A Report On The Accident That Killed Bill
Vukovich In The 1955 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race
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A Report On The Accident That Killed Bill Vukovich In The 1955 Indianapolis 500-Mile-Race
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Mysterious Vukovich dominant in early '50s Donald Davidson's Indy 500 Indianapolis Star, Sunday, May 30, 1993
By far, the most dominant driver of the first half of the 1950s was Bill Vukovich. He was a mystery, this silent, brooding, dark haired leadfoot from Fresno, Calif. As one of the eight children born to a Yugoslavian immigrant grape farmer, social graces and exchanging pleasantries were hardly of much concern to him. He was quick with a quip and was a merciless needler around his close-knit friends, but it only took one stranger to wander into the garage in order for Vukovich to clam up. He wouldn’t talk to the press, he hid from the fans and he rarely attended any of the May social functions. But it was different then. Those things didn’t matter. The main concern to a car owner was simply landing the best driver and the best crew chief he could get. And Vukovich appeared to be the best. Vukovich only drove in five "500’s", but he won two of them and came within nine laps of winning a third. He led 150 laps in 1952 and was a half minute ahead when a disintegrated steering bolt sidelined him at the north end of the track on his 192nd lap. He was in front for all but five laps on his way to winning from the pole in 1953, and in 1954, after starting back in 19th, he led another 90 laps – mostly in the last half – to win for the second year in succession. He had battled back and forth with Jack McGrath during the first quarter of the 1955 race and was seemingly on his way to a third straight victory when he came entangled in a multi-car accident on the backstretch. In one of racing’s most dramatic moments, the idolized, mysterious Vukovich was fatally injured. It seemed appropriate that he should go out leading, for that, apparently, was his unrelenting obsession. |
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