Indianapolis Derby

Day before the 500-mi. Memorial Day automobile derby at Indianapolis Speedway, Driver Les Spangler of Los Angeles went out behind his garage to look at a mother rabbit and six bunnies he was raising. Someone asked him if he was grooming them for their lucky left hind feet. "Naw," he said, "I don't need any charms. I'm just naturally a lucky man."

Scarcely 24 hours later, during the race, Spangler's sleek Miller speedster bounced over Driver Malcolm Fox's car, went hurtling into the racetrack wall. The impact flung Spangler and his mechanic on their faces against the brick causeway. Crushed beyond recognition, Spangler died in a hospital. His mechanic was killed almost immediately.

Few seconds before, Mark Billman, Indianapolis driver, had crashed the retaining wall on the northeast turn, crushed his left side. He died after surgeons had amputated his arm.*

The race, twice reduced to a snail's pace while wrecks and bodies were being removed, was exciting because of a new rule forbidding cars to carry more than 15 gallons of fuel--to cause more stops for gasoline and thus insure frequent changes in the lead. Bill Cummings took the lead first, lost it to Fred Frame, last year's winner. Frame was eliminated when he crashed the wall (without injury). "Babe" Stapp of Los Angeles shot ahead but, hoping to increase his lead by not stopping for gas, came to a dead halt when his tank went dry a half-mile from help. Then Louis Meyer of Huntington Park, Calif., winner in 1928, swung into the lead and despite frequent stops for gasoline held it for 185 mi. until the finish. As he spun steadily around the track and no more accidents happened, the crowd wandered about the grounds picking four-leaf clovers, swigging bottled beer, munching hamburger sandwiches. His lead never seriously threatened, Meyer coasted the last 25 mi. to save gas and play safe, crossed the line in 4 hr. 48 min. The spectators reassembled to cheer him, almost crushed him when they crowded around his car. Meyer kissed his wife, vowed he was going to quit racing and go back to California. Six minutes later, Wilbur Shaw of Indianapolis sputtered across the line for second place, and after him Lou Moore of Los Angeles.

To the amazement of racing observers, Winner Meyer set a new record despite the frequent refuelings and track-clearing delays. His average speed was 104.162 m.p.h. as against the record of 104.144 set by Frame last year. Meyer's car was a Miller special which he rebuilt for the race, sponsored by Tydol Oil Co. Meyer now ranks with Tommy Milton (victor in 1921 and 1923), the only men to win the race twice.

The Indianapolis Speedway was built of a dirt, sand and tar mixture in 1909, rebuilt of brick in 1910 by Carl Fisher, later famed for his promotions at Miami and Montauk Point, and the late James Allison of Allison Engineering Co., to accommodate a top speed of 80 m.p.h. Automobile speeds have so increased that no car may now race at the Speedway unless it can go 100 m.p.h. The track is graded at 45DEG on the turns, 20DEG on the short straightaways, flat on the stretches. The only attempt to improve it since it was built was just before this year's race when bricks were re-laid at Gateway Leap, the name of the bump on the southwest turn. Re-paving failed to eliminate the bump. Drivers say the track is getting rougher. Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, oldtime race driver who manages the Speedway, says it is smoothing out from yearly traffic. The Automobile Club of Michigan last week called for a change: "Three deaths this year are ample proof. . . . These drivers were fully qualified. Their cars were checked as fit for the grind at high speed. . . . The races should be stopped or the track should be subjected to scientific engineering reconstruction."

* In qualifying trials the day before, William Denver of Audubon, Pa., and Hugh Hurst of Indianapolis were killed.

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