[njsteve]

Most likely is that every dealer in Indy would want at last one pace car of their own to show off with around the time of the race. I dont know about the initial POP data. (My car's orginal owner is still looking for it) My car was shipped to the Zone on 03/11/1969 but wasn't sold to a civilian owner until 08/18/1969. And it was also classified as a used car at that time on the selling invoice.
It definitely is a fact that the majority of the festival cars VINs are unknown, only about 50+/- are accounted for by some wonderful historian who had the presence of mind to scribble down VINs at the track in 1969. I would make an educated conclusion that since the sampling made by that person are all earlier VINs made in the 02D - 03A range, that 03D would be too late and would be a regular dealer ordered car. As for the crayon number thing, my number is on the heater box inside the passenger compartment. I think I recall something about underhood numbers on the 67s in order for them to match the right keys with the right cars whenever someone lost a set. I think Donna Crispino's book on the Chevy Pace cars had something about that. I will have to recheck it. -NJSteve