Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari goes Indy Car racing

[Doug & Terri (dnt]

Got me Luke –

1958.  My earliest Indy recollection of the whole broadcast on radio which was the race Pat O’Conner died.

Although I lived down the street (3538 W 85^th st Inglewood, CA) from Louis Meyer, three time Indy winner and engine builder, as a kid I was too bashful to rapping on his door with my autograph book so I never met him.  All the other neighborhood kids said he was cool.  The said he had a big trophy that when he put it on his TV it cracked the wood cabinet.  That’s a big trophy.  Yeah Louis Meyer of Meyer/Drake ney Miller/Offy era.

Doug

 

From: Luke Graves [mailto:buyer1 [at] airmail.net]
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018 8:40 AM
To: 'Doug & Terri' <dnt [at] dock.net>
Cc: 'The FerrariList' <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: RE: [Ferrari] Ferrari goes Indy Car racing

 

OK guys, I'll be that nobody on here can beat this:  I first heard Indy on the radio in 1947 when I was 12 years old!  I was in the barbershop when it came on and I went home to hear the end of the race.  Mauri Rose won in the Blue Crown Spark Plug Special.  I think that it was an old Maseratti!

 

Luke

 

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From: Ferrari [mailto:ferrari-bounces+buyer1=airmail.net [at] ferrarilist.com] On Behalf Of Doug & Terri
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2018 10:21 AM
To: Col Luke Graves
Cc: 'The FerrariList'
Subject: [Ferrari] Ferrari goes Indy Car racing

Ferrari goes Indy Car racing?  Interesting – I guess Ferrari could sponsor a Dallara chassis with a Honda engine.

 

Indy, despite its being one of the world’s premier races, has lost the magnet for THE place to try new ingenuity.  Pre-war, Ferrari did try Indy and failed to qualify both times.

 

So once upon a time in the 1920’s the Indy track lay in obscurity and resembled Bodie as a ghost town for race cars.  It was rescued from oblivion by a WW I flying ace who at age 30 had started his own automobile co with such innovations as four wheel brakes, was subsequently gang trounced by the other car manufactures, most likely because they all had two wheel brakes, went broke at 37 and then rescued the Indy track.

 

That would have been Cpt. Eddie Rickenbacker.

 

In our life time we have seen two top end auto sports dumbed down, for good reasons of speed safety:  Top Fuel dragsters and of course Indy. 

 

Ah well – Indy was and still is THE place NOT to watch the race but to watch the infield go nuts.

 

             

Although I do miss the radio broadcast of Indy - - alas – that’s gone too.

 

DOUG