Attendance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Saturday’s opening time trial day was lowest in years.
Educated guesses put the turnout at 150,000 or less. This compares with previous estimates of 250,000 to 300,000. Two reasons were given. A severe weather forecast calling for “100 percent chance of rain” was made throughout the Midwest Friday.
Rain fell in the morning before the track opened at 11 a .m and interrupted the trials at 12 25 for 3 hours and 6 minutes. Rain finally ended the trials for the day at 4:20 p.m. The crowd became unruly during the delay and 14 persons were arrested as a wave of nudity and “streaking” reached epidemic proportions at the track.
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