OPINION: The Indy 500's moment of truth

Paul Pfanner is the President and CEO of Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. and the founder of RACER Magazine and RACER.com.

For many of us, May is the high holy month of our passion for racing. In 2016, this fifth month of the Gregorian calendar feels different than the past twenty Mays that were tainted by division, decline and disillusionment. There is hope in the air and pride in our hearts as we approach the long-anticipated 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500. We know we are witnessing living history and we can't help but feel a long-missed anticipation and excitement as we approach the morning of 5/29/16.

This is also our collective moment of truth, for the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 represents a core sample of our hopes, dreams and fears for our sport in the context of the modern world. Our journey together has spanned two centuries and taken us from the dawn of the age of speed to the rise of the information age. The sport has survived two world wars and one racing civil war to arrive at this pivotal moment that has been 105 years in the making.

Now it is up to us make the most of it. It seems that for us to appreciate what we have, we sometimes must experience losing it. In the last decade of the 20th century, IndyCar racing became less about sport and more about money, politics, and control. During this destructive period IndyCar's fans were sorely underestimated in terms of intelligence and tragically taken for granted by both sides of The Split.

Our fabled heroes faded from the scene in the fog of that foolish civil war and sadly, the beautiful IndyCars we once loved soon devolved into soulless, homogenized and unchanging parity appliances. Our friendly conversations soon became arguments about what was wrong with the sport rather than what was right about it. Reasons to care about IndyCar racing eventually became as scarce as the once-abundant sponsorship dollars that were driven away during The Split.

That was then, but this is clearly a new day in May. The marketing, PR and promotion for the 100th Running of the Indy 500 has been as impressive as the bold refresh of the iconic 107-year-old Speedway. As a result, the sport of IndyCar racing is finally getting some of its lost mojo back, and it has returned to the American cultural consciousness for all the right reasons for the first time since Danica-mania in 2005.

This May, the Indianapolis 500 is once again celebrated as the greatest spectacle in racing yet we are reminded that the only constant inside those four hallowed corners is change. Some say the Indy 500 will never be what it once was, but as the past 20 years have proven, it should never be about going backward. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built to bravely create the future, one 2.5-mile-lap at a time.

For many of us who are devoted to the sport, the Indy 500 will never be about the contrived entertainment premise that underpinned the IRL era during the disastrous division of the sport. Instead, Indy remains 500 miles of challenge, courage, innovation and inspiration. In that context, the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 is the ideal metaphor for modern life. Where we came from has tested and shaped us but the dream of where we can go still drives us forward to create the future we desire.

As we stand at the cusp of a new epoch in human mobility defined by the embrace of new technologies, the Indy 500 faces a choice between its true destiny as a driver of human progress rather than a defiant resistor to change rooted in a regressive and provincial mindset. All signs point to the former rather than the latter so there is reason for real hope and where there is hope there is life.

Is IndyCar racing perfect? No, but that is the challenge and the beauty of it. Racing has always been about managing change better and faster than the competition, and we are now starting to see very positive signs that those who run IndyCar racing may be doing just that ... for a change. It seems that those in power at Hulman Motorsports have learned some very important lesson during these past 20 years and perhaps the most important are that the Indy 500 belongs to the world and that you, the fans own the sport, not them.

If you love the Indianapolis 500 and care about the Verizon IndyCar Series, pay it forward by honoring your father, brother, mother, sister, friend or grandparent who introduced you to the sport. Share the 100th Running of the Indy 500 with someone who has yet to experience all that this darkly beautiful sport has to offer. Your passion for racing can be magnified by a factor of two, or perhaps even more. Think of yourself as the best racing marketing platform ever created. Your knowledge and enthusiasm can be the spark of a lifelong devotion to the sport for someone who has no idea what they are missing.

That someone was once nine-year-old me and there would be no RACER Magazine or RACER.com if my father had not done exactly what I am asking you to do.

The future is now. Use it or lose it.