ticket-less did get the chance to drive a NASCAR racer in two video simulations. The games attracted more people than the "400" pace car.

Ed Guthery took the wheel of the simulator and found it tough IV- 7: Si A rival Lumina drew a stream of onlookers, who peered inside the stripped-down interior. Attired in purple, just like the car, Sandy K. Campbell said some festival-goers seemed "really excited" about NASCAR until they learned the race is a sellout. "They were very discouraged there are no tickets available. They were asking, 'Do you have I- Bosnian family finds life here is different, better Settling in Fort Wayne hasn't been very easy, and it's not yet complete because two haven't made the trip.

By Robert N. Bell STAR STAFF WRITER Dreams of an apartment complex with the old Nineveh School as its centerpiece literally went up in flames June 1 when a fire destroyed the historic structure built in 1906. But today, a little of what was once there will likely be reconstructed as a memorial to the students who passed through its doors. For five dollars, you can buy a brick from the school with the proceeds going toward a memorial on the site. The bricks can be bought at the Old Williamsburg Inn In Nineveh, near the southern border of Johnson County.

Plans are afoot to have them available at other businesses in ijhe town. Richard Stanley, one of the de- By Jenny Labalme STAR STAFF WRITER Fort Wayne, Ind. There are few visible reminders of the life Omeradzic family members left behind when they fled war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina a year ago. One is the gap in Ismet Omeradzic's smile. He still hasn't been able to afford the $500 cost of replacing two teeth knocked out by Serb soldiers.

There also are two gaps In the family. Salko Omeradzic, the 52-year-old father, is still missing. And his son, Midho, is still in Slovenia. Ferida Omeradzic, 46, has heard nothing about her husband since he was carted off their farm by the Serb military almost two years ago. "There are a lot of new prisoners in the camps and no one knows where they are and no one can get in," said Edlna, the 17-year-old daughter and the youngest Omeradzic, Yet, one of the two empty spots soon will be filled.

Midho, 25, should Join his family in norheastern Indiana' sometime within the next few weeks. The Star Staff Photo Matt Kryger BOSNIA FAMILY WOES: Ismet Omeradzic wants to buy a van, but his credit history is in Bosnia. So far, he's out of luck. s. Slovenian housing material factory where he's working is supposed to close soon, and other job prospects don't look good.

After the family was fractured two years ago by the war in the former Yugoslavia, a reunion of any kind seemed unimaginable. Midho was in Slovenia when the war started. See FAMILY Page 6 3 See NINEVEH Page 2.