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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Bob Gates, author of the Vukovich book and I have just completed a rather remarkable trip searching out historical Vukovich sites still in existence in California. The trip far exceeded our expectations and the following is a review of what we did and what happened. Friday, March 21, 1008 Bob flew into Sacramento International Airport on a Friday afternoon into 72 degree temperatures after leaving the chilly Indiana snow. The weather was perfect here and would remain so the entire four days. The first place we visited was not Vukovich related but the so-called Jeff Gordon quarter midget track in Rio Linda. As a kid growing up in Vallejo his Dad brought Jeff to this track. A nice little facility and about what I expected except for some reason I pictured it was a road course. (How stupid of me.) Pretty little track too. Makes you wonder about what the future of auto racing would have been if Jeff’s Dad had not pulled him back to Indiana when they wouldn’t let him drive larger cars here because he was under 18.
Next it was to drive by the location of the Mary Vukovich Eisner home in Sacramento. It is a beautiful piece of property. Mary, Bill’s sister, had married and moved there in the 50’s. When Bill raced in Northern California he would spend the night there after a race instead of driving home – his usual practice. The original home was torn down for a new residence about 10 years ago but you can still feel the rural atmosphere. One time when Bill was staying there he wanted to "drive to L.A." and wanted to know if Mary was interested in going with him. Apparently Bill drove quite fast and Mary said she would "never do it again". Tragically, Mary died in 1959 when she was struck by a car walking from her work place at the Libby McNeil Headquarters in Sacramento. We then drove past that building where it happened and could see in our minds the people exiting the building at quitting time as they used to do. Our next location was Hughes Stadium which once hosted midget races and another one of the many tracks that Vukovich raced on. The actual building is quite original looking which the exception it was originally without paint and a plain concrete color and the running track was dirt. By getting up in the first row of stands it became immediately apparent that racing here was fast, close, loud, tight and exciting. It would have been just the classic place to watch a night of midget racing on a hot evening in August. Great views, great stars, lots of people, hot dogs, peanuts. You could just feel it. In fact we both commented that how we’ve always heard how great midget racing used to be and the large following it had, this might be one of the few places left where you can recreate enough of it in your mind to see how fast and exciting it was. Bob noted that Vukovich was not one for hanging around the track after the races were over and partying with the rest of the guys. He’d finish the race, sign a couple of autographs and be right back on Highway 99 for the drive back to Fresno to arrive in the wee hours of the morning and sleep in his own bed. You could easily recreate the racing by standing in Turn One of the fascinating Hughes Stadium.
We then went over to the old California State Fair Grounds race track. While it is safe to say most of it is gone we were able to reconstruct where the main straightway, grandstands and pits were using local landmarks. Vuky’s biggest claim to fame here was driving the pace car in the Sacramento 100 Mile Race in 1954. Aggie wanted him to drive in the race but Bill said "no way" so Aggie convinced him to drive his Indy pace car just make an appearance and make the fans happy. Bill accepted and most of the pictures of him that day show a totally happy and relaxed Bill Vukovich having a great time. We then dropped in on USAC official Tommy Hunt at his offices and racing memorabilia store in Fair Oaks, California. Tommy of course is the son of racing legend Joe Hunt of Joe Hunt Magneto fame. There was a day when JHM supplied the magnetos for just about every car in the Indianapolis 500 staring field. Tommy, now Vice President of Western Operations for USAC, is a very fascinating figure with enough racing history in his mind to fill a large library. We were only beginning to crack the surface of the racing memory banks when we had to leave because of our tight schedule. We could have talked for days. It was then onto the home of racing historian and author/publisher Tom Motter for a two hour visit. Motter’s uncle was the late Earl Motter, midget driver from the same era as Vukovich and who was married to Esther for seven years. Motter has an extensive collection of exclusive Vukovich photos, articles and personal knowledge of the two-time Indy winner. Motter is most known for his book BCRA, The First 50 years. But that only begins to describe his breadth and scope of his racing knowledge. To say he has mostly racing fuel in his veins is an understatement. Motter also has what is undoubtedly the most complete collection of To Please a Lady memorabilia than any living, breathing human being. That evening Bob and I spent time analyzing films of the Vukovich accident using specially created DVDs, a 60" Sony video screen to analyze the accident "one more time". Gates had never seen the accident on my video system and was surprised at what he saw. Even after viewing the accident hundred and hundreds of times on his own, he was ready to rewrite a few small details on what happened in the wreck after viewing the large screen ultra slow motion and enhanced images from my files. I don’t believe I have ever known Bob become quite so moved by the Vukovich accident as he was that evening. Saturday, March 22, 2008 The next morning we got on the road early. Our first stop was the site of the old West Capital Raceway in West Sacramento that Vuky had driven on occasion. The track is no longer there but there is an interesting plaque describing the track out on the road worth stopping for. Not only did Vuky drive there but a little known fact is Rick Mears drove there in a dune buggy in the 70's as well. Also, ace track announcer Gary Gerould was track announcer for years. Then it was onto Sears Point Raceway in the Sonoma area. Oh yes, they now call it Infineon. It took a long time to get me used to calling it Sears Point so I’ll keep that for now. Gates was surprised at how far out the track was but the track itself seem to be about what he expected. The track had some bracket drags going on at the drag strip but they let us in for free because of what we were doing and we drove around a good part of the facility. At the IRL race in 2007 the crowd was not that bad. When you throw in the end of the split and the demise of the San Jose Champ Car race and the fact Laguna Seca will not happen, it is easy to see there will be a lot of people here for the IRL this year.
We drove on toward San Francisco and across the Golden Gate Bridge into The City.
By this time Bob was driving and appeared to have a good handle on California traffic. I was a little worried at first but he took to it like a duck to water. I certainly didn’t want to drive and he was ready so that worked out. He didn’t know where he was going but I did so I’d play navigoator and he’d follow. I’ve got a pretty incredible knowledge of all of California. Don't even need a map even in the large cities. We wound up on the Embarcadero on a Saturday morning as the S.F. locals did their thing of running, walking their animals and whatever in the clear, warm Saturday morning. We worked away around the Embarcadero, circled Fisherman’s Wharf, drove by the Ferry Building, under the Bay Bridge and by the baseball park to see where the Giants play. Then the fun part. Getting onto the Bay Bridge. There is never a time they are not working on the on ramps to the bridge so you just have to feel your way onto the spectacular structure. And with a little of going the wrong way down one way streets we made it to the on ramp. Our next goal was Alameda – Vuky’s birthplace and first home. Just go to the right after getting off the bridge to 680 and take the Alameda off ramp to Alameda. Easy. The next thing we know we are driving down the old main street (called Central) and they had done a nice thing for us – retained all the old buildings just as they were in the early 1900’s. So it was possible to get a feel for Alameda when Vuky lived there. As we cruised the intresting streets we could almost pick out a house and say that is where Vuky lived as a child. We felt our way over to the site of the original Alameda Hospital. The oldest structure only went back to 1924 (still absolutely original) but Vuky was born before that. But it was noted the hospital had been there since early 1900 so it is possible the 1924 building was built on the site of the original building whatever that was. It was a Saturday and nobody was in the administrative offices but we both felt this could every well have been Vuky’s birthplace as according to Vukovich family members he was born in a hospital, not in a home.
It was then over to Oakland to visit The Bob Rushing Garage which contains most if not all of Ed Elisian's memorabilia. Rushing knew Elisian back as far back as when they were in High School. He has an unbelievable collection of Elisian material and since Ed was a friend of Vukovich Rushing has been the source of a lot of the Vukovich information contained in this report. It is impossible to comprehend what Bob has in the Garage but a couple of items that dominate my mind are Elisian USAC certificate for turning the fastest lap of the month at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1958 and one of Ed’s personal cars – a 1936 Ford Convertible which he and Rushing had built in high school shop class. Rushing met us with two of his racing buddies and gave a comprehensive tour of the facility including his newly restored Kurtis midget. I have been at the place one other time but was still amazed and Gates of course, having never seen it, was astounded. It amazed us both at how it all could exist. (We regret to report that Bob passed away July 6, 2008)
Bob Rushing (at desk) and his racing friends, surrounded by Elisian memorabilia, discuss racing.
Ed Elisian's personal car.
Rushing with his recently restored Kurtis midget. From there it was on to Fresno taking I-5 to Los Banos and then over to Highway 99. While approaching Fresno we made final arrangements to meet with Marlene Vukovich who was thrilled to hear from us. We picked her up at her home and proceeded off to explore some Vukovich sites in Fresno. Our first stop was the old Vukovich home on Orleans that Bill and Esther had purchased. This was an emotional stop for Marlene as she stayed in the car as Gates and I ventured closer to the nicely manicured home. Gates, being the inquisitive journalist that he is, braved a knock on the front door. He was greeted by a friendly gentlemen who knew of the Vukovich saga and the history of the home and even had a copy of the Vukovich book. Bob offered to sign it for him which he was happy about and Bob noted that we had Marlene Vukovich the daughter in the car and the owner suggested we bring her inside. Marlene had not been inside the home since they left in 1959 and was reluctant to go in at first. But we coaxed her up to the front door and through it. She stood there flabbergasted at how original everything looked down to the grating in the floor for the old heater system. The memories flooded through her mind. Marlene noted that Vuky had carved out a small trophy case in the living room wall and that she didn’t see it. Upon examination, it could be seen where it had been put back to the original configuration but there were seams where the new sheet rock had been joined. It was amazing to see this home. Vuky had always been viewed as the Mad Russian and this totally mystical figure – yet here we were standing in his old home which was a very normal, conservative, 50’s living style residence. Vuky was clearly a family man who wanted security for his family and to be close to this wife and kids. We compared photos taken at the home in the 50’s particularly the family shot with the midget by the brick wall and Marlene found the remnants of Vuky’s old barbeque that he built. "He just had to have that!" she exclaimed. She then recounted a story where Vuky almost burned the garage down. According to Marlene he came running in the house screaming "call the fire department", then ran back out and rolled the midget into the driveway burning his hands and arms in the process. Then they were able to get the fire down before the fire department arrived so the garage was saved. The current residence were extremely courteous to give us the royal treatment at the home particularly since it was an unannounced visit. Please, if you go by the home do not bother them. There is enough to see just by driving by.
Marlene Vukovich and Bob Gates
Bill Vukovich's dining room Just a hop skip and a jump away was the Vukovich Service Station at Hazlewood and Butler. As explained before some of the old structure still exists as well as the concrete islands. The community is almost entirely Latino at this point and the station is now a convenience store which is now a major hangout for the locals. During the time we spent there it was a constant flow of folks coming in and out buying their drinks and food. Quite a hot spot. We also had pictures of the station when it was new and reconstructed the different historical spots. The rest room looks pretty original and if you are inside and looked behind a display case you can see the old front window which is now covered up in front. We even went in the locked rear area in back and saw an old 50’s safe. Would Vuky have had a safe? Yes, he would have according to Gates. It looked pretty authentic. The real thing? Naw, couldn’t be. But it sure looked like it. We spoke to the owner of the establishment at length and he didn’t know that the station was once owned by the same guy "who had the statue downtown". He was very pleased to know it and said "we’re famous".
On the way to dinner at Olive Garden Marlene pointed out Mike Vukovich’s old auto repair business which looks like it hasn’t changed any in 60 years. During a quiet dinner we discussed a myriad of Vukovich issues, memories – as much as the entire wide scope of the Vukovich phenomenon as possible. Which of course is impossible but Marlene gave us plenty to think about and memories to contemplate. Sunday, March 23, 2008 The following morning we picked up Marlene again and headed out for more Vukovich sightseeing. The first stop of the day was the Fresno Memorial Auditorium. I wanted to confirm the absolute original site of the Memorial placement before it was moved to Selland Arena and that was well worth it because it was not where I thought it was. Marlene took us to the exact spot and we compared photos from the dedication ceremony in 1956. The actual original location in on the West side of the building on the side and near the main entrance. I stayed at the site for several minutes after Bob and Marlene returned to the car just to soak up the atmosphere. It was Easter Sunday morning and the day was perfect.
Next was the Vukovich Memorial located at Selland Arena. Depending on the lighting sometimes this Memorial looks extremely impressive and this was one of those times. The thought went through my mind is how many Californians have their own memorial? Not very many at all. Reagan has a library. There are memorials for groups of people -- police officers who have died in service, a Viet Nam Memorial. But it is rare in this state for there to be the loss of somebody that triggers such a public outpouring that they create a Memorial.
We made our way out to Belmont Park Cemetery to view the Vukovich Gravesite. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and all three of us view the grave and told stories. Marlene pointed out a little known fact, that the father John was buried a little west of Vuky and Esther. Very interesting the spelling on the Vukovich was Vucurovich – the second phase of the three that ended with the current Vukovich spelling.
Our next stop was the Church at which the Vukovich Funeral was held – on the West side of Fresno and at that time the largest church in Fresno. We drove up in front completely oblivious to the fact it was Easter Morning. Of course there were services about to get underway but Gates in his invincible style goes to the front door and inside. Well, I’ve got to follow him and we crack the door to the main sanctuary and about that time get greeted by one of the church brothers who wanted to know what we were doing. Gates told him the significance fo the church to one of the older brothers and he said he had no idea that the service for Vuky had been held there but he was a race fan from way back and had watched Bill race at Kearny Bowl when he was a kid in the early 50’s. That got things pretty well going. A couple more brothers showed up and it turned out one of them lived next door to Championship NHRA Funny Car driver Gary Scelzi in Fresno so that helped a lot. We went into the church and took photos (before the Easter service started) then received a little history on the church about it being moved in 1949 when Highway 99 was first constructed. In a few minutes we were outside in front when other church members drove up. When we told them who we were and what we were doing there they all wanted us to join them for church (we didn’t and we should have) and when we told them Marlene had never been back in the church since 1955 they insisted she come in. So they took all of us --- Marlene, Bob and myself up to the pastor’s office for a meeting. He was totally shocked by at it all but had lived in Fresno all his life, had seen Bill Sr. race at Kearney Bowl, did not know his funeral had been there but had met Bill Jr and Billy III. It was an incredible meeting which I could write droves about . We finally had to tear ourselves away from each and get on the road to L.A. and the pastor had to give the Easter service but it will be a meeting none who were there will ever forget.
Bob and I then returned Marlene to her home, we said our goodbyes, and hit the road for Big L.A. All three of us agreed it was an experience never to be duplicated. We left for L.A., driving through the same San Joaquin Valley that Vuky drove a tractor. It hasn’t changed much in 55 years so you still get that same feeling you did then – miles of open space disappearing in the heat waves in the distance. This was the same road that Vuky would drive when making his early morning L.A. jaunts – leave Fresno about 5:00, pick up parts in L.A. and be back by 1:00 p.m. But in those days it was much harder – two lane roads, inferior cars. We passed Bakersfield and started to make our way up the Grapevine. Bob had never driven it but was looking forward to the experience. I pointed out to him the old road which is still there leading up to the start of the Grapevinel and he was surprised when he starting hitting that long grade and the drag it puts on cars. The proper technique to drive the Grapevine is not drive over the highest speed your car can attain without straining it significantly. Did Vuky do that? We doubted it. Just put his foot to the floor. In those days there was no coolant and the cars were V-8s with inadequate cooling systems. They would frequently overheat and there would be scores of cars along the road with families of four under a tree. The hill in the early 50’s was much more severe than today but we still saw numerous cars along the road even though it was only 70 degrees. The Grapevine was rebuilt in about 1969 with a new freeway which has much lower highs and much higher lows. You can still see large sections of the Grapevine down there when traversing the new on. It would have been much more brutal – easy to see that. And at 108 degrees almost undoable. At the base The Vine in Santa Clarita you can backtrack a little and maybe there is a way to actually get on the old road for a little while. It looks familiar – like from the Introduction of the old TV series Highway Patrol.
We got our Motel and set out for Kurtis Kraft Race cars. It wasn’t long that we were pulling up in front. I had left an important picture for comparison to help nail down the actual building. There were two buildings next to each other and very similar in appearance. Neither of the addresses on the buildings matched the original Kurtis address on Alger Street. Leaving the picture behind was a mistake, because without it, it made identifying which building was Kurtis Kraft or both. We left there slightly disappointed that we were not able to 100% nail it down. We were running short on time for the day so we set off for the location of Floyd Clymer Indy 500 Yearbooks on S. Alvarado. Not too much to our surprise the original building had been torn down and there was a supermarket there It was slightly disappointing it was gone but were were happy to see where it was since as we all know just about all of the veteran fans got their start reading either the Clymer, Hungness or Davidson Yearbooks. Even Donald Davidson himself admits to getting interested in the "500" through the Yearbooks and then memorizing them. We then took off for San Monica to see the original site of Hilborn Injection. Prior to that we made a stop at the old Paxton Products building in which both of Andy Grantelli’s Turbines were put together. The building looks almost original from the outside and was for rent. Hilborn Fuel Injection Engineering was very close, on 12th but we ran into the same address problem. There was no correct address for Hilborn on the side of a building as we had it. Surprisingly enough, right almost where it should have been was the original Engle Cams building which is still in operation. Being an Easter Sunday there was nobody in. But a subsequent call to Engle revealed that Hilborn operated out of the the back of their building and were almost one. So that solved that issue. Santa Monica was a real hot bed for racing in the late 50’s and early 60’s and even into the 70’s and 80’s. Unfortunately, California has not been friendly to automobile racing in the past years and many of the teams and manufactures have moved back to Indianapolis where it is much more tax friendly.
Hilborn Injection Engineering was located in the back of Engle Cams in Santa Monica It was getting late by this time but there was enough light left to make an attempt at locating Traco engineering. Surprisingly the "row of buildings" are still there but it was impossible to tell which building was Traco. The large Champion Spark Plug sign was long gone and while I had been there in the past I could not remember which building was theirs. I narrowed it down as best I could and Bob did concur that it probably was the correct building. It is amazing how unspectacular the racing business of those days was. In this day in which there are muti-thousand square feet racing shops for every team, major engine builders like Traco operated out of small and very basic facilities. It was time to wrap it up for the day and Gates wanted to drive Mulholland Drive so we took the MD off ramp at San Diego Freeway and traveled East toward Hollywood. It was a perfect spring evening, the sun was setting and the lights both in the Valley and L.A. were coming on as we drove. I asked Gates what was the perception of California in Indy and he said "this". Bob had a ball tooling down the famous road like James Dean and Steve McQueen used to do. We took it all the way to Highland, went down into Hollywood to check out the Helio Castroneves Theater (AKA Kodak Theater). Got a parking space right on the Boulevard and walked over to Helio’s place of triumph. There was a function going on inside the theater but we did get a good feel for the place. Things were cooking at Grauman’s Chinese theater next door as well. So we took off down Sunset all the way down to "dead man’s curve" at Doheny, drove back on Sunset and went back up Highland back into the Valley to our Motel. The end of a perfect day. Monday, March 24, 2008 This was the last day of the trip so since we were going to drop the rental car off at LAX we packed our bags to get ready for our respective flights back. While laying in bed I had the urge to head back to Kurtis Race Cars shop. Gates was a little reluctant at first with our tight schedule for the day but I told him we could fit it in and he agreed. I got him some renowned L.A. Winchell’s coffee and we took one of the boulevards to the Golden State Freeway so he could see more of The Valley and headed South toward Glendale – took the same off ramp at Colorado, then onto San Fernando Road to Chevy Chase and then right on Alger. This time we had taken the photos and – bingo -- we easily pinned down the buildings. In fact, the state of originality of the two buildings was staggering even up to an including the homes across the street seen in the famous "wrecked Vukovich car being returned to Kurtis" picture. This time I was the brave one and walked right up and into the offices of the current occupants of the building. I went into the building managers office, told him what we were there for. He was naturally a little reluctant not having knowledge of any of the racing history. About that time Gates walked in and he started to take a little more notice. Then he said he’d give us a tour of the plant. Much to our utter surprise it looked a lot like the original pictures with the exposed beams on the ceiling, the walls. They are now making metal fences and gates at the facility and there were a lot of employees working with iron and metal on these machines – maybe not a lot different than when they made race cars – just that there were no race cars to show for it. Both of us were completely astounded. The manager pointed out some original items on the walls that he was aware of – one an old electric heater, a fly wheel. After touring the facility we are pretty sure Kurtis occupied both of the pink buildings.but an historian could confirm this. We found the famous "sliding door hinges". It was a whirlwind tour, but if allowed to hang around and study every crevice of the building and compare pictures we could have found many things. The thought that kept going through my mind was the fragility of the place. In the 1955 Indianapolis 500 this shop supplied two thirds of the cars in the Indy 500. That’s right, this little shop nestled at the border of Glendale and Los Angeles, California thousands of miles from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If there had been a fire in that building it could have easily prevented the Indy 500 from taking place. While Bob felt going into the Vukovich home was the highlight of the trip, I put the seeing the Kurtis shop as the most exciting for me. Maybe I’m not the romanticist that Bob is, but I just couldn’t help but feel how much racing history had come out of these little buildings.
Our next stop was the site of Howard Keck’s Superior Oil Company in Torrance. While planning the trip Bob had contacted Jim Travers and nailed down once and for all the general location of their shop in which they worked on their cars including the Streamliner. As it turns out Howard Keck’s Dad, who was running the oil company at the time, made available a building on the refinery grounds. We made our way toward Torrance, once again driving by the fabulous Los Angeles Downtown area and headed out the Harbor Freeway. We took the appropriate off ramp, got onto Normandie going North and the first thing we knew we were at this old refinery and Bob said "that’s it". We pulled up and even though there are signs clearly stating their was no admittance we drove right up to the office, got out and walked inside. We asked two girls at the front counter if "this was the old Superior Oil Company Refinery" and her answer was "yes" but that we should talk to a certain person in the back. They called him up and e came up front and told us this was the old Superior Oil and that he knew some of the history of the place, that Keck did own it and it had been sold to Mobile and they had purchased it from Exxon/Mobile. He even thinks he's heard the name Travers. He took us back into the office and showed us photos and said he had some older ones that he’d try to find and get them to us. A very nice meeting. We walked outside and looked around and could easily imagine the setup. While some of the support buildings had been replaced with newer ones, they probably were of about the same location and design. It was easy to imagine the Whiz Kids working on their cars in their free garage space. The refinery itself looked extremely original itself. That was about all we could handle at that point and Bob wanted to make one more swing through Hollywood and then see the site of Gilmore Stadium which is now CBS Television. So that we did and then also made a stop in Beverly Hills, parked on Rodeo Drive and checked out some stores. We then slowly headed toward LAX contemplating everything we had seen and done over the past four days. It was an amazing experience. When Bob took his bag from the back of the vehicle we both agreed that the trip could not be duplicated.
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