Star Crossed

By J Louis Frey

The Indianapolis 500 was first contested in 1911.  This cheap little book tells the story of the ill fated thirty ninth running of the great auto race in 1955.  Although the sport was always dangerous, what happened to the men who drove in the 1955 Indianapolis 500 was astounding.  Over half of the starting line up was killed while behind the wheel of a racing car over a period of thirty three years.  They were truly star-crossed.  The Indianapolis 500 is America's greatest race and is called The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.  These men gave definition to that term.  Bill Vukovich was the returning champion and was the star of the racing game that year.  What would he do to return to the winner's circle?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trophy Girl Productions
• Release date: Jun 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223786221

J Louis Frey

J Louis Frey is an author, publisher, and photographer.  He has written numerous non-fiction books in auto racing history, and US history.  Frey is a sports official and resides with his wife in Pennsylvania.

Book preview

Chapter 1-Missing in Action

The story of the 1955 Indianapolis 500 and its participants has intrigued me for years.  These were tough men who grew up in a tough time.  They had all seen and been affected by the Great Depression of the 1930’s.  They served, suffered, and survived World War II.  Then, to placate their wanderlust and their need for thrills and adventure, they got involved in auto racing.

Auto racing had been a tough sport from the beginning.  It was a game for the strong and courageous.  What had some of these men seen or been involved in over the years?  The wins, the losses, and the close calls.  The travel, the drama, the comradery, and the money would be enjoyed before moving on.  Could they sleep at night or were they haunted by what happened in a race?   Was the last memory of a friend one of a blood-stained body or charred remains?

By the 1955 season it was no less so.  That year had taken an incredible toll on the sport in the US and around the world.  This is the story of the men who participated in the 1955 Indianapolis 500.  Some saw triumph but all saw tragedy.  They were truly a star-crossed group of men.

What is the meaning of the word star crossed?  It means ill fated, dogged by bad luck, an unlucky outcome, and destined to misfortune.  The phrase was originally found in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet and used there as star crossed lovers.  It seems to be appropriate also for this story.

By the 1950’s the AAA Championship Cars raced on numerous state fairground dirt tracks in races of 100 miles, plus the Indianapolis 500.  The sprint cars raced on dirt half miles, and the midget cars on quarter mile ovals.  The organization also sanctioned stock car and sports car races.

The AAA Championship Car racing series had 11 races on their schedule in 1955.  There would be races on dirt tracks, asphalt tracks, and a hill climb at Pikes Peak, Colorado.  The American Automobile Association, founded in 1902 in Chicago, Illinois, had sanctioned major auto races since 1904.  Barney Oldfield earned the first designation of national champion in 1905 from the organization. From 1906 until 1915 the AAA Contest Board did not recognize a national championship winner, but since that time they had.  Except for two years during World War I, and four years during World War II, the Indianapolis 500 had been held since 1911.  The race is officially named the Indianapolis 500 Mile International Sweepstakes.  Its home is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS, located at 16th and Georgetown on the west edge of the city.

The AAA was the American franchise of the FIA or International Federation of the Automobile.  They sanctioned and timed land speed record attempts.  American automobile manufacturers and related product producers had their wares tested by the AAA.  If they met their criteria then they got an endorsement from the organization.

For years, the Champ Cars as they were known, would start their year racing in sunny and mild California.  But 1955 would start the tour at IMS.  It was the thirty ninth running of the race.  But someone important was missing from the grounds.  It was former three-time winner Warren Wilbur Shaw who had become president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  On October 30, 1954 the eve of his fifty second birthday, Shaw and two others flew to the Chrysler Proving Grounds in Michigan to test drive a car that could be the pace car for the 1955 Indianapolis 500.  After the test he was reported as saying this car was safer than flying.  On their way back their plane crashed and all three occupants were killed near Decatur, Indiana.  Wilbur Shaw, a winner in 1937, 1939, and 1940, and a three-time runner up, was responsible for convincing Tony Hulman, a Terre Haute, Indiana businessman to buy IMS after World War II.

Another guy missing was young Bobby Ball.  He finished in fifth place in the 500 as a rookie in 1951.  In January 1953 he was involved in a midget car crash with Andy Linden, Johnny Tolan, Manny Ayulo, and Cal Niday.  Bobby sustained severe injuries when his car flipped over at a race in California.  His head injuries caused him to be in a coma for fourteen months.  He was moved to a hospital near his home in Phoenix, Arizona, and then released to home care with visiting nurses.  The 28-year-old married father of three never regained consciousness from the crash.  He sadly passed away on February 27, 1954.

A man was killed while racing in a midget car in late June, 1954.  Johnny Key was trying to get a ride for the 500 but was having more success in the small cars.  He had been rooming with fellow driver Elmer George in Anderson, Indiana.  Key owned a midget but, on this night, he switched to another car and allowed George to drive his.  Key’s mount broke its front suspension and flipped over, broke its seat belt, and threw Key out onto the racing surface.  George was behind him and narrowly missed Key but crashed his Key owned car into the car Key was driving.  Sadly, Jack Turner couldn’t avoid striking the prone Key.  Johnny Key died a few hours later, at age 30, after suffering a fractured skull, a broken right arm, and chest injuries.  Nobody was to blame; it was just a racing accident.

Jack Turner, known as Cactus Jack, eventually made the Indianapolis 500 in 1956.  He had fought in the Pacific Theater during World War II.  The Washington state native made his first Championship Car start at Milwaukee just after the 1955 Indy 500.  Turner holds a dubious distinction at IMS.  He flipped his racing car and survived the accident three years in a row.  Many drivers didn’t survive one upside down crash but not Turner.  He flipped in the 1961 and 1962 races on the main straight, and then flipped in practice in the days leading up to the 1963 race.  The third time he was injured and stated from his hospital bed that Someone up there is trying to tell me something.  He retired and didn’t return to race at IMS.  His best finish was an eleventh-place effort in 1957.  Turner passed away in 2004 and his ashes were spread in the Pacific Ocean.

Last Independence Day, the AAA Championship Cars raced in the heart of stock car country at the Darlington International Raceway.  It was the home of the biggest stock car race at the time, and the first 500-mile stock car race on an asphalt track called the Southern 500.  This was NASCAR, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, territory in the Palmetto State of South Carolina.  Bob Scott had raced in the Indy 500 in 1952 and 1953, but missed 1954.  The reason he missed the race?  While attempting to qualify he lost count of his laps and instead of running four laps on the clock he pulled into the pits after only 3 laps completed.

Just beyond the mid-point of the Darlington race Ernie Scarface McCoy crashed into the wall.  In a strange but true tale, when McCoy hit the wall, it flew up, his racer slid beneath it, and the fence fell back into place.  McCoy’s car then rolled down the high banked track on the outside.  Reportedly nobody knew he was missing for a while.  Someone sent hound dogs out to the crash scene and he was sniffed out on the other side of the fence.  He was seriously injured but would be ready to race at Indy in 1955.

Later in the race, Bob Scott whose nickname was Scotty, struck the outside wall in turn 2.  His car swerved down the backstraight before sliding into the infield grass where he got airborne, hit a ditch, and then struck the infield fence, all without overturning.  Scott was pronounced dead at a hospital from his injuries.  He left behind his wife who was expecting their second child, and a son.  Manny Ayulo won his first Championship Car race that day.

Two weeks later Allentown, New Jersey native Wally Campbell was driving a sprint car in a private practice session at Salem, Indiana.  Wally was one of eight children and had a twin brother Bruce.  Their parents died and they lived with Gus and Irene Feltman who had lost their only child, a daughter who died of diphtheria.  As kids Wally and Bruce were struck by a car while riding a motorcycle.  The accident killed Bruce.  Wally was a US Navy veteran of World War II.  He began racing after returning home.

Campbell failed to qualify for the 1954 race and was told to get more experience.  Ironically, he earned the pole position for the 1950 NASCAR race at Langhorne and before that competed in the first Southern 500.  But this day he was driving a sprint car.  He invited former Indianapolis 500 winner Troy Ruttman to observe him driving.  Campbell crashed over the wall of the high banked track and somersaulted numerous times.  When Ruttman, fellow racer Jiggs Peters, and others arrived on the scene, Campbell’s car was on its wheels and running in a tight circle.  Campbell was slumped over the steering wheel and the field was aflame where all of this took place.  Eventually Ruttman was able to reach into the cockpit and switch the engine off.  Campbell was dead a day after turning 28, and left behind a wife and two daughters.

Campbell was the most successful driver in the short-lived NASCAR Speedway Division for Championship Cars.  Yes, NASCAR had an open wheel series to compete against the AAA.  Campbell enjoyed three wins in the series.  His first win came in 1952 at the half-mile Monroe County Fairgrounds track in Rochester, New York.  Wally won the next race at Charlotte, North Carolina.  Both wins were in a Ford powered car, and Campbell finished in the runner up spot in the final standings to champion Buck Baker.  His 1953 win was at Greensboro, North Carolina.  The division was discontinued that year.  Campbell was also the NASCAR National Modified Champion in 1951.  He survived a fiery crash at Langhorne, PA that same year also.

Henry Banks was the 1950 AAA Championship Car Champion, and the runner up to Bill Vukovich in the national midget standings.  It was also his first Championship Car win when he took the honors at Detroit that year.  His car was the former Blue Crown Spark Plug Special owned by Lou Moore but purchased by Lindsey Hopkins.  Banks was born in England and was the son of racing driver William Banks.  Then he took a job as a test driver for Pontiac until he quit to race full time in 1936.