Planet-IRL

Historic Indy Journal – 1959

In this Historic Indianapolis Journal, dad recalls Roger Ward’s first victory in the 1959 Indianapolis 500.

1959

Memorial Day was on Saturday. Dad got off work at 11:30 Friday morning. I started getting our equipment ready that afternoon. Susan was in a play at school that afternoon. The play was from 2:00 – 3:00 and when it was over, Dad came home and the two of us finished getting everything ready and then put the equipment in the car. At 4:04, with me driving, and Dad sitting on the other side of the seat, we started our trip. We went up to North Grand, over to 5^th St., out 5^th St. to Sangamon Ave., turned right, and were on our way out of Springfield. This was the first year we traveled on the new section of Route 36, which bypasses Riverton. We arrived at Decatur at a bad time – a couple minutes before 5:00 on a Friday afternoon. The traffic was heavy all the way through the city. To make the situation worse, Eldorado St, which carries Rt. 36 through the city, was being torn up for several blocks. It was one way in places and we could only move when the policeman directed us to do so.

We reached Chrisman about 6:15 and stopped for supper. We were there about half an hour and the food tasted good. We crossed the Indiana line about 7:00 and then shortly before we reached Indianapolis, we almost had a wreck.

Up ahead of us, a car was stalled on the highway. One man was shoving it off the road and another man was waving a white flag, which wasn’t too easy to see. Dad saw what was happening and yelled at me. I immediately put the brakes on and we just missed hitting the car by a short distance.

At the Lyndhurst intersection, we stopped at the Standard Station and had the gas tank filled and the windows and lights cleaned. We arrived at Kramer’s at 9:05. It had taken us longer to make the trip this year than in any other year. Our total time was 5 hours and 1 minute. This was due mainly to two factors – the bottleneck in Decatur, and stopping for a full meal instead of a snack.

After we arrived at Kramer’s, we paid our $1.00 parking ticket and then went walking down by the speedway to see some of the sights. This was a banner year. At Georgetown Road and 16^th St., the main entrance to the Speedway, a car’s engine was on fire. After a couple of minutes, a policeman put the fire out with CO₂ extinguisher. Further down 16^th St., a side attraction was drawing a large audience. Dad and I decided to investigate. We found several men playing a dice game and it was really drawing people. After a couple of minutes, a siren could be heard coming closer and closer. Everybody immediately scattered in every direction. The players disappeared very quickly. The police talked to a few persons but of course, nobody knew anything. When the policeman left, everybody really got a laugh out of what had happened.

We walked a little farther and then crossed over to the south side of the street. It took several minutes to cross the street. The traffic was bumper to bumper for several blocks. We saw a variety of sights on the other side of the street too. We stopped in the drugstore and bought a couple newspapers and then went back to the car. Ever since we had stopped for gas it had been raining. It wasn’t a heavy rain but a light, steady rain – just enough to get you wet and make you wonder about the race tomorrow.

For some reason, I was unusually sleepy so I lay down in the front seat and went to sleep immediately. Dad said I was really out for the count. My sleep lasted for one hour and 50 minutes. All of a sudden, at 1:50, I woke up. I lay there staring at the ceiling of the car and hearing a noise, which sounded like somebody making a steady, loud beat on a drum. I sat up and looked back at Dad, whose eyes were hardly open and whose hair was disheveled. He said some nut out in the middle of the street was beating on some barrels with a couple of sticks. I looked around and saw what he was talking about. By this time, the nut had awakened almost everybody around us, and some of them were quite unhappy. One man decided he had had enough and went out and threatened to work the nut over. He grabbed the sticks from the troublemaker, who then ran away in haste and was not heard from the rest of the night. Mrs. Kramer had called the police but by the time they arrived, everything was quiet. However, I couldn’t go back to sleep so for three hours, I just watched the people and listened to the noise in the neighborhood.

At 5:00, the opening bomb awakened Dad. We sat around and talked for a few minutes and listened to the portable radio we had brought with us. About the only item on the news locally was the 500-mile race.

At 5:30, we went down to gate 6 and watched the cars go into the infield. For a while it seemed as if the cars would never stop coming. We saw hundreds of makes and models of cars and human beings too.

We went back to our car about 6:30. We had something new for breakfast this year. The night before, Mr. Kramer told us he and his wife were serving breakfast in the morning and that we were welcome to eat all we could for $1.00. Dad told him we would talk it over. We decided it sounded like a good deal and decided we’d go along with it. We ate in the dining room. I had two eggs, two pieces of bacon, two large glasses of milk and four pieces of toast. Dad had the same except that he drank coffee. It was the first decent breakfast in the six years we’ve been coming to see the race.

We left for the track at 8:00 and as soon as we got inside the gate, I bought a souvenir program and then we walked to the infield.

Dad asked me if I would like to see the backstretch of the track, so we did. We crossed the road dividing the speedway infield in half and also walked over some of the 9-hole golf course. We arrived a short distance north of the southeast turn. We viewed the scenery for a few minutes and then went to our seats.

It was now 9:30. The biggest crowd ever was in attendance, approximately 200,000 people. The speedway went back to the old way of starting the cars this year – that is, lining the cars up in eleven rows of three cars each. There were two pace laps and the race got off to one of its best starts in history.

Roger Ward won the race with a new record speed of 135.857 mph. Jim Rathman finished second and Johnny Thompson was third. Speed records were set for almost every lap.

After the race, we went back to the car and rested for a few minutes. We took off our shoes, lay down for a while, and had a little bit to eat. We left for home about 4:00, and stopped at Chrisman shortly after 6:00 and had a good, hot supper. As usual, it really tasted good.

We ran into intermittent rain all the way to Decatur. The worst rain was at Tuscola. We had to drive through several inches of water and at the same time, it was coming down so hard that we almost had to stop. From Decatur to Springfield, the skies were clearer. It was about 8:45 when we arrived home. Another safe and enjoyable trip was over.

Pace Car – Buick
Queen – Erin O’Brien

Historic Indy 500 Journal – 1958

In today’s Indy journal, we look at 1958. Dad graduated from high school the night before the race and Pat O’Conner was killed on the opening lap.

1958

Memorial Day came on Friday this year. My graduation from high school was the night before, Thursday, the 29th. When Dad found out when graduation was, he was unhappy and said he was afraid we couldn’t go this year. He had Aunt Bobby write a letter to send the speedway requesting them to forget our order. This was about the end of April. Seeing what dad was doing, I talked to him and convinced him we could go despite graduation, so Bobby didn’t have to send her letter.
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Historic Indy Journal – 1957

This week we dig into dad’s Indianapolis 500 journals and look at 1957 when a tearful Sam Hanks claimed victory and announced his retirement from auto racing in Victory Lane.

1957

Memorial Day came on Thursday. I came home from school at 11:30 on Wednesday when morning classes were dismissed. I helped Dad pack our equipment and then we ate dinner. It was about 1:00 when we left. This was the first year we went in our 1953 Oldsmobile, which we bought almost a year before in June 1956. We stopped at Chrisman at about 3:00 for a snack and were there for about 15 minutes. It was a few minutes after 5:00 when we arrived at Indianapolis. We stayed at Kramer’s, and after we got settled, we took a little walk down by the speedway and then came back and ate supper. After supper we sat and talked and watched the people come and go.

About 7:30, we left to see some of the sights. We walked down 16th St. to the southeast end of the speedway grounds and then came back on the south side of the street. We really saw a lot of people and sights. On our way back, we stopped and watched a public dance at 16th and Main St. A large section of blacktop had been roped off and a little combo was playing music for dancing. The Master of Ceremonies, however, was having a hard time getting people to dance. Everybody was watching all the other sights. A few couples did finally dance but not very many. We watched them for a few minutes and went to the drug store across the street. I bought a couple newspapers and Dad bought a box of band-aids for my sister, Susan, who had a craze for band-aids at the time. From the drugstore, we went back to the car.

We got to the car a couple of minutes after 12:00 and read the newspapers and then tried to go to sleep. As usual, we didn’t get much sleep and were awakened at 5:00 by the opening bomb.

At 5:30, we went down to the track and watched the cars as they enter the grounds through gate 6. We saw several hundred cars and people. About 6:30, we went back to our car and ate breakfast. It was about 8:00 when we left for the speedway. As soon as we were inside the gate, I bought a souvenir program and then we walked around by the garage area for a few minutes. We got to our seats at 9:00. This was the only year we didn’t sit in the Tower Terrace Seats on the inside of the track, just north of the starting line. Instead, we had box seats in Section C, which was slightly north of the new pit entrance on the outside of the track.

This was the first year the cars lined up as they came out of their pits, instead of their usual 11 rows of 3 each on the track. Elmer George and Eddie Russo were involved in an accident on the pace lap and for the first time in the history of the race, only 31 cars started the race.

Sam Hanks won and set a new winning average speed record of 135.601 mph. The old record was 130.840 set by Bill Vukovich in 1954. Jim Rathman finished second and Jimmy Bryant was third. Hanks announced his retirement from auto racing while he was in Victory Lane.

Dad and I left for home about 4:00. A few miles before we got to the Illinois line, Dad decided to speed up a little bit. We were going 65 mph, the limit, and started to pass the car in front of us. As we were passing him, he started to the pass the car in front of him just as we were passing him. Dad saw what was happening and honked in time for the other driver to get back in place. It was really a close call. He didn’t slow down, however, when he finished passing. We kept going faster and faster. Dad said he wanted to see what the car would do. We got up to 100 mph with the accelerator not quite all the way down, but had to back off because we were coming to a stop sign.

We stopped at Chrisman for supper and then continued on our way. It was shortly after 8:30 when we arrived home. It had been a wonderful trip from beginning to end.

Pace Car – Mercury
Queen – Gail Charise