Word: brickyard
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Ever since he drove at the Brickyard in 1948 (and crashed in the qualifying trials), Andy Granatelli, 44, has dreamed of building a car that would win the Indianapolis 500, the world's richest auto race. In the early '60s, his monstrous (837 h.p.) Novi V-8s hit 200 m.p.h. on the Indy straightaways, but always fell prey to one bug or another. Last year Granatelli came tantalizingly close with his revolutionary, turbine-powered STP Special, driven by Parnelli Jones, which missed winning only because a $6 ball bearing failed with eight miles to go. This...
...race itself was still two weeks away. Yet 225,000 fans turned out at Indianapolis' famed Brickyard to watch 56 drivers compete for 33 starting positions in what seems certain to be the fastest, scariest, and most intriguing Memorial Day 500 in history. For the nostalgic, who bemoan the passing of the old Offenhauser-powered roadsters that dominated the 500 for years, there was Lloyd Ruby, who hit 165.2 m.p.h. in his American Red Ball Special powered by a rear-mounted Offy. For patriots, unhappy that foreign "sporty car" drivers in foreign machines have won the last two 500s...
...great race all right-for a scrap dealer. Otherwise, the 50th Indianapolis 500 was the most amateurish, confused and frustrating auto race in the history of the famed "Brickyard." Fully one-third of the 33-car field was wiped out on the very first turn; the yellow caution light was on for 41 minutes during the 31 hours; and only seven cars were still running at the finish. The winner of what was supposed to be the fastest race in history was less a hero than a survivor: British Grand
Anybody Can Do 150. It will certainly be the fastest. A few years ago, an average speed of 150 m.p.h. on the poorly banked 21-mile oval seemed the ultimate. Last week, at the qualifying trials, the slowest car screamed around the "Brickyard" at 157.9 m.p.h., and one driver sighed, "Heck, anybody can get in a car and go 150 m.p.h." The problem is avoiding a sudden stop...
...expected from the eleven green rookies in the race? There was the Great Tire War between Firestone and Goodyear (TIME, May 28), and the knock-down Battle of the Enginemakers between Ford, which entered its first Memorial Day 500 just two years ago, and Offenhauser, which had ruled the Brickyard for 18 straight years...