The record books will show Start 5th, Finish 24th, but that will not tell any of the Fernando Alonso story. From the moment it was announced, the one day test, all of practice, qualifying in fifth, leading the race, all the media, the events, the 6am wake up call, post race, the list is endless, Alonso lived it, breathed it and the fan based soaked every minute of it in. We all now that Fred is a top quality driver, to see him come in blind to an oval, learn the tricks, listen to the guidance, develop his skills and oval race craft, and lead the Indianapolis 500 was a beautiful thing. It was also good to see his smile and personality shone though after some time in the doldrums back in F1.

So that's that dealt with, onto the other 32...

It was a harsh introduction for Jack Harvey, mechanical failures during practice, not being able to get the speed out of the car and onto the race, running on the lead lap only to be caught out by a piece of debris from the Daly crash sending him spinning into the inside wall at the north end of the track, Jack is one of a large group of next generation drivers coming through the Mazda Road to Indy, along with Pigot, Veach, Jones to name but a few who we will hopefully get to see more of this season and in the future when the elder generation call it a day.

Speaking of Jones, Ed, a rookie in the series produced one of the best all round month of May's that I have seen in the past decade. On a team with small budgets, but talented crews, his performance throughout practice was noticeable, maybe unsurprising given how quick his team mate in Bourdais was up until lap three of his qualifying effort (side note, see you back in Sonoma Seb, right?). Composure, controlling his line, defending his line he ran as high as second during the later stages. He came to the US in 2015 with Carlin in Indy Lights, learnt his trade, and we are now seeing the fruits of those labours, and hopefully for more years to come. Rookie of the Year for Indianapolis, sure, co-rookie, that would be fair to both Ed and Fred.

Onto the winner, because it is only fair that he should get some of the attention. Taku has had a bit of a reputation in F1 and in Indycar of maybe costing his team a little too much in crash damage, one thing he can not be accused of is lacking speed and bravery, this was evident in 2012 when alast lap attempt on Dario Franchitti resulted in him crashing, sealing number three for the Scot. There was a pass in the closing stages that was very reminiscent of 2012 where his dived around two cars to put him right up the front in contention to win, that for me was his all in moment. His engineer Garrett Mothersead said later in an interview with Robin Miller 'no attack, no chance' is his motto. The crowd roared when he took the lead, they roared when he crossed the line, they roared when he chugged milk. Sato has been threatening to win this race for some time now, finally he did. This win will be huge for Indycar in the far east, he always has a band of travelling supporters and reporters no matter where the race is. 

​A third time runner up for Helio too, that has to hurt, but to see someone still so positive after he race, he'll be back, and wouldn't be surprised to see him win it for a fourth time, one day, although time is running out. Honourable mention too for Max Chilton, British race fans for the probably the first time saw Max leading the 500 for 29 laps, showing great maturity when leading the race, holding a defensive line into turn one and three, pulling away, clearly working with Dario Franchitti has been a positive and now starting to show more reward than a tough first season.

​It is hard to praise the safety in Indycar enough given some of the accidents we have seen this past week. It could be said we would have been two drivers down had these accidents. No one is forcing these drivers into their cars, they are there under their own volition, but it does not mean that the series can take a step back with safety, it'll never be 100% safe, but damn near as possible should be the target. 

All is helped with the speed and efficiency in reaction by the Holmatro Safety Team, with Bourdais, 8 seconds passed from stopping to attending, with Dixon, 13 seconds (they had a little further to travel). Those who credit Andretti, Penske and Ganassi with being the top team, no these guys are, and are a credit to the Indycar series. The SAFER barrier too which IMS created with the University of Nebraska back in 2002 saved countless lives over the years, you can add two more to that list this month. Scott is cool about it, he'll be back next weekend... after that, wow. 

Onto the coverage, from a UK perspective. A different production team were responsible for the coverage to the normal team that produces the coverage for the rest of the season, and recent years too. I don't know why the change or whatever reasoning so will not speculate on that. A studio format was adopted for the race and the coverage included a lot of what felt like mansplaining about the difference between F1 and Indycar, a huge focus on Alonso, which I get, but there are another 32 drivers in the race. The Indianapolis 500 is a race, but it is also an event, the largest single day sporting event in the world and the whole package is what makes it special, we did not see any of the usual pre race ceremonies, the anthem singing, the singing of 'Back Home Again in Indiana' by Jim Cornelison who gave a belting debut rendition of the song made famous by Jim Nabors on race day, I have dropped it in below for our benefit, hopefully a better version will be out there soon! the most famous words in all of motorsport were badly dropped in over the engines already running, the balloons, driver introductions, British interest, after all there were five British drivers in the race, do i need to go on? Oh yeah commercial free running during green flag laps, clearly they didn't read the memo.

By all means, yes I get it, you have more eyes than ever on the 500 than before, some extra explanation of differences would be needs, but it felt the whole 45 minutes build up was completed wasted on the opportunity to sell the race, the drivers, the series as a whole, which you, as a channel broadcast live.

​​Normal service will be resumed next weekend for Detroit. Thankfully.

From the actual race itself, the addition of visor cam live on an oval in race conditions, that perspective is something to behold, one can only hope that Indycar uploads some highlights from these to their YouTube channel sooner rather than later.

One interesting aspect was to see the Alonso effect on viewership of the race, overnights reported that the race had a peak of 209k viewers (near the end of the race) and an average of 129k for the whole 3 1/2 hour show. Broadly speaking you were looking at 6 times the viewers than last years race, and about that on average 500's in recent years, even more for the normal series races throughout the year. Hopefully a few of those stick around for the rest of the season. 

I asked last night for some comments from first time viewers what they thought of the race, here are some of the comments I received back.

"Great racing, loads of overtaking, good camera positions. It was really good despite Fernando's engine failure"

"Came on board with Alonso. Followed it all from rookie test till last bits tonight. Unfortunately no Alonso at finish. Am glad I watched Indy 500. It was for the first time and will definitely not be the last"

"First ever Indy 500, tuned in to see Alonso and really disappointed that he was let down again by Honda, he deserves better. Liked the excitement during the race"

"1st time viewers, we are big f1 fans and we tuned in to support Fernando, we actually really enjoyed it. The racing was ok I suppose, safety was a bit lacking compared to f1, trucks on the track when cars are racing, one driver not pitting when his front wing was hanging off but the design of the cars is clearly geared around safety after witnessing a couple of big crashes and seeing the driver pod still in tact so that's good. Might not be so great in a situation like Jules Bianchi's crash with big trucks on the track however. I would definitely watch again and would love to bring my Partner and son over to the USA to watch it live."

The comments to this tweet from WTF1 are also worth checking out

So on the whole, pretty resounding win for Indycar, time to capitalise on it.

On a final note, I'll take you back to to 2014, and Kurt Busch comments during the victory banquet, he spoke of how the Indiana natives make the race track what it is, and the race track makes the people in Indiana what they are. That is hopefully what Fernando found, I sure have.

​Wednesday morning, 10:30 am, asleep (don't judge me, late working and then the cinema, Hidden Figures, very good, anyway), my phone begins to vibrate, I check it, a tweet from @LesRosbifs, "Completely blindsided. I suspect @IndycarUK will be skipping about with this news." I was just thinking what the hell is going on? My jaw hit the floor, well, figuratively. Wait, Aprils fools right? Surely? A quick screenshot on twitter and an even quicker response from Andretti Autosport pointing out it was April 12th, and that they are looking forward to working with McLaren at the Indy 500.

​​So who expected that? Not me, well, I tell a slight lie, I thought one day Fernando Alonso might give the 500 a go, but only once his time in Formula One was done. But to skip the Monaco GP, with the support and blessing of the team, not only was he, but McLaren bringing their name back to the speedway for the first time since 1979 when they had Sneva, McCluskey and Rutherford as part of a three pronged attack, no one can honestly say they expected yet.

How about Indycar, what does this do for them? In my opinion this is the biggest news to hit the series in 25 years, back to when Nigel Mansell, the then current world champion left F1 for the States and won the championship in his first year. This is not a Barrichello at the end of his career, or an Alesi out for a Sunday drive, this is a driver who in the right car (engine) is a contender and whose on track skills are among the best of his generation. When Barrichello joined the series full time, it was a real shot in the arm for Indycar at the time, but it has had nowhere near the media impact that the past few days have. Then again those times were a lot different for the series compared to now. The ground work by the management in those early reunified years was a start but politics and changes at the top brought things to a stuttering halt. This has not been an issue in recent years, management has been stable and the marketing team has grown to double the size.

What will this do for the Indy 500? I should ask what will this do for the 101st Indy 500, last May was one of the most unbelievable experiences you could have. The build up, the event, the crowd, the race, it was not a let down in the slightest. The question was how can IMS improve on that, or even hold station? This announcement has given them chance. As for the race itself, the worlds' attention is on IMS, Indycar and the 500 again, the like which would not have been seen since the early nineties. You can see the majority of positive reaction from drivers in F1, team bosses who think this is great for Fernando. Some not so, maybe the 500 does not fit with their social plans or maybe some see it as too big a risk, but as Alonso said, he's a racer. He knows the risk, it's their no matter where you go.

The media centre was busy last year, I can only imagine a few more reporters from further afield will be in attendance this year, more column inches, posts, blogs and beyond. The positive publicity gained by McLaren and Andretti has put them at the forefront of promotional materials for this years race, as will Stefan Wilson whose selfless act in stepping aside has gained him praise, and a guaranteed run in 2018.

Do I give Alonso a chance of winning the race? I do, he's is 16/1 with a leading bookmaker here, but on track he will have ample opportunity to practice, turn laps, tweak the car. Running in traffic and notably overtaking will be something I'm sure will appeal again to Alonso. If I was to break the field into three groups, I'd happily have him in the top of the second tier, experience is a key factor at Indy, but who saw Rossi winning from nowhere last year. You'd like to add the caveat that he would return to defend his title!

​The fan friendly atmosphere will be something new from the secure financially restrictive confines of F1, constant autographs, pictures, questions will be an experience, but he may thrive it in, who know may even catch a bug that I did from the outside.

I followed CART through Chanel Five late night highlights on 'Live and Dangerous' but when those disappeared in the early noughties, my interest in the series waned as my favourite team and drivers had jumped across to the IRL. I had kept something of an interest in the Indy 500 itself, I'd listen to the commentary on the race control website, but with the full coverage only being on the expensive Sky Sports platform, that was it. When the two open wheel series reunified in 2008, I sat up took notice and thought it may be time to see how this develops, it was that actual article.

In 2010 I checked the Indy 500 off my bucket list. It grabbed me, like nothing sporting wise I had previously experienced. Time to test it out again, so came back to the races in Texas, Milwaukee, Iowa and Las Vegas. TV was still struggling, the worst way possible to end the season, the attendance was mixed to poor, you could count the crowd at Milwaukee. I always wanted to see someone from F1 come and try the 500, but realistically I knew it would more than likely not happen for a very long time, if ever, this wasn't the sixties anymore.

​It was clear then that the series had a long way to go to rediscover those previous glory years. It is not back to those days yet, will it ever? It is hard to say but Indycar finds itself a lot further down the road to success than a decade ago, and having a double world champion, a championship winning team in the field on Memorial Weekend can only push them further along, for me, maybe I will have managed to pull my jaw back up by the time May comes around.

A good sign of growth and positivity for the future of the Indycar series is by going to the races and seeing young fans experiencing a race track for the first time, seeing the cars, meeting the drivers, an autograph or the 21st century equivalent, a selfie.

​Grabbing the attention of a young fan can only be a good thing, this is where I introduce Chris Workman, author of 'The Spectacle', a book which helps bring the history and story of the Indianapolis 500 from the beginning to a new audience.

The story leads off with a scenario that I am sure is one which familiar to many a parent, when a child asks you about something he found tucked away that belongs his father... a toy racing car.​ 

​Following the narrative of the father telling his son about the origins of the 500, through various ​stages of history, from the Marmon Wasp in 1911, the Golden Era, Miller and Offys, the introduction of the Hulman era, the British Invasion (a personal favourite), the four timer club, closest finishes right up to the present day and Alexander Rossi winning the 100th race, to name but a few!

​The forward is written by Ryan Hunter-Reay and the connections are clear to his charity Racing for Cancer, with a portion of the proceeds going to the charity. The book has also been fact checked by Donald Davidson so you know can trust what you are reading! Oh, look out for the prominent legend who might just be something of a hero to Chris.

If you have a young child, maybe you have taken them to the race or maybe you were thinking about introducing them to the Indianapolis 500 this would be a great start, introducing the keys cars, drivers, traditions and key figures that have shaped the race for over 100 years.

​I caught up with Chris to talk more about the new book.

Let's start at the beginning, what first drew you to Indycar and the Indy 500?  

I grew up in Milwaukee so IndyCar and the Indy 500 were very popular (we had the Road America and Milwaukee Mile race back then). I watched the Indy 500 on TV with my family and raced AFX slot cars with my brother; then when I was a little older I began going to races at RA and "The Mile"... RA being the first race I ever saw "live" (and why RA was the inspiration for the setting behind "Josef, The Indy Car Driver." I've been a fan ever since (just fyi for you... but admittedly leaning firmly towards the CART / ChampCar side of things for awhile)

Tell us about 'The Spectacle' book.

"The Spectacle - Celebrating the History of the Indianapolis 500" is the first illustrated children's book that offers kids a century's worth of information on "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." From Harroun to Rossi, many of the top drivers, cars and dramatic moments are captured in a series of short topical sections aimed at educating and entertaining kids and instill a desire to learn more about the Indy 500. A dialogue between a father and his kids helps tie it all together and lighten the tone of the book a bit. I tried to not only showcase the evolution of Indy Cars over the first 100+ years of racing, but also showcase how the track itself as changed over the years. Naturally, not everything I wanted to include would fit, but I am pleased with how much I was able to fit within this book. The overall flavor is very different from my other IndyCar-themed book, which is much more of traditional children’s picture book storyline format. A school-age kid could pick up this book and have a strong jumping off point for a report on the history of the Indy 500!

What made you target the children's book market with your new release?

There are some great kids books that featuring racing to help kids who like cars learn counting or the alphabet, and of course there are the Pixar movies. But, there are few authentic kids' books that are rooted in reality, drawn with authenticity and designed to entertain & educate kids about racing. I had a vision to start building these Apex Legends books several years ago with my first book about Le Mans, and then quickly shifted focus to IndyCar and the 500. I have several more under development that will focus on other types of racing, but I plan on a few more in the IndyCar space over time for sure.

This is not the first Indycar book you have written, tell us about Josef the Indycar Driver?

"Josef, The Indy Car Driver" was a big step up from my first book, "The Longest Day." I knew I wanted to do a book in IndyCar and I wanted to feature a driver... as I looked around the paddock Josef Newgarden was the perfect subject for the book. And, once Road America was announced for the 2016 calendar, it became the perfect venue! The book's storyline is somewhat broken into two different sections. The first half is designed to show kids a "path" to becoming a driver themselves based on Josef's personal journey. Then, the book takes kids through a fictitious (but very realistic) race at Road America. Throughout the book kids learn about the types of tracks, cars, what happens throughout a race weekend, and what a driver experiences throughout a race. 

What is it like to have Ryan Hunter-Reay and Donald Davidson play a part in supporting the book?  

The overall support for this project within the IndyCar community has been great. Donald Davidson is a very cordial, helpful guy and a wealth of knowledge. I really appreciated his willingness to review the book and and provide fact-checking support of its contents. It was fascinating to get additional backstory from him on several of the content points in the book that, sadly, would have been too much to include in this type of text. I take a small amount of pride in knowing most of the content was correct; I spent a significant amount of time researching information and distill the information down to manageable chunks for young readers. And, I learned a lot of information in the process. I think many adult readers will learn some tidbits from this book too! As a recent Indy 500 winner and father of young children, RHR's interest in writing the Foreword definitely helped bolster the project and provide added relevant context. He and I share a common goal regarding increasing awareness around the importance of early cancer detection, so I am proud to support Racing for Cancer with a portion of sales proceeds.  I will add that a number of other teams reviewed and approved images and text, which was a huge help to make sure everyone was on the same page.

A certain driver / team owner from Texas features in the book, is it safe to say he is something of a hero to you?  

For sure, but including him the book came to be for a few reasons. I have this old AJ Foyt Racing toy car, trailer and van from when I was a kid, and my kids have asked me about it, which of course opened the door for explaining a bit about "Super Tex." As I was trying to figure out the perfect way to set up the book that toy and conversation became my inspiration. Add in the fact that I have always really impressed by A.J. Foyt's versatility behind the wheel. Aside from Mario and Dan Gurney, and perhaps these days guys like Montoya, Tony Stewart and Kyle Larson, he is one of these guys that could hop into anything at any time and adapt quickly and compete at the highest level. Growing up I was also a really huge fan of Rick Mears too. But, including A.J. fit the overall historical approach to the book very nicely.

And finally, do you have a plan in mind for the next book?  

​For sure! As mentioned above, I have several more that are already in the works with announcements coming over the next few months. Both are exciting new challenges - one of them involves a major manufacturer. So far my books have been most appropriate for kids 5 & up (although I receive plenty of feedback from parents that their 3 yr old loves them too), so I am also planning on creating a few books aimed at much younger readers. 

One other fun comment... I am trying to build continuity in some of the characters that appear my books. The young boy in my Le Mans book set in 1956 is now the grand parent in Josef & The Spectacle. The kids appear in both, and now there is a dad and mom in The Spectacle. The idea is to show the generational bond formed by racing, the value in sharing experiences together (at the track, talking about the sport, etc.) and that it is fun to be a fan of many types of racing. The boy, Jamison, will likely appear in the 60s, 70's, 80's, etc. as other books come out, with the dad in the Spectacle as a boy going to his first event somewhere along the way. And yes, it is all somewhat premeditated... although the sequencing of the books themselves is largely driven by the order in which I am able to solidify opportunities, desire to shift into different types of racing, etc.

'The Spectacle' is available from the 22nd April on Amazon UK (Yay for no US Shipping!)

A Freeview of the book can be found on Chris Workmans website