SWC75
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The 1953 Indianapolis 500 was perhaps the hottest ever- not just for the competition but also on the thermometer. In fact it was deadly hot- up to 130 degrees on the track level. Here is the list of where the cars finished from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Indianapolis_500
Notice that it’s not really a list of where the drivers finished. Nine different cars had more than one driver and four of those had three drivers. Gene Hartley crashed his car on lap 53 and then became the third driver to drive Tony Bettenhausen’s car and crashed it in about the same spot. You can see the toll of the day in the highlight film as Bettenhausen looks almost dead when they pull him out of the car. But the Tragic figure is Carl Scarborough, who is seen climbing out of his car at 3:35 of the film and staggering around. He died of “hyperthermia”, (the opposite of “hypothermia”), or heat stroke, the only driver to die at Indy who wasn’t in an accident.
This was Bill Vukovich’s first Indy win. He was famous for his tight-lipped endurance but even he required two cups of water on each pit stop- one to drink and one to throw down the back of his shirt. And the one down the shirt came first. His pit stop is one of the “fastest pit stops in history”- 47 seconds. That would be an embarrassment today.
Other drivers mentioned here but not in a previous post:
Pat Flaherty crashes here but went on to win the 1956 Indy 500.
Chuck Stevenson won the 1952 AAA driver’s championship, (they were the governing body at the time.) He drove three different cars in this race before having to be relieved himself by Gene Hartley. Bob Scott took over for Scarborough and finished 12th. Bob died in a crash at Darlington the next year.
Don Freeland competed in 8 Indys in a row from 1953-60 and finished in the top 10 three times but never won.
Paul Russo competed in 15 Indy 500’s from 1940-1962. He was part of the “Chicago Gang” with his pal Tony Bettenhausen, who died testing a car for Russo in 1961. Paul finished in the top 10 seven times but could never win the race. There’s a shot of him flexing his hand to get some circulation back into it. It had grown numb gripping the steering wheel.
Art Cross survived both the Battle of the Bulge and then a racing career, went back to running the family farm and lived to be age 87. He was rookie of the year at Indy in 1952, second this year and led the race in 1954 and 1955.
Marshall Teague is known more as an early NASCAR hero. But he had a dispute with Bill France and switched to AAA and then USAC. He died testing a car at Daytona in 1959. He’s said to be the inspiration for the character “Doc Hudson” in the film “Cars”.
Here is the U-Tube Highlight film. Again, you can expand it to full-screen by clicking on the box with the arrows in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF40IHu216A
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Indianapolis_500
Notice that it’s not really a list of where the drivers finished. Nine different cars had more than one driver and four of those had three drivers. Gene Hartley crashed his car on lap 53 and then became the third driver to drive Tony Bettenhausen’s car and crashed it in about the same spot. You can see the toll of the day in the highlight film as Bettenhausen looks almost dead when they pull him out of the car. But the Tragic figure is Carl Scarborough, who is seen climbing out of his car at 3:35 of the film and staggering around. He died of “hyperthermia”, (the opposite of “hypothermia”), or heat stroke, the only driver to die at Indy who wasn’t in an accident.
This was Bill Vukovich’s first Indy win. He was famous for his tight-lipped endurance but even he required two cups of water on each pit stop- one to drink and one to throw down the back of his shirt. And the one down the shirt came first. His pit stop is one of the “fastest pit stops in history”- 47 seconds. That would be an embarrassment today.
Other drivers mentioned here but not in a previous post:
Pat Flaherty crashes here but went on to win the 1956 Indy 500.
Chuck Stevenson won the 1952 AAA driver’s championship, (they were the governing body at the time.) He drove three different cars in this race before having to be relieved himself by Gene Hartley. Bob Scott took over for Scarborough and finished 12th. Bob died in a crash at Darlington the next year.
Don Freeland competed in 8 Indys in a row from 1953-60 and finished in the top 10 three times but never won.
Paul Russo competed in 15 Indy 500’s from 1940-1962. He was part of the “Chicago Gang” with his pal Tony Bettenhausen, who died testing a car for Russo in 1961. Paul finished in the top 10 seven times but could never win the race. There’s a shot of him flexing his hand to get some circulation back into it. It had grown numb gripping the steering wheel.
Art Cross survived both the Battle of the Bulge and then a racing career, went back to running the family farm and lived to be age 87. He was rookie of the year at Indy in 1952, second this year and led the race in 1954 and 1955.
Marshall Teague is known more as an early NASCAR hero. But he had a dispute with Bill France and switched to AAA and then USAC. He died testing a car at Daytona in 1959. He’s said to be the inspiration for the character “Doc Hudson” in the film “Cars”.
Here is the U-Tube Highlight film. Again, you can expand it to full-screen by clicking on the box with the arrows in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF40IHu216A
