Word: brickyards
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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...
...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...
This direct approach has always made sense to Carrol Shanks. To get himself through school, he worked as a pipe fitter's helper, as a laborer in a brickyard, once bummed his way halfway across the U.S. in a freight car, taking odd jobs. He got an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1925, was hired by Prudential to help reorganize the bankrupt railroads in which the company had investments. Shanks later took over the job of employee relations, did so well that he was made executive vice president. He was made president of Prudential...