Jim Rathmann in victory lane
Indianapolis, Ind. (May 30, 1960) - Jim Rathmann of Miami won a record-breaking 500-mile auto race Monday on his 11th attempt, passing defending champion Rodger ward only 7.5 miles from the finish.
Ward, of
Indianapolis, finished second, reversing their finish in 1959, but Monday's was
much closer.
Paul
Goldsmith, St. Clair Shores, Mich., finished third. Rathmann's winning speed
was 138.767 mile per hour beating Ward's 1959 record of 135.457, set last year.
Goldsmith's third-place finish came
in a battle with Don Branson, Champaign, Ill., who finished fourth, and Johnny
Thompson, Boyertown, Penn., fifth.
Running
behind Thompson were Eddie Johnson, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, sixth; rookie Lloyd
Ruby, Houston, Tex., seventh; Bob Veith, Oakland, Cal., eighth; Shorty
Templeman, Seattle, ninth, and Bud Tinglestad, Dayton, Ohio, tenth.
Ward in
second place averaged 138.632 miles per hour. Goldsmith's average speed was
136.798 miles per hour. Rathmann beat Ward by 12.67 seconds as Ward slowed with
a weakening tire.
Sixteen other cars out of the
starting 33 were chasing Rathmann and Ward in at the finish. Ward said a bad
pit stop when he killed his engine may have cost him the race because he had to
punish his tires so hard to get back into contention. He and Rathmann were
nearly hub to hub for the last half of the race, until Ward slackened to avoid
a tire failure.
Only one
driver was seriously injured. Eddie Russo crashed on the southeast turn.
The track toll, however, reached 52
since 1909 with the deaths of two spectators, killed when a homemade infield
stand toppled.
Speed records fell at virtually
every mile post along the way. The high speed grind knocked out the cars of
Troy Ruttman, 1952 winner; Jimmy Bryan, who won in 1958, and Eddie Sachs, a
front row, starter in three of his four 500-mile races. Ruttman and Sachs were
among the lap leaders in the first 350 miles.
Ward was the only former winner
left after Ruttman and Bryan dropped out. Ward and Rathmann shared the front
row with Sachs in the starting lineup.
Ed Russo, driving his fourth 500,
suffered a possible concussion when his car crashed into the retaining wall at
the southeast turn in the only serious crash.
Tony Bettenhausen, a veteran of 14
races here, escaped burns in a fire-resistant uniform when he came into the
pits with his car afire and out of the race.
Jim Hurtubise, the sensational 500
rookie who broke time trial records, had pulled up to fifth place before
mechanical trouble took his car out after 473 miles.
Rathmann, 31, finished second in
1952, 1957 and 1959, and his 500 miles Monday gave him a total of 4,870 miles
driven on the race track in 11 events, Rathmann's prizes probably would reach
$110,000.
Results –
1.
Jim
Rathmann
2.
Rodger
Ward
3.
Pal
Goldsmith
4.
Don
Branson
5.
Johnny
Thomson
6.
Eddie
Johnson
7.
Lloyd
Ruby
8.
Bob
Veith
9.
Bud
Tinglestad
10.
Bob
Christie
11.
Red
Amick
12.
Duane
Carter
13.
Bill
Homeier
14.
Gene
Hartley
15.
Chuck Stevenson
16.
Bobby
Grim
17.
Shorty
Templeman
18.
Jim
Hurtubise
19.
Jimmy
Bryan
20.
Troy
Ruttman
21.
Eddie
Sachs
22.
Don
Freeland
23.
Tony
Bettenhausen
24.
Wayne
Weiler
25.
A.J.
Foyt
26.
Eddie
Russo
27.
Johnny
Boyd
28.
Gene
Force
29.
Jim
McWhitney
30.
Len
Sutton
31.
Dick
Rathmann
32.
Al
Herman
33.
Dempsey
Wilson
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