Word: brickyards
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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They were by definition the most expert drivers in the country, but they began breaking traffic rules as soon as they took off. The 33 qualifiers for the Indianapolis 500-mile auto race last week scrambled out to begin the "Big Spin in the Brickyard" like Memorial Day road hogs trying to beat their neighbors to the beach. Even the pre-race parade, which called for the competitors to ride in neat ranks three abreast behind a pace car, immediately degenerated into a fight for the pole. It took three turns around the 2½mile track before the fast...
...down the backstretch. "Nobody was giving anybody anything," said Driver Shorty Templeman. On the very next turn, Ed Elisian's John Zink Special slammed into the pole car and spun out of control; 13 other cars piled up behind him in the worst traffic mess in Brickyard history. "I just went into the turn too hard," said Elisian later. "The brakes locked on me, and I went onto the grass. There wasn't much...
There was, as a matter of fact, just this much more: Indiana's young (29), clean-jawed Pat O'Connor rode right up the stern of another racer, could not keep his Sumar Special from flipping over. No stranger to the Brickyard, Irish Pat O'Connor had racked up some 2,000 miles there in four other 500s. But experience could not save him. He suffered a fractured skull, died in flaming wreckage. The first lap was not yet finished and the 42nd Indy 500 had scored the race's 48th fatality. Elisian, whose harebrained driving...
...quite a trick. The "Big Spin in the Brickyard" has always been a race with disaster, and this year was no exception. With only 50 miles behind him, Veteran Paul Russo, pushing the only V-8 engine in the pack (a supercharged Winfield that can turn up to 8,000 r.p.m.), pushed a little too hard. The wicked acceleration of his Novi Vespa Special spun a tire loose on its rim, the valve stem tore, and the resulting blowout sent the racer careening into the south wall. The Novi exploded in a great, greasy ball of flame, but Russo walked...
...looked like a bad day for the big spin in "The Brickyard." Grey rain clouds scudded over Indianapolis; damp winds skittered across the infield as the Memorial Day 500-mile auto race got under way. But Wild Bill Vukovich, 36, the "Grape Picker" from Fresno, Calif., had no time to worry about weather. He kept his eyes on the track. A two-time winner in the 500, "Vuky" was hell-bent on pulling off an unprecedented three...