Indy Re-Ignite

By J Louis Frey

The Indianapolis 500 has been contested since 1911.  But the great race was cancelled by the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Imperial Japanese on December 7, 1941.  The track sat idle until the end of the war, but not the men involved in the sport.  Some men started their own companies providing assets to the war effort.  Some men worked for companies that produced products for the war effort.  But some men fought in the war.  One man endured the hellish conditions of the Bataan Death March, a journey on a Hell Ship, and then slave labor in Japan.  But he survived and then took his back pay and bought a racing car to compete in the Indianapolis 500.

One man had never won a Championship Car race in his life.  Could he finally win for his multi-millionaire car owner?  Could 2 "old men" win before time ran out of their careers?

America needed time to heal and recreate.  They needed the 1946 Indianapolis 500.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trophy Girl Productions
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223266921

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-Indy

Was the Indianapolis 500 another victim of World War II?  No, it wasn’t bombed or invaded by foreign forces, but it had some problems.  The great race had been held since 1911 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  It had been held every year with the exception of two years because of World War I, and four years because of World War II.  The reactivation of the 500-miler occurred on Thursday, May 30, 1946.  The event had already survived The Great War, World War I, with the leadership of its founders Carl Fisher, James Allison, Frank Wheeler, and Arthur Newby.

Former driver and Medal of Honor winner Eddie Rickenbacker, and a group of investors, bought the speedway in 1927.  They continued to improve the facility including a golf course in the infield.  On February 26, 1941 Eddie Rickenbacker was involved in an airplane crash near Atlanta.  While travelling as a passenger in a plane the wing hit some trees and crashed nose first.  Eight passengers were killed.  He should have died from his injuries but he survived.  His injuries included a fractured skull, broken ribs, a broken hip, a broken pelvis, a broken knee, his one eye had popped out, and he was drenched with fuel.  Rickenbacker survived and listened to the Indianapolis 500 from his hospital bed.  He took a year to recuperate.  In November 1941 tickets for the 1942 race became available.

Fast Eddie Rickenbacker drove in his first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 as a relief driver.  He drove again in 1912 as the starting driver, and again through 1916.  His best finish was a tenth place in 1914.  In the 1916 off season, he got his first ride in an airplane and was hooked.  When the USA entered World War I in April 1917 Rick, as he was called by his friends, didn’t appear at a scheduled race.  By June he was driving General John Pershing around in France.  He was a sergeant in the US Army and his headquarters commander was Captain George S Patton Jr.  He took up flight training and was part of the 94th Aero Squadron, and later he became their squadron commander.  It was the most successful unit of the US forces with 70 confirmed kills.  The squadron’s emblem was a Hat in the Ring.  He became an ace with five enemy kills on May 28, 1918.  Ironically, that would have been about the time of the 1918 Indianapolis 500, but it was not contested in both 1917 and 1918.  Rickenbacker ended the war with 26 kills from April 29-October 30, 1918, the most of any US pilot, thus earning the nickname Ace of Aces.  He was also awarded the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in the unfriendly skies over France.

Rickenbacker returned to the speedway after World War I, not as a competitor but as the race’s referee in 1919.  He married Adelaide Frost Durant in 1922, the ex-wife of fellow competitor Cliff Durant whose father owned General Motors.  After this, Eddie started the Rickenbacker Motor Company in 1922.  He drove the pace car, a Rickenbacker 8, for the 1925 Indianapolis 500, in addition to being the referee.  Then Rickenbacker and a group of investors bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the founding group for $750,000 in 1927.  He began repaving the track in asphalt, covering the famous bricks.  A golf course was added to the property also.  Four holes of the course are located in the infield of the speedway.  Eventually Rickenbacker bought up the shares of the others over the years and became the sole owner.  Rickenbacker also bought Eastern Air Lines in 1938.

During World War II he was in the Pacific doing work for the US Army Air Corps as a civilian.  He also served as a special confidential consultant to Secretary of War Henry Stimson.  In October 1944 the B-17D he was a passenger in crashed into the sea.  Eddie and the rest of the survivors drifted in life rafts for 24 days near Japanese controlled islands but were never spotted.  Their food ran out after just three days.  On the eighth day a seagull landed on Rick’s head and they killed it and used it as bait to lure fish.  The group survived on fish and rainwater.  Both US Army and US Navy planes searched for the stricken crew, but finding no survivors, called off the search.  Mrs. Rickenbacker implored them to continue for one more week.  The efforts paid off when seven men were rescued after 24 days at sea in the Tuvalu Islands.  The islands are located between Hawaii and Australia.  One man had died of dehydration, but Rickenbacker completed his mission by delivering a secret message to US General Douglas MacArthur.  Rickenbacker sold the speedway in 1945 and died in July 1973 in Switzerland.  His grieving widow Adelaide committed suicide by a gun in 1977.

The United States was drawn into the conflict of World War II when the Japanese Imperial Navy bombed US military bases in the Hawaiian Territory, including Pearl Harbor.  The territory wouldn’t become a state until 1959.  The event took place on December 7, 1941.  On December 29, 1941 Eddie Rickenbacker decided to cancel the 1942 running of the race.  He stated Tradition and priorities demand that we again voluntarily abandon the race in the interests of a full-out victory effort.

In July 1942 the AAA Contest Board, the American Automobile Association was the sanctioning body of Championship Car racing, suspended all racing until the war’s end.  Although some racing was being contested in the nation, there had been no Championship Car races since September 1, 1941 when Rex Mays won a 100-mile contest at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse.

There were short track races held on the east coast in the first half of 1942.  Joie Chitwood won three Central States Racing Association sprint car races.  Ed Dutch Scheaffer won two American Racing Drivers Club midget features, and Andy DeVercelly won two AAA midget features.  The final race was held at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds in Milwaukee and won by Chitwood.  The date was May 30, 1942.

The facilities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway sat idle for years.  Former race winner Wilbur Shaw did a tire test for Firestone in November 1944 on the abandoned track.  The average speed for the 500-mile test was 100.34 mph while using synthetic rubber tires.  He was appalled by the state of disrepair the noble old speed plant had taken upon itself.  Wilbur didn’t have the financial strength to purchase the track.  He had lined up a group of some twenty investors but it wasn’t enough.  Then investment broker Homer Cochran told Shaw about a fellow from another Indiana town.  Shaw was able to talk Terre Haute, Indiana businessman Anton Tony Hulman into purchasing the facility from Eddie Rickenbacker on November 15, 1945.  Shaw was named president of the speedway.  The vice-president was TE Pops Meyers who has been a part of the speedway since 1911.  The sale price was listed at about $750,000.  Tony’s mother Grace told her 44-year-old son to Tear it down and start all over.  His friends even told him it was too late for the facility.  But renovations started on December 1.  They included a new grandstand section, a restaurant near the garages, and new concession buildings.

Warren Wilbur Shaw grew up in Indiana, and had been a test driver for Chrysler, a sales manager for Firestone Tires, and a winning car builder and at IMS.  The 1937 race should also be remembered as the closest finish in 500 history at that time.  Wilbur Shaw beat Ralph Hepburn by only two seconds after having Hep down one lap.  Shaw, with riding mechanic John Jigger Johnson, started to lose valuable oil from the engine as they were leading.  The leaking oil burned the skin of both pilot and co-pilot alike.  In addition to the engine oil problem the team had a badly worn right rear tire, so Shaw carefully tried to get the car to the finish line.  Shaw won by two seconds, and the record for closest finish wasn’t broken until Gordon Johncock beat Rick Mears in 1982.

Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 8, 1945.  The Imperial Japanese surrendered after two atomic bombs were dropped on their land.  The date was August 1945.  They formally surrendered on September 2, 1945 aboard the battleship USS Missouri.

The first automobile races held after the war ended occurred on August 30 in an ARDC midget race in West Haven, Connecticut won by future Indy driver Bill Schindler.  Six days later he won another midget car race at Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, New Jersey.  Three days after that he won for the third time at Danbury, Connecticut in a midget.  By this time the first fans began sending ticket requests for the Indianapolis 500.

The AAA Contest Board met in New York to prepare for the 1946 auto racing season.  The meeting was chaired by Eddie Rickenbacker and held in October.  In mid-December 1945 Indiana Lieutenant Governor Richard James invited European racing teams, "In the name of the