30 Days in May Bonus: No. 93, Johnny Parsons, 1975 Ayr-Way/WNAP "Buzzard"

OK, so this year’s Indianapolis 500 won’t be run in the month of May. For many of us, however, May is more than just a month – it’s a state of mind. So let’s still celebrate great cars and drivers of the past anyway!

 

Photo credit: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

The Ayr-Way WNAP "Buzzard" driven by Johnny Parsons in the 1975

Indianapolis 500 was certainly a colorful car.

30 Days in May Bonus: No. 93, Johnny Parsons, 1975 Ayr-Way/WNAP “Buzzard”: Cars entered in the Indianapolis 500 certainly have had interesting, colorful names. One of my favorites was the Ayr-Way/WNAP “Buzzard” from 1975. This name may not make sense today – especially if you’re not from Indianapolis – but it was definitely a product of the times.

Ayr-Way was spun off L.S. Ayres, one of the top fashion stores in Indianapolis. Ayr-Way was a department store similar to Target – in fact, many of the Indianapolis locations became Target stores after Ayr-Way folded in the late 1970s. (Squint hard enough and maybe you can see the old Ayr-Way flower where the Target bull’s eye is now.)

We often went to the Ayr-Way on Lafayette Road because it had just about everything – even a garden center. WNAP was a hard-rock station teeming with many interesting personalities; the buzzard was the station mascot. It was at 93.1 on the FM dial, so that’s why it was Car 93.

Because I was only 7 years old, I didn’t listen to WNAP. My parents were strictly WIBC (1070 AM), which was fine because WIBC covered qualifications and had updates from the track that I would listen to when I got home from school while allegedly doing my homework.

This was very much an Indianapolis-centric team. In addition to the two local sponsors, driver Johnny Parsons lived in central Indiana for many years (perhaps even Speedway itself). He’s the son of 1950 winner Johnnie Parsons (note the different spellings) and originally was from California but moved to Indiana to jump-start his racing career.

The chief mechanic (remember those?) was Bill Finley, who basically built race cars out of his garage in Eagledale, a subdivision within earshot of the track. (My first house was in Eagledale: 3031 Fuller Drive. Carl Wilde School 79 represent!)

The team also had a second entry: Car 94, driven by Mike Hiss.

Race day wasn’t the greatest for either driver. Hiss spun out on Lap 39 and finished 29th. Parsons ran as high as fifth before transmission woes sidelined him after 140 laps. He finished 19th.

Ayr-Way heavily promoted its involvement with the 500. In addition to buttons, there were posters, large ads in the Indianapolis papers (there were two of them back then) and even a timing and scoring chart with Parsons’ likeness.

Today, interestingly, WNAP’s old FM spot is occupied by WIBC.