Many would remember the 1980s as the first decade without Tony Hulman, the decade in which his wife made her mark in the business world and another decade of expansion for the family. For Tony George, they marked his switch from college student to speedway king.

During the '80s, he learned racing from the wheels up and did some racing of his own. He also married and divorced his first wife, met and married his current wife and had a child. And he assumed undisputed speedway leadership.

Changes, sometimes painful, made him into the man he is today: the second Tony to run the speedway and the third Anton to head the Hulman family empire.

After the death of his father and grandfather -- who cherished him like his own grandfather did so many decades ago -- Tony George, who just graduated from Schulte High School, chose to attend ISU and pursue a business degree.

A few years later, he met Indiana University student Lisa Dawn Clark; by the time the 22-year-old college seniors signed a 13-page prenuptial agreement and married in April 1983, she was pregnant with his child. He drove a $27,000 BMW, owned a $650,000 promissory note from Terre Haute Newspapers Inc. bearing 10 percent interest and a $65,000 woman's diamond ring, among other assets, according to the prenuptial agreement.

Lisa had assets of less than $5,000, according to the agreement, which outlined a deal promising her increasingly larger portions of his wealth the longer they stayed married. Their son, Anton Hulman George Jr., was born Aug. 22, 1983, after the couple had moved into an 8,000-square-foot home in Cicero. They hired a nanny and traveled extensively; she worked at the speedway, and Tony attended the Skip Barber Racing School in 1984 and made his racing debut in the USAC Pro-Ford Championship, where he finished fifth.

As Tony raced fast cars, the couple enjoyed ``the fast high life,'' his attorney later said, bringing marital strife. Tony filed for divorce in 1986; they reconciled. But five years after they married, Lisa moved out. Two weeks later, according to the Indianapolis News, she was detained overnight at Methodist Hospital after Tony tried to have her committed as mentally incompetent, saying she had spent $5,000 the previous week, court records indicate.

The day Methodist released her, she filed for divorce, seeking use of a Mercedes, custody of their son, use of their home and financial support. The judge preliminarily granted custody to Tony and ordered him to pay $650 a month for Lisa's apartment, utilities and car repairs, let her continue to obtain gas at the speedway and pay her $400 a week plus her $125-a-week speedway salary. The yearlong court proceedings included testimony from both that they had previously used cocaine and marijuana. Lisa agreed to drug testing Tony requested, but her attorney requested a different doctor when she learned one employed at the speedway would perform the test.

In the divorce granted April 14, 1989, Tony received custody of their son and he and his wife reached a financial settlement the judge sealed. By then, Tony had met Laura Kay Livvix through a mutual friend, he recalled; they married May 6, 1989. She has a 16-year-old son from her first marriage, Everette Edward Carpenter Jr.; and the couple has a 6-year-old daughter, Lauren Elaine. Lisa George later remarried and had a son who now occasionally visits his half-brother. ``We have a son together,'' Tony says of his first wife, who lives outside Indianapolis. ``We don't socialize, and we don't have the same friends, but we have remained civil to one another.''

In 1989, Cloutier died, again leaving a vacuum in the empire's leadership structure. Now Tony -- who did not always know without question he would want to run the speedway his ``Pawpaw'' bought in the dusk of World War II -- became its president, a title heavy with power but fraught with pressure.

Tony has made his own mark on the track, inaugurating the Brickyard 400 NASCAR Winston Cup stock car race in 1994 and renovating the speedway's golf course into the 18-hole Brickyard Crossing.

But his most daring change was creating the Indianapolis Racing League and reserving 25 of the 33 1996 Indianapolis 500 spots for league participants. Tony's IRL alarmed traditionalists and angered some of the greatest powers in racing, including owner Roger Penske and many famous drivers. In response, they created the U.S. 500 and raced the same day as the Indianapolis 500 at the Penske-owned Michigan International Speedway.

Tony said the IRL was necessary because the Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit was de-emphasizing oval racing and the speedway's position atop it. By bankrolling the IRL -- some estimated at more than $100 million -- Tony forged ahead in building a series around the speedway and the Indianapolis 500.

At 37, Tony is also president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation, Terre Haute Realty Corp. and Hulman & Co. -- the parent company of the family's holdings. In his spare time, he golfs and rides his Harley-Davidson; he's mulling the possibility of a sidecar so he can take his daughter along. For him, he says, there is no normal day or even a normal month.

``It varies. Sometimes I'll come over [to Terre Haute] two or three days a week; sometimes it will be two or three weeks without getting over,'' he said. ``In the last year it's been tough to even get over there once a month, it's just things always come up.''

Sometimes, he does pass through Terre Haute in his Chevy Tahoe on his way to Marshall, Ill., to visit his in-laws.