Word: brickyard
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...leadfooted daredevils who race on Europe's Grand Prix circuit, at Indianapolis' famed "Brickyard," and on dusty stock-car tracks across the U.S. have only two things in common: a fondness for money and a disdain for one another. Last week they got a chance to exploit both emotions. All three classes of drivers competed in the Daytona Continental, a three-hour endurance race for sports and grand touring cars, run over Florida...
...Rathmann was only 20 in 1949 when he drove in his first Indianapolis 500. But he was already a veteran of the hot-rod and stock-car circuits, and he had scars and some chipped vertebrae to prove it. In that first start in Indianapolis' famed "Brickyard," Rathmann finished a creditable eleventh, and swore then and there that he would some day win the biggest event in U.S. racing...
Then started a decade of frustration for the taciturn driver. He was 4 min. 2.4 sec. behind the winner in 1952, and 17.35 sec. behind in 1957. Last year he trailed the winner, Rodger Ward, by 23 sec. Around Indianapolis they began calling Jim Rathmann the "Bridesmaid of the Brickyard...
...most dramatic 500s in the 50-year history of the event, Rathmann earned $44,000 (plus an estimated $15,000 in endorsements and personal appearances) and the right to paint "No. 1" on the side of his car until the next 500. Said the ex-Bridesmaid of the Brickyard: "Ward's car seemed to have more steam than mine, but I just kept pushing him close. I don't believe in hard braking when you're trying to catch someone. I ran flat...
There was, as a matter of fact, just this much more: Indiana's young (29), clean-jawed Pat O'Connor rode right up the stern of another racer, could not keep his Sumar Special from flipping over. No stranger to the Brickyard, Irish Pat O'Connor had racked up some 2,000 miles there in four other 500s. But experience could not save him. He suffered a fractured skull, died in flaming wreckage. The first lap was not yet finished and the 42nd Indy 500 had scored the race's 48th fatality. Elisian, whose harebrained driving...