INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Indianapolis Raceway Park motored into the 2005 racing season with one of the largest crowds for the Traderindiana.com Tuesday Night Street Legal race on Tuesday. Seasonal weather and strong marketing efforts on behalf of www.Traderindiana.com and IRP led to hundreds of racers and spectators alike.

“It was great to see the long lines of cars streaming into the track on our first night of racing,” said Ron Anderson, general manager of IRP. “I think many of our racers had cabin fever from a long winter and were ready to go down the track.”

The Traderindiana.com Tuesday Street Legal series runs on Tuesdays from March to October. The Next event will be April 4th with gates opening at 4:30 and racing starts at 5:30. Cost to race is $15.00, with $5.00 of coupons in the Trader Paper and Wheels and Deals magazines. Spectator tickets are $7.00.

IRP continues on track activity this weekend with a test and tune for the VP Fuels E. T. Bracket Racing Series on Saturday and the first points race of the season for the bracket racers on Sunday.

Gates open at 8:00 A. M and runs start at 10:00 A. M. on Saturday and on Sunday gates open at 7:00 A M. Cost for spectators is $7.00.

One of five drag racing facilities owned and operated by the National Hot Rod Association, IRP was built in 1960 and has presented organized racing events since 1961. From March through October, the facility hosts more than 120 dates of racing on three tracks, a quarter-mile drag strip, a .686-mile paved oval and a 2.5-mile road course. Home to drag racing’s biggest event, the NHRA U.S. Nationals over Labor Day weekend, the drag strip runs more than 50 days of point-to-point action, from national events to street legal community programs. The oval track draws racing’s biggest events, including annual visits from the NASCAR Busch, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and three annual USAC races. The road course provides a home for several racing sanctions, such as SCCA, while providing an ideal resource for driving schools, corporate outings and open-road tests for professional drivers.