Word: belond
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Driving the same Belond Special that won for Sam Hanks last year, Bryan tramped on his foot throttle and tried to pull away. At the halfway mark he was still being tailed by Veterans Tony Bettenhausen and Johnny Boyd. Coming up fast was Rookie Driver George Amick. Each of the cars was powered by a four-cylinder Meyer-Drake Offenhauser engine. The drivers' skills and the speed of their pit crews meant more than any mechanical difference...
...wanted to be: in front of the pack. Now, for the first time, he began to worry. A veteran of eleven unsuccessful attempts at the "big spin in the brick-yard," Sam had planned to steal some time by making only two pit stops in his light, low-slung Belond Exhaust Special. He had already made them, and he could not be sure whether his latest set of tires would last till the finish. He was less than a lap ahead of the second racer. Should he crowd his luck, or bet on the speed and skill...
...played it safe: he pulled in for the third time. Just 34 seconds later the Belond was filled with gas, oil and water, three of its tires had been replaced and it was rolling on new rubber. Sam was still six seconds in the lead. By the time he whipped past the finish flag, he was 17.35 seconds in front of Jim Rathmann's Chiropractic Special (named after its sponsor, Chiropractor Ray Sabourin). He had careened around the 500-lap course in 3 hr. 41 min. 14.25 sec., an average of 135.601 m.p.h.-the fastest 500 on record...
Hank's Belond, named for a sponsor, Exhaust-Pipe Maker Sandy Belond, was one of the lightest and lowest cars in the race. George Salih, the California engineer who designed the car, was a conformist only in his choice of engine. (He used the same four-cylinder Meyer-Drake Offenhauser that powered every car in the race except the two V-8 Novi Specials.) Under the Belond's yellow skin, the time-tested Offy engine was laid on its side. In its unusual mount, the Offy not only ran cooler, it gave the car a sleek, slanted profile...