Now this was a good classic Indy 500. Sam Hanks wins the big one and knows when to hang it up. Very respectable finish for the Novi. No major accidents. Jimmy Bryan won the 500 the next year in the same Beland Special. But he didn't hang it up, and went on to meet his end at Langhorne in 1960.
Sam Hanks passed away before I started going to the speedway, but his wife Alice was a very good family friend. I looked forward to seeing her every May.
Especially where the entrance to pit road is concerned, because there were major changes to that, both in 1974 (when turn four was finally reconfigured) and 1993 (when the access roads to and from pit lane were constructed). But the track has basically not changed at all since 1993. Actually, 1957 might have been one of the biggest years of change the IMS has ever had, because after the 1956 race, the old pagoda was removed in favor of the master control tower that stood for over 40 years, as was the bridge on the backstretch, which was the site of the crash that took Bill Vukovich's life in 1955, and old the flag stand across from the pit area, which was originally built in 1924 and replaced with a lower stand in 1947. In addition, a pit wall was built for the 1957 race to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic events of the 1955 24 Hours of LeMans (and prevent what would eventually happen in the 1960 Southern 500 at Darlington). All that greeted the competitors, officials, and fans when they arrived for the 1957 event.
And one thing that made it different from the other roadsters it was competing against is that George Salih designed it so that the engine would be laid on it's side for better weight distribution for cornering (it put more weight on the left side of the car). The result was that nobody could beat it at the high speed tracks for quite a while. Sam Hanks won this Indianapolis 500 and after he retired, Jimmy Bryan took over and dominated both the first of the two stagings of the Race of Two Worlds in Monza and at the Indianapolis 500 in 1958.
@@cjs83172 However, regarding the 1958 Indy 500, it is important to remember that Bryan's domination was likely made possible by elimination of so much of his competition in the opening lap crash.
No question about that, although nobody dominated that race in the first 200 miles, even after that crash. I'm not sure he wouldn't have won anyway, but escaping that huge crash certainly made things a whole lot easier.
@@cjs83172 True, there's no reset button in life so there's no way to determine how the race would have gone. Wish there were, maybe Pat O'Connor and a whole lot of other guys might still be with us.
@@cjs83172 The Cummins Diesel Special of 1952 was the first car I know of that laid the engine on its side. Seems like it had an influence on Salih's design.
On the backstretch during the pace lap, Elmer George hit the back of Eddie Russo's car, putting both cars out of the race before the start. Only 31 cars took the green flag.
Which marked the first time in the race's history that less than a full field took the green flag as a result of an incident that resulted in an aborted start. It wouldn't happen again until 1970, when Jim Malloy's car broke a radius rod and crashed in turn four as the field was about to get the green flag.
Right. It wasn't until after the 1961 race that the ancient bricks on the main straightaway were finally paved over. There were two reasons for this. The first had to do with the crash that killed Tony Bettenhausen, Sr., when something on his car broke going over those bricks in a [practice run, and he crashed OVER the retaining wall and partially through the catch fencing. The second, and more significant reason was that repaving the main straightaway allowed for greater innovation in car design for the future. After all, that same year (1961), John Cooper brought his rear-engine car, which had won the World Championship previous the two years with Jack Brabham, to Indy to compete in the 1961 race. The lighter car was the best handling car on the track, but was no match for the bigger, more powerful roadsters on the long straightaways, which was why it beat only one other car that finished (Brabham finished ninth and only ten cars finished the race).
Is it just me, or was racing much more interesting back then than now? The cars looked like cars, not tricked out lawnmowers, and there seemed to be a sense of experimentation and amateurism to it, not perfectly choreographed corporatism behind every move as there is now. Ah, well, just another geezer lamenting the passing of time.
I'm not sure I'd use the term amateurism, but there certainly was a lot more ingenuity and experimentation going on back then, and throughout the 60s (rear engine cars and turbine cars), 70s (wings and the birth of the modern IndyCar), and even into the early 80s. The high speeds, costs, and the sanctioning bodies basically put an end to the innovation in racing, not just IndyCar racing, but also in NASCAR, to where you have spec cars and manufacturers controlling the building of engines, rather than the race teams. The result was better competition, though the innovation that was so much a part of the history of the sport became a casualty.
Crazy thing about Rathmann's race was that he almost didn't qualify for it. If I'm not mistaken, he was bumped and had to requalify, and qualified next-to-last. In the week before the second qualifying weekend and the race, his team found that the rear torsion bars were in backwards, which obviously affected the car during qualifications. But when they fixed that problem, that combined with Rathmann's prowess in traffic on high speed tracks, resulted in his car being the fastest during the first half of the race, as he worked up from the last row to the lead before having to settle for the second of three runner-up finishes he would get before finally winning the race in 1960.
As I've found often to be the case, Brock is just flat wrong about the facts in his narratives of the Indy 500. The front straightaway was, in fact, not paved at Indy until 1962. How Brock could think it was paved in "57 ... who knows?!!
Being incorrect about narratives is one thing, but being wrong about the facts is something entirely different, because as you mentioned, it wasn't until after the 1961 race that the front straightaway was repaved, except for the yard of bricks at the start/finish line, which came about for two reasons. The first was the death of Tony Bettenhausen, Sr., which was a direct result of the brick main straightaway breaking a suspension piece on the car he was testing out for longtime friend Paul Russo. The second reason for the paving over the bricks on the main straightaway was because they knew the lighter rear-engine cars from Europe were coming, but would never be able to withstand the constant pounding caused by the bricks. However, I will say that the narrative about the program from which these host segments with Brock Yates took place was about the transition from the roadsters to the rear engine cars to the beginning of the modern IndyCar in the early 1970s. For instance, he raved about the ninth-place run by Jack Brabham's Cooper-Climax in the 1961 race, when the truth was that finishing ninth in that race meant that his car beat only one other car that finished, and so I didn't use Yates' segments from that race's place in that program. But I did use his from others, such as the 1964, '65, and '66 races, because they were actually more informative than the ones from the Indy 500: The Classics episodes that dealt with those particular races.
I'm sure he was just reading what was on the teleprompter, but yeah you are right even still. They needed to get Donald Davidson in there to proof read the copy.
Letsnot forget who wasripping the track up beforehisfatal crash and worse yet hewas struck from theleft rear hedidnotseeitcoming hewould of i think wo hie third500 inarow. Rip bill voki
Now this was a good classic Indy 500. Sam Hanks wins the big one and knows when to hang it up. Very respectable finish for the Novi. No major accidents.
Jimmy Bryan won the 500 the next year in the same Beland Special. But he didn't hang it up, and went on to meet his end at Langhorne in 1960.
180mph in 1957 on skinny tires and no downforce whatsoever is impressive ASF
33 second pit stops, eh? I've been watching these old Indianapolis 500s day after day and these pit stops are definitely getting faster.
43
Winning the big race and hangs it up after?
Big respect for Sam Hanks!
Sam Hanks passed away before I started going to the speedway, but his wife Alice was a very good family friend. I looked forward to seeing her every May.
Classic racing history, thanks.
its crazy how much the track has changed
Especially where the entrance to pit road is concerned, because there were major changes to that, both in 1974 (when turn four was finally reconfigured) and 1993 (when the access roads to and from pit lane were constructed). But the track has basically not changed at all since 1993.
Actually, 1957 might have been one of the biggest years of change the IMS has ever had, because after the 1956 race, the old pagoda was removed in favor of the master control tower that stood for over 40 years, as was the bridge on the backstretch, which was the site of the crash that took Bill Vukovich's life in 1955, and old the flag stand across from the pit area, which was originally built in 1924 and replaced with a lower stand in 1947. In addition, a pit wall was built for the 1957 race to avoid a repeat of the catastrophic events of the 1955 24 Hours of LeMans (and prevent what would eventually happen in the 1960 Southern 500 at Darlington). All that greeted the competitors, officials, and fans when they arrived for the 1957 event.
The Belond Exhaust Special is a beautiful little car.
And one thing that made it different from the other roadsters it was competing against is that George Salih designed it so that the engine would be laid on it's side for better weight distribution for cornering (it put more weight on the left side of the car). The result was that nobody could beat it at the high speed tracks for quite a while. Sam Hanks won this Indianapolis 500 and after he retired, Jimmy Bryan took over and dominated both the first of the two stagings of the Race of Two Worlds in Monza and at the Indianapolis 500 in 1958.
@@cjs83172 However, regarding the 1958 Indy 500, it is important to remember that Bryan's domination was likely made possible by elimination of so much of his competition in the opening lap crash.
No question about that, although nobody dominated that race in the first 200 miles, even after that crash. I'm not sure he wouldn't have won anyway, but escaping that huge crash certainly made things a whole lot easier.
@@cjs83172 True, there's no reset button in life so there's no way to determine how the race would have gone. Wish there were, maybe Pat O'Connor and a whole lot of other guys might still be with us.
@@cjs83172 The Cummins Diesel Special of 1952 was the first car I know of that laid the engine on its side. Seems like it had an influence on Salih's design.
60th Anniversary of Sam Hanks's win! He would announce his retirement in Victory Lane!
On the backstretch during the pace lap, Elmer George hit the back of Eddie Russo's car, putting both cars out of the race before the start. Only 31 cars took the green flag.
Which marked the first time in the race's history that less than a full field took the green flag as a result of an incident that resulted in an aborted start. It wouldn't happen again until 1970, when Jim Malloy's car broke a radius rod and crashed in turn four as the field was about to get the green flag.
Love the roadsters, and the Novi finished fourth.
Hate to disagree with Brock, but the main straight wasn't paved "except for a yard of bricks" until 1962.
Right. It wasn't until after the 1961 race that the ancient bricks on the main straightaway were finally paved over. There were two reasons for this. The first had to do with the crash that killed Tony Bettenhausen, Sr., when something on his car broke going over those bricks in a [practice run, and he crashed OVER the retaining wall and partially through the catch fencing.
The second, and more significant reason was that repaving the main straightaway allowed for greater innovation in car design for the future. After all, that same year (1961), John Cooper brought his rear-engine car, which had won the World Championship previous the two years with Jack Brabham, to Indy to compete in the 1961 race. The lighter car was the best handling car on the track, but was no match for the bigger, more powerful roadsters on the long straightaways, which was why it beat only one other car that finished (Brabham finished ninth and only ten cars finished the race).
My father in law was there!
Sam Hanks wins the 500 at his 13th attempt.
Is it just me, or was racing much more interesting back then than now? The cars looked like cars, not tricked out lawnmowers, and there seemed to be a sense of experimentation and amateurism to it, not perfectly choreographed corporatism behind every move as there is now. Ah, well, just another geezer lamenting the passing of time.
I'm not sure I'd use the term amateurism, but there certainly was a lot more ingenuity and experimentation going on back then, and throughout the 60s (rear engine cars and turbine cars), 70s (wings and the birth of the modern IndyCar), and even into the early 80s. The high speeds, costs, and the sanctioning bodies basically put an end to the innovation in racing, not just IndyCar racing, but also in NASCAR, to where you have spec cars and manufacturers controlling the building of engines, rather than the race teams. The result was better competition, though the innovation that was so much a part of the history of the sport became a casualty.
Rathmann driving the Chiropractic Special lol. He probably got a treatment there after the race.
Crazy thing about Rathmann's race was that he almost didn't qualify for it. If I'm not mistaken, he was bumped and had to requalify, and qualified next-to-last. In the week before the second qualifying weekend and the race, his team found that the rear torsion bars were in backwards, which obviously affected the car during qualifications. But when they fixed that problem, that combined with Rathmann's prowess in traffic on high speed tracks, resulted in his car being the fastest during the first half of the race, as he worked up from the last row to the lead before having to settle for the second of three runner-up finishes he would get before finally winning the race in 1960.
6 mn 6 s : It's Jean MARCENAC. He is french
As I've found often to be the case, Brock is just flat wrong about the facts in his narratives of the Indy 500. The front straightaway was, in fact, not paved at Indy until 1962. How Brock could think it was paved in "57 ... who knows?!!
Being incorrect about narratives is one thing, but being wrong about the facts is something entirely different, because as you mentioned, it wasn't until after the 1961 race that the front straightaway was repaved, except for the yard of bricks at the start/finish line, which came about for two reasons. The first was the death of Tony Bettenhausen, Sr., which was a direct result of the brick main straightaway breaking a suspension piece on the car he was testing out for longtime friend Paul Russo. The second reason for the paving over the bricks on the main straightaway was because they knew the lighter rear-engine cars from Europe were coming, but would never be able to withstand the constant pounding caused by the bricks.
However, I will say that the narrative about the program from which these host segments with Brock Yates took place was about the transition from the roadsters to the rear engine cars to the beginning of the modern IndyCar in the early 1970s. For instance, he raved about the ninth-place run by Jack Brabham's Cooper-Climax in the 1961 race, when the truth was that finishing ninth in that race meant that his car beat only one other car that finished, and so I didn't use Yates' segments from that race's place in that program. But I did use his from others, such as the 1964, '65, and '66 races, because they were actually more informative than the ones from the Indy 500: The Classics episodes that dealt with those particular races.
I'm sure he was just reading what was on the teleprompter, but yeah you are right even still. They needed to get Donald Davidson in there to proof read the copy.
Letsnot forget who wasripping the track up beforehisfatal crash and worse yet hewas struck from theleft rear hedidnotseeitcoming hewould of i think wo hie third500 inarow. Rip bill voki
I don't see any bricks.
My errorithought hesaid the 1955 race iapologisefortheerror