Builds health, strength
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The Indianapolis Speedway classic will
be run again next Friday; here's how it
would feel if you were one of the drivers
by William Barry Furlong
Art by Don Neske
G entlemen, start your engines!"
, At that signal, the angry snarl of 33 powerful
engines bursts into a mighty thunderclap that
echoes across America. As the sun climbs toward its
noon-day zenith, the eyes of the nation turn toward
Indianapolis and the 2 -mile "brickyard" where 33
men risk their lives in the 500-mile Memorial Day Race.
Here is one of the most popular and significant sport
ing events in the nation, one that has an almost mystical
hold on the public. For the men who drive in this classic
take a little bit of each of us with them the dreamer in
each of us as we see ourself, grimy and grease-smeared,
careening toward glory or death.
How would you do in the Indianapolis 500? You're a
good driver at least you think you are but how would
you fare in this toughest of all races?
"Any man with good eyesight and normal reaction
time can drive a racing car down a straightaway," said
the late Wilbur Shaw, a three-time winner of the 500.
"Almost all of the art of racing on tracks and it's really
more of an art than a technique is wrapped up in
making a turn."
There are 800 turns in the 500-mile race, and you'll
lose if you drop much below 120 m.p.h. on any of them.
For seconds count in this race: Pat Flaherty won by
21 seconds in 1956, Sam Hanks won by 20 seconds last
year, and Shaw won by 2.16 seconds in 1937. If you lose
only one second on every lap, you'll finish three minutes
and 20 seconds almost seven miles behind the leader.
That means you can't ease back on the throttle too
much. You go into a turn at 165-170 m.p.h. faster if
you dare and cut back to 120. Then you gun back to
165 and all this in a quarter of a mile. You do this four
times in each lap, for the Speedway is not an oval but
a rectangle with four turns and four straightaways (two
are 3,300 feet long, two are 660 feet long) .
You get quite an education in the first 10 miles of the
race. You learn that you rarely use your brake, no
matter how fast you go into a turn. "Your control is in
your steering wheel and your throttle," Shaw said. "You
steer with your throttle." Just by easing back on the
throttle, you can slow the car so much that you won't
you shouldn't need' your brake. One mistake, though,
and you're dead.
At first you wonder how anybody can keep from
making a mistake. In the first few laps, a great cloud of
dust rises over big patches of the course. The dust, from
the thousands of passenger cars that crossed the Speed
way to get to the infield parking area, will disappear
after a few laps but you'll be so busy concentrating on
the other race cars that you won't see a thing.
You'll feel, though right down to the marrow of your
bones. After turning most of a lap on asphalt, you'll hit
the short brick section on the homestretch and your
bones will shake as if they were pebbles in a gourd.
i n i i i v r m i
u e! A o )h H
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1958, John Morrell & Co., Red Heart Div!
Family Weekly, May 25, 1958
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