wow, saw the wreck, yipes, it was a cartwheel and flames and i believe the car landed on him or he probably would have survived. I believe he tried to avoid hitting someone from behind but he was going 140MPH and it was unavoidable.

I absolutely love to see the houses near the track in Speedway, all decorated. This year we walked by a house where they had used colored chalk to decorate their sidewalk with “welcome back home again”. IF we had been able to attend in 2020, this year would have been my 30th.

born at the track hospital, did she go in labor at a race or quals?

very sad day i remember hearing about this

How was your mom born at the IMS Hospital? Were her parents attending the race when your Grandmother went into labor? That is a cool thing to put on anyone's resume. RIP to all who loved this sport enough to give their lives to it and to the people who's spirit they carried with them in their quest for speed.

I didn't expect to see this comment, but you should ask him what the heck 19.9 on the sign board meant 😉

My Grandfather was there as part of Bill's team, he was an aerospace engineer, who made parts for pretty much everybody.

@@bigharrykochenbauls4567 I would love to but he passed away last Saturday. Another Racing Legend gone.

@@bigharrykochenbauls4567 Dad was a Mechanical Engineer from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo , worked aerospace for years after he worked for Garrett and developed the Turbo Charged Offenhauser that took Bobby Unser to his first Victory Circle at Indy. He built Unsers Sprint car in the 60's and I remember Billy Vukovich Jr from those days. I was about 3 or 4 riding on Dads shoulders at Ascot Park. Such memories.

@@mgrayfox59 sorry to hear that, the truly Greatest Generation is rapidly dissappearing. If you feel like investigating, the Nov. 1955 Hotrod Magazine centerfold is my grandfather. His specialty was prototyping and pattern/tool making. He and my dad worked with Vesco/Caruthers/Roberts Yamaha, also building KR's Indy Mile bike, Don's 300+ mph streamliners. So he dabbled in all of it pretty much.

Most cars had a corporate sponsor back then

16 of the 33 in this race did not survive their racing careers. Twelve of them were dead by September of '61.

@@TS-ev1bl Yeah, turns out that using your head for a roll bar isnt very good for your health.

Isle of Man…..

There were a LOT of safety rules. Advanced technology for safety was yet to come however.

It was when MEN were MEN !

Does color change the course of events? Of course not. Do you often make brainless comments?

Wilbur Shaw won 3 races, 1937, 39, 40. 39 & 40 were in the Boyle Maserati, the last foreign made car to win until Jimmy Clark 1965 in a British Lotus, see my other comment here!

I agree completely!

Bill Vukovich and Jimmy Clark might be the greatest drivers to run in the 500.

thanks for the info....open wheel racing is way too dangerous, i think Vuky is number 1

@@SBCBears , Jimmy Clark was the all time best race driver in the world. He would win against the world's best and by laps, using less tire and fuel. He drove away from the pack to simply win the 500. But he drove a formula 2 car set up so radically other drivers wouldn't drive it, and lost it and hit a tree and died.

​@@phibber Yeah and so is life and we need to evolve it not run from it

That's extraordinary. These cars must have been built like tanks. Thank you for that information.

@@mbbb9244 Yeah Im still not sure why they even bothered to wear helmets of any kind. Without the roll bar the helmet is practically useless.

Yeah it's crazy.

Back when people weren't so self-important and trying to drown out the thought of anything morbid happening to them with a false sense of security.

This was 1955. The following month, June 11, 1955 the most catastrophic accident in the history of motor racing would take place. The 24h of Le Manns, 83 spectators would be killed.

@@iflick7235 wow that’s crazy to think about.

Pride of Fresno>

stopped for a hamburger in what city?

North Little Rock Arkansas, on the old Memphis Highway. I wrote a short story about that day but it won’t fit here. Driving out at 3:00 am and back then, you had to go through the heart of downtown. We were in a ‘53 Pontiac convertible an I am still able to recall, vividly, the events of the day. In 1961, we attended the race, had infield seats above pit row and the Eb Rose Special was right in front of us. I remember watching Jack Turners car twirling in mid air after hitting the wall opposite us…there was an oil slick from an impact just seconds before. I recall watching everyone pass Brabrahm in the Cooper on the front straight and then he’d return the favor in the corners. He was badly outgunned but still managed a 10th place finish. The rear engined car certainly out handled the beautiful but aging Indy Roadsters. Before the start, Ray Haroun took the Marmon from fifty years earlier on a demo lap. It had an elevated rear view mirror and was green. It still ran OK. That’s a whole other story though. I watched the ‘55 replay and the ‘61 too. Very well done and intensely realistic. Those we’re sure different times at 140 mph with 22 second pit stops. This year they cracked 240 mph and pit stops were instantaneous by comparison. I listened to my first race in ‘49, I was going on age 5 and heard it all on my grandads radio. He was a big fan and had been from day one. So was my dad and so am I. As races go, it’s unique. The cars are better and safer, the drivers are better too I think, but it’s just not the same. The sense of amateurism has been replaced by professionalism all the way. At 240 mph that’s probably a good thing.

@@paulschmolke188 wow, what a story, so awesome to hear things like this !!!!!! 240!!!! oh my goodness!!!

Thank you take care 🙂

You are welcome.

I recommend that every American go see the Indy 500 at least once in their lives. My wife and I went in '94 and I'll never forget it. We got to our seats in the infield Turn 2 exit stands just as Jim Nabors started singing "Back Home Again In Indiana." Nothing can prepare you for the immensity of the place and I'm drawn to how it is a unique racing problem to solve (other than during the years OMS existed).

@@hubbsllc I must agree with you. " Speedway Indiana is an entity of itself and the track complex is unique. I've been there twice for the 500. You never get used to it regardless if you know what's going to happen. Getting a pit pass enhances the experience if you ever go back. You'll never expect the famous people milling about with the rest of the race fans. I've been to the Molson Indy race in Toronto which is fun even though they are racing Indy cars it's not the same experience.

'Spin and win' , yessir! Not being a smart ass, but that happened in the middle of the race, not the last lap.

Yeah, 1985... Danny Sullivan *spin and Win* happened on lap 120 in front of Mario Andretti. Sullivan passed Andretti again on Lap 140 to go on and WIN!

@@robertwarstler4603 Robert I was thinking of Sullivan all during the race yesterday. Wished I was back on the track for the race.

Thank you.

I'm going to estimate 215,000 because the entire back berm was full along with the golf course for overflow, the Speedway allowed more in that year due to popularity. They had to get approval, but they opened it up and 35,000 more fans poured in because there were so many superstar drivers that year.

@@harpoon_bakery162 I had no idea. I’m a race fan but not a devotee. I love the history of the race though. I’ve always been a big fan of the Andrettis !

I was never much interested in the race, but oddly, I was listening and stricken when Vukavitch went over the wall. I was maybe 8th. grade.

Me too!! My dad would let me stay up late to watch the race. We'd build a couch fort, pop popcorn on the stove and watch the race together until I fell asleep. I was 5 so I usually made it to half-way. ABC wouldn't televise the race live. You had to wait until later in the day before they showed it. It was one of my favorite nights of the year!

you are a saint and must be my exact age.

@@perrysims3320 I listened to the Indy 500 on the radio in the 50's. It was very exciting, even on the radio......

lol the question mark on the pit board

Possable

Not to mention the low, easily vaulted outside walls, flimsy wooden guard rails, fully grown trees, a creek, crowds of people, and cars parked along the edge of the track, bridges over and under the track, pit row not physically separated from the track along the front stretch, etc. I'm surprised more people weren't killed there over the years back then. The speed of the cars had definitely outgrown the rules, safety equipment, and track configuration and condition.

Lmao

Glad you enjoyed it

Who was your Grandpa? My Dad was the tall dark and handsome guy with the pit board and binoculars on Sweikert's team, Bob De Bisschop. He just passed away this weekend and my Mom a month ago. Vuki as Dad called him was a great friend to them all. Bob Sweikert was killed the next year as well.

God Bless both you guys. Vuky was from my hometown which he literally put on the map and he is still reverred there by all us oldtimers. I just visited his gravesight this last weekend while visiting my relatives. The thing that has me bursting with pride is he is still in the top 10(#8)of total laps led in a CAREER there. In just 4 races.

@@plantfeeder6677 he was amazing, i will visit his little town if you could share with me where it is. is there a monument to him there? or some type of museum for him there in a little one room school-house converted to a Bill Vukavich museum? If not, get on it.

@@harpoon_bakery162 Fresno, California. Not a small town anymore. If you live anywhere in the west you'd be familiar with.

@@plantfeeder6677 great, thanks, sounds like a nice place for sure.

I have to agree Rob. If Vuky hadn't been killed in '55 no telling how many 500's he would've won. He was leading in '52 with 9 laps to go and had mechanical failure, won in '53 and '54, was leading by a lot in '55 when he was lapping the field again and got caught up in someone else's wreck. He conceivably could've won 4 in a row, totally unheard of even today. I saw a great documentary on Bill Vukovich and he truly was one of a kind. My first year at Indy was in '59, and still remember the first time I saw a roadster going down the backstretch as we drove under the tunnel. I was seven years old. Dad says my eyes were bigger than saucers and my mouth wide open. Greatest thing I had ever seen in my life, and still one of the greatest memories I'll ever have.

Glad you enjoyed

Lysle Roberts?

Glad you enjoyed it

All they needed was Bubba Wallace driving and all would wreck

Thank you

Mille Miglia and Targa Florio did stop but would stay active a bit longer. The first, if I remember correctly, ended after another big incident in '57.

That is absolutely insane never knew this

Sweikert died in a sprint car as most of the others. The Indy cars only raced at a couple tracks and the races were done in Sprint cars. The safety measures were not much thought of other than a seat belt, roll bars came later. All the race cars were dangerous even today's cars, being killed while racing is always a possibility even in the slower dirt track stocker's. Someone once was at the Indy 500 and a driver was killed. The fella got up and was ready to go home as he stated well, I've come to see what I wanted. I fear the fan more than the race car.

I want to add that, I was there the year Pat O'Conner was killed. I was about 11 or 12 and I had picked him to be the winner, my favorite driver at that time. When they announced he had died in the crash, I almost broke down in tears, just the way I am.

I guess this is what happens when you race a car without any wings on the track

@@fargeeks everyone did and many perished, but *not all*.